Astralis suffers a 0-2 defeat against Spirit at IEM Katowice 2025

On February 2, the bo3 match between Spirit and Astralis occurred as part of the IEM Katowice tournament. Spirit proved to be a confident opponent, conceding only 5 rounds on the first map and 4 on the second.

In the Best of 3 series, Astralis picked the map Nuke for themselves – the team opted for a surprise pick, which is typical for an underdog position. Astralis started on the attack, correctly predicting and outplaying their opponents early during the pistol round, and riding their strong position, they secured two more rounds with a score of 0-3. In the fourth round, they lost the bomb on the ramp while most of the team was out on the streets, handing the round to Spirit; however, Spirit immediately dropped the next round — 4-1 — prompting the first timeout from the Dragons. After that, the score reached 5-1 and Astralis called a timeout. In the following two rounds, Astralis began with early kills to gain an advantage but lost it during their pushes onto the site. In the next two rounds, Spirit prevented the attack and completely dismantled the Astralis lineup, evening the score at 5-5. Cadian re-engaged a donk on the outside during a force round, but isolated skilled duels were not enough to overcome the defense at a team level. The first half ended at 7-5.

In the second half, Spirit broke through on A-site – with three frags from magixx. Thereafter, the attacking team maintained numerical superiority until the resolution of all subsequent rounds, leading Spirit to win the map Nuke with a score of 13-5.

Credit: Match stats | HLTV

The second map, Dust II, initially promised little chance for Astralis, with only a random possibility of seizing a strong position. Spirit began on the attack: donk opened the match with a one-tap to the device in the lower tunnel, and an ensuing push onto the B-site resulted in a 1-0 advantage for Spirit. Astralis then attempted a force play, launching an attack from long, followed by a shootout in the smokes on the site, during which the attack faltered. Spirit’s player sh1ro missed a shot with his scout while defusing the bomb and even called over the admins to check his computer’s performance — making it 1-1 and prompting the first timeout. Astralis exploited the ensuing disarray in the attack to win two more rounds 1-3, but afterward, their defense could only hold off the attackers with a few isolated frags. Thanks to Spirit’s continued domination until the end of the match, they defeated Astralis 13-4 and won the bo3 series 2-0.