The veto began with HEROIC removing Inferno and Astralis banning Anubis. HEROIC then opted for Mirage as their map pick, while Astralis went for Nuke. With Ancient and Train removed in the second ban phase, Dust2 was left as the decider.
HEROIC came out swinging on Mirage, quickly establishing a 9-3 lead at halftime. The second half was even more brutal for Astralis, as they failed to secure a single T-side round. HEROIC shut them out entirely, closing the map with a comfortable 13-3 victory. Yasin Yasin "xfl0ud" Koç was the standout performer on this map, delivering a phenomenal 2.63 rating performance to completely destroy Astralis on their CT-side.
Nuke turned out to be an even worse match-to-forget for Astralis, as HEROIC stormed through the first half, racing to an 11-0 lead, fueled by an incredible showing from Simon "yxngstxr" Boije, who matched xfl0ud’s 2..63 rating on this map. Astralis finally managed to get on the board with a CT-side round, but the damage was already done. Despite a brief moment of success in the second half, where they secured two rounds, Astralis had no chance of mounting a comeback. HEROIC sealed the deal with a 13-2 win, booking their ticket to IEM Dallas.
With Astralis recently returning from PGL Cluj-Napoca, HEROIC had the advantage of extra preparation time. However, it’s also important to address Astralis’ visibly poor performance, as they struggled throughout, squandering four crucial two-man advantages across the series. Zooming out on the results, cadiaN and his team suffered a crushing 5-26 defeat in total against their former organization.
HEROIC now join the list of European teams qualifying for the $300,000 LAN event, but they had somewhat of a rocky start in the beginning of the qualifier. They began the tournament with a 2-1 victory over Zero Tenacity, which was followed by a drop to the lower brackets thanks to a loss to 3DMAX. However, they made an impressive comeback defeating BIG, Metizport, and finally, Astralis to reach Dallas.
The final team list for IEM Dallas 2025 consists of the following teams:
![Best Cases to Open in CS2 in [year]](/imgs/news_8150/20250304/cache/1741088441_3b891fce289b067982c6___308_174.jpg "Best Cases to Open in CS2 in [year]")