Astralis began life with Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek and Nikita "cmtry" Samolotov with victories over Sashi and HOTU to progress to the Stake Pulse Beat III playoffs.
The international squad recently went through a shock rebuild just one month before the Major, benching IGL Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard due to the duo entering the final months of their contracts in order to play the Major with their new recruits.
In Stockholm, Astralis began their campaign by defeating Sashi, who have also gone through a controversial change in recent times, which meant they faced HOTU in the winners' game.
Gytis "ryu" Glušauskas, who also topped the board in the game against Sashi (1.41 rating), was once again the star of the show and was his team's highest-rated player (1.55), putting him second overall in the tournament charts.
Astralis will now have a day off before the playoffs get underway on Friday, while a potentially Major-ending clash between HOTU and fnatic is played next in Group C.
Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenPast 3 months
Gytis 'ryu' GlušauskasPast 3 months
Nikita 'cmtry' SamolotovPast 3 months
Jakob 'jabbi' NygaardPast 3 months
Kamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekPast 3 months
fnatic
Rodion 'fEAR' Smyk
Dmytro 'jambo' Semera
Nikita 'jackasmo' Skyba
Artem 'cairne' Mushynskyi
Volodymyr 'mazay' Iorhachov
Miks 'Independent' Siliņš
HOTU
David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan
Aidos 'kade0' Khairzhan
Dmitry 'mizu' Kondratev
Aleksandr 'dwushka' Pakhnevich
Kim 'frontales' Argunov
Rustem 'mou' Telepov
Sashi
Jordan 'Hatz' Bajic
Rasmus 'Zyphon' Nordfoss
Anton 'Anlelele' Huynh
Tynan 'TjP' Purtell
Nicolai 'HUNDEN' Petersen
Astralis
Love 'phzy' Smidebrant
Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek
Victor 'Staehr' Staehr
Gytis 'ryu' Glušauskas
Nikita 'cmtry' Samolotov
Filip 'NEO' Kubski