The Russian squad will go to the 2-2 pool for a final chance at qualifying for IEM Rio.

FORZE put the last nail in Astralis' coffin at IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR A with a 2-0 victory in the 1-2 pool. The Danish organization will therefore miss its first ever Major, dating all the way back to its first at MLG Columbus 2016.

The Russian squad won two incredibly close maps, Mirage and Nuke, both going the whole distance and ending 16-14 in the favor of Andrey "⁠Jerry⁠" Mekhryakov and his men.

It was 20-year-old Aleksandr "⁠shalfey⁠" Marenov who starred for his team, surpassing 50 frags in the two-map series with 52 kills while averaging a 1.37 rating and 86.2 ADR.

The first map of the series was a shocker, with Astralis unable to close out a 13-4 lead on Mirage that would put FORZE in the tough situation having lost their map pick. Instead, the Russian squad won 12 out of 13 rounds on the CT side to edge their way past the Danes 16-14.

Astralis showed signs of recovery on their Nuke pick, winning six rounds on the attack and remaining well in contention to turn things around on the defense, even going on to take a 12-11 lead at one point.

From there on out FORZE turned the game on its head, winning three in a row to lead 14-12 before back-and-forth rounds ended up with Aleksandr "⁠zorte⁠" Zagodyrenko and company claiming the series to survive to play at the RMR another day.

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Benjamin 'blameF' BremerblameF	47 - 42	+5	84.8	1.17
Mikkel 'MistR' ThomsenMistR	36 - 39	-3	71.2	1.02
Asger 'Farlig' JensenFarlig	32 - 43	-11	57.4	0.81
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve	26 - 39	-13	57.2	0.80
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	27 - 38	-11	49.8	0.80

FORZE	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Aleksandr 'shalfey' Marenovshalfey	52 - 30	+22	86.2	1.37
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenkozorte	42 - 30	+12	75.6	1.13
Evgeny 'Norwi' ErmolinNorwi	36 - 36	0	67.1	0.98
Andrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovJerry	35 - 35	0	58.9	0.98
Aleksandr 'KENSI' GurkinKENSI	34 - 37	-3	67.5	0.97