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After a long day of matchups in Istanbul, the Blast Pro Series concluded in a best-of-three matchup that pitted the Major champions Astralis, against the aspiring MIBR.

device runs rampant on MIBR’s map pick

The first map brought us to Train where Nicolai “device” Reedtz had a practice deathmatch session. device got four kills in the very first pistol round and went on to get 20 in a total of six rounds.

https://clips.twitch.tv/ZealousSlipperyFerretPJSalt

Astralis denied MIBR of success each and every time. Even after bomb plants, retakes looked smooth as butter from the Danes. The half finished 13-2 in favor of Astralis and things were looking dark for MIBR. Fortunately, the Brazilian-American side grabbed a very well-executed pistol round on ct-side. Despite that, this would be the last round Astralis would allow them to grab. The Danes won the following three rounds on t-side and closed out the match 16-3.

Nicolai “device” Reedtz racked up an amazing 34 kills in just 19 rounds. Additionally, device attained a 2.72 rating according to HLTV’s rating 2.0. Absolute domination coming from device just shows that he is definitely the contender to be named this year’s best player. Meanwhile, MIBR’s star players failed to put up the necessary numbers to even be considered contenders to snatch the map. The whole team was lackluster, however, Marcelo “coldzera” David’s and Jake “Stewie2K” Yip’s performances were especially disappointing.

MIBR square things off on Overpass

After a devastating loss on Train, the next map brought us to Overpass, map pick of Astralis. This time around, things have gotten much closer than expected. Astralis went into the map very confident and it seemed like it would be another quick match by half-time. On the terrorist side, the Danes looked fierce, not afraid to take up battles all over the map. As a result, the half concluded with a 10-5 score for the Danish team. Yet again, it was device that led the way with top fragging for his side.

Come side switch and things started to look completely different. MIBR got fired up and mounted on a strong comeback. They picked up the initial three rounds with the pistol and somehow brought it all the way back to 14-14. Despite attempts at an aggressive ct-side, it was the American duo of Jake “Stewie2K” Yip and Tarik “tarik” Celik that held their own against the Danes, leading the scoreboard for their team.

https://clips.twitch.tv/SilkyDaintyGooseJebaited

Finally, after hectic encounters on bombsites, MIBR managed to close out the game 16-14 in impressive fashion. Janko “YNk” Paunović looked like he was in charge of firing his team up on t-side, screaming and constantly motivating his players to give it their all. In the end, things worked out well for MIBR and map three awaits.

Things get heated on Inferno

Inferno, the remaining decider map, has a history of hosting the most intense matchups and finals. One example was the Major final in Krakow between FaZe Clan and Cloud9 where it was the last map remaining and an overtime emerged. A similar performance played out this time in an extremely tight game. Astralis got the initial control of the match after losing the pistol to MIBR as they pulled together six straight rounds before MIBR could respond once again. Andreas “Xyp8x” Højsleth did a hell of a job on B site, getting a triple kill on two occasions to steal the rounds. The American and Brazilian mix recomposed on t-side to challenge Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and co. and managed to make things close enough before half-time. The score before side switch was 8-7 in favor of Astralis.

Not much changed after the half. The game was tighter than ever before between those two teams. Astralis kicked off with a successful pistol and then pulled ahead to 11-7. After that, we finally saw some action from MIBR’s coldzera. He emerged as the top fragger at the end of the match and extended MIBR’s pursuit for the trophy. At the 15-13 score for Astralis, coldzera got a quad kill to guarantee the round. Unfortunately, the dream was cut short as Astralis emerged victorious after the following round. A long battle resulted in a lost war for MIBR. The good things to take away from the last map for MIBR are that their star players finally showed the quality expected of them.

Despite losing dramatically on the first map, MIBR somehow brought things back and put up a fantastic fight against the current world’s best team. Although that was not enough to receive the trophy, MIBR should be praised for their perseverance across the three-map battle.

Astralis emerge as the champions of Blast Pro Series 2018 in Istanbul after losing only one map in the entire tournament. After winning the Major, Astralis continue to add more trophies to an already filled cabinet this year. Additionally, device receives the MVP award of the tournament. Well deserved indeed.

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