IEM Katowice is well underway, and is proving a sweat-inducing event for many of the top teams in play. In an event dominated by Eastern-European talent, can Astralis fight back?
Astralis’ mastermind coach has more than played his part in spearheading the Danes’ path to the top. But, the task-at-hand in IEM Katowice’s Main Stage will test Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen & Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander’s strategic prowess to its absolute limits.
With teams like Vitality, FaZe, BIG, and G2 already out, Astralis face a playoff bracket brimming with Eastern European talent. Can the Danish titans solve the CIS puzzle to reclaim some IEM Katowice silverware? To do so, they’ll have to anti-strat an entire region and will need to deliver one heck of a ‘zonic’ boom.
Astralis undoubtedly have their backs against the wall when it comes to their current competition – playing without any concrete playstyle, they aim to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to play seamlessly what will hit their opponents the hardest.
However, playing against newer and younger teams with fresh takes on strategies that aim to take down these behemoth teams. Struggling against those that do the unexpected, as indicated with their disastrous best-of-three against Spirit, they’re primed to face a well-informed Virtus.pro against Russian sniper Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali.
Whatever happens – if Astralis pulls through, it’ll likely be at the hands of zonic, gla1ve and co. fending off the young blood.
For all IEM Katowice news, make sure to stay tuned over at our dedicated event hub.
by Ava Thompson-Powell
