The beginning of the year proved to be a disappointing one for the new Astralis lineup. The Danish team dropped to the bottom set of the Funspark ULTI 2021 Finals tournament after an unexpected defeat to Russia's K23, currently ranked 22nd in the world rankings.
The first map was Mirage, chosen by K23. The Russian team gained a slight advantage from the start and, although the Danes managed to equalize the score after the change of sides, in the end this map remained for K23 with a score of 22 – 19. Astralis chose Inferno as their second map and fully demonstrated their ability to own the situation on this map. The Danish team achieved a 4 – 11 advantage even before the change of sides, and after that the second part of the draw was more of a formality. Astralis scored this card with a score of 8 – 16. The outcome of the match was decided on the Overpass map. Both sides made occasional mistakes and their strengths looked about equal. Despite leading 13 – 15 at one point, Astralis was never able to bring the card draw to victory. In the end, after two overtime periods, K23 won with a score of 19 – 16.
Astralis will now face an elimination match against fnatic on Thursday. And K23 thus continues its winning streak, which now stands at 11 matches, and advances to the semifinals of the top set of the tournament, which will take place on Friday.