Astralis vs Space Soldiers

DreamHack Master Marseille 2018 starts today. Elimination system is in a group stage of the tournament is GSL group, best-of-ones in the group stage and best-of-three series in deciding matches.

Group D opening match is the match between Astralis and Space Soldiers. (BO1, LAN)

Let's begin with some basic statistics:

Astralis

Rank: 5

Matches: 515

Won: 324 Draw: 1 Lost: 190

Win ratio: 1.71

Opponent avg. rank: 27.44

Space Soldiers

Rank: 12

Matches: 713

Won: 459 Draw: 1 Lost: 253

Win ratio: 1.81

Opponent avg. rank: 64.53

Out of 5 last matches, Astralis won 3 and Space Soldiers 5.

Head to head (current rosters): Astralis 2 - 0 Space Soldiers

From the statistics, we can see that Astralis is playing against better opponents. In the last 5 matches, they won only 3 while Space Soldiers won 5. Last week these 2 teams played two best-of-one matches and Astralis won each time without any struggle. They maintain map control with early aggression on both maps.

Lineups:

Astralis

Nicolai 'device' Reedtz

Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen

Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth

Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander

Emil 'Magisk' Reif

Space Soldiers:

Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş

Engin 'ngiN' Kor

Ahmet 'paz' Karahoca

Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli

Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın

Astralis had a lot of problem with their roster recently, their major player device was sick for months and when he came back things were not like they were before. After that Kyaerbye left to North and Astralis had to find a replacement. Magisk stepped in as a replacement for Kyaerbye and things are finally working now. I believe this team is ready to come back and shine and they could be the champions of this tournament. They are playing as a team and not relying on one or two individuals to do some sick clutches and win the rounds.

On the other side, Space Soldier are doing the opposite. Only 2 players play there, XANTARES and Calyx while the rest of the teams is always at the bottom of the scoreboard. This had a serious impact on their economy management and in my opinion economy management would be a great factor in this match. Considering that Space Soldiers are known for reckless buys, 2 riffles on XANTARES and Calyx while the rest of the team is eco, this could make things easier for Astralis. Those kinds of buys lead to bonus restarts and in the end easy handicap win for Astralis.

From the economy aspect of the game, Astralis is known as a team with one of the best economy management on the scene.

Further, this is a LAN match and Astralis is a more experienced team with the bigger map pool which has a great impact on LAN matches. Astralis was in top 3 in their last 5 LAN tournaments while Space Soldiers played only one LAN tournament where they were second placed team.

To sum up, my final tip here is a high bet on Astralis. I would go with 8/10. GL & HF