Astralis disaster as they fail to qualify for CS2 Copenhagen Major after shock defeat

Denmark’s most popular Counter-Strike organization will not be in attendance at the Copenhagen Major, as Astralis fell apart at the RMR, falling at the first hurdle in the last-chance qualifier against 9 Pandas.

Despite signing the elite Heroic duo of stavn and jabbi, in a deal reportedly worth millions, Astralis failed to become a cohesive team in time to qualify for the Major in their home country, and the first of CS2.

The star-studded squad has four players from the HLTV top 20, but all the firepower was not enough to defeat their arch-rivals at the main RMR, and defeats to Team Spirit and ENCE sent them packing to the last-chance qualifier.

There, they were the favorites to qualify and faced Russian squad 9 Pandas in their opening match.

Losing their own map pick on Overpass set them up for the worst on the second map, their opponent’s pick on Nuke, where Astralis already had a shaky record.

Indeed, they were unable to muster much of a fight to even think about a third map, eventually falling 13-8 on Nuke, finally killing any hopes of seeing the Major.

This is another massive blow for the Astralis organization, who also failed to qualify for the past two CS:GO Majors, missing out on huge sticker money payouts as well as prize money at the event.

It’s reported that the BLAST.tv Paris Major resulted in over $110 million worth of sticker money, which is split between Valve and the teams.

Device reacted soon after the loss, posting on X/Twitter: “I’m crushed trying to find any words to put on what happened. The biggest sorry to our fans & the organization who believed in us.”

After the defeat, Heroic posted a tongue-in-cheek response.

Astralis had clearly hoped that the signing of two Danish superstars would be enough to secure an appearance at the Copenhagen Major, but now they must go back to the drawing board.