The Danish side kicked off the new season with a 2-1 victory.
The first game of the $1 million BLAST Premier Global Final tournament saw Astralis live up to the status of the world's #1 team with a 2-1 victory over Evil Geniuses.
The North American side took a 16-14 win on the opening map, Inferno, where Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov posted a 1.40 rating. Evil Geniuses were unable to display a similar level on the next two maps, though, as Astralis claimed the series after a 16-8 on Overpass and a 16-6 on Vertigo.
The result sees Astralis proceed to the upper-bracket semi-final, where they will meet the winner of G2 and FURIA, while Evil Geniuses drop to the lower bracket.
Ethan "Ethan" Arnold started off top-tier CS:GO action in 2021 with an ace in his first round, securing the T-side pistol on Inferno from a 1v3 situation. Evil Geniuses grabbed the early momentum to go 7-2 up before Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's 3K turned the tides of the half. Astralis chained six together, bringing out the AUGs to solidify their CT side.
The North Americans were back on track after the switch, with CeRq pushing them to a 12-8 lead. Astralis then won a mixed-buy to get rolling, and reached 14-14 after Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth and Nicolai "device" Reedtz turned around a 2v4. However, Evil Geniuses kept their composure till the end, winning their map pick 16-14.
Overpass was a different story altogether. Astralis canceled out Tarik "tarik" Celik's double entry on the pistol defense and built up a 7-0 lead. Evil Geniuses managed sporadic rounds as their CT side was nearing an end and grabbed a lifeline with the second pistol (11-7), but weren't able to continue that run when Astralis were on the rifles. Xyp9x was in outstanding form and brought the map to a close, 16-8, with 24K-12D and 111.0 ADR.
On Vertigo, Evil Geniuses again won the pistol and set themselves up for a 4-0 lead as Terrorists, but that lead evaporated in no time as the Danes started locking down the approaches. Emil "Magisk" Reif and device propelled them forward, going on to win 11 in a row and finish the half with a strong lead. Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz's men claimed another pistol in the second half, but strong site hits saw the game finalized shortly, after an Astralis 2v4 post-plant on A (16-6).
BLAST Premier Global Final 2020Best of 3
Astralis
Matchpage 2 1 19th January 2021 
Evil Geniuses 14Inferno 16 16Overpass 8 16Vertigo 6 | Astralis | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x | 55 - 39 | +16 | 84.9 | 1.26 |
| Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice | 56 - 42 | +14 | 72.9 | 1.22 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve | 47 - 38 | +9 | 77.3 | 1.20 |
| Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk | 49 - 45 | +4 | 71.8 | 1.13 |
| Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh | 47 - 41 | +6 | 65.1 | 1.08 |
| Evil Geniuses | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq | 47 - 45 | +2 | 66.4 | 1.01 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan | 43 - 52 | -9 | 70.3 | 0.96 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze | 47 - 53 | -6 | 65.2 | 0.85 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik | 35 - 55 | -20 | 60.1 | 0.78 |
 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw | 32 - 52 | -20 | 59.8 | 0.74 |
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov 
Age: 21 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1041 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.62 Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander 
Age: 25 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 1442 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.65 Evil Geniuses #18 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Emil 'Magisk' Reif 
Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 1200 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz 
Age: 25 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 1620 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.62 
G2 #9 
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' Delaunay
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth 
Age: 25 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1726 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.61 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz 
Age: 26 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1188 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.65 Tarik 'tarik' Celik 
Age: 24 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1378 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.68 
FURIA #7 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoPaytyn 'junior' JohnsonKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold 
Age: 20 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 958 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 (责任编辑：cs cases free)
