Unpaid Astralis send Aurora home - Day three stage two Budapest Major

It’s been a disaster of a Major for Aurora, but a much-needed boost for Astralis who picked up a gritty win in tough circumstances.

With it coming out that Astralis staff and players had not been paid for the month, it would be easy for the players to down tools and shrink, but they stood tall and ground out a win over a lacklustre Aurora.

HooXi has, quietly, improved Astralis significantly and he led from the front with multiple big rounds in both won maps. For Aurora, it’s probably a watershed moment for this roster, as the year has completely petered out.

Aurora even won map one 13-11, which was Astralis' pick of Nuke, putting themselves in pole position, and it's a pretty unforgiveable position to lose from given they were the highest ranked team at this stage and Astralis' problems. The Danes fought back with the aforementioned IGL putting up big numbers on both won maps, which is not something we've seen too often.

When HooXi is smurfing on you... you have problems.

Liquid survived by the skin of their teeth after TYLOO lost not only four series points, but threw away advantages twice at 14-14 in incredibly winnable rounds.

Through the years TYLOO have been plagued by sloppiness and silly errors, but it felt like they had turned a corner and become more stable recently. Those last two rounds quickly undid any of that feeling, with ATTACKER in particular messing up badly to allow Liquid into the bombsite twice.

Genuinely, if you're an Asian CS fan, do not click on anything that talks about those two rounds. It's a painful watch for a neutral, never mind a fan.

Liquid did not look at all convincing, but every win counts and maybe they're one day closer to finding their form and clicking - and they'll need it to beat Astralis tomorrow. Spicy.

Jame may have been knocked down, but he has resurrected his career with PARIVISION and his group of talented young riflers.

Just like his old VP side, PARIVISION have proven to be a tough nut to crack and a horrible team to play against, and NIP became the latest to fall to the Russians.

While PV’s Train looked like it might be an issue coming into the event - because only Jame had a positive rating on it - it didn’t look it today as Nota took over, dancing around the trains and picking up a litany of kills.

Jame himself was quiet, as he admitted, but remains an impressive IGL who outwitted a frustrated Snappi.

Not as frustrated as fnatic, who made the controversial move to bench CYPHER just after qualifying for the Major, and perhaps felt the full force of karma on the backswing.

They were soundly beaten by Passion UA, who looked down and out yesterday, with blameF completely absent.

We’re used to seeing him topfrag but lose to the point it’s become a bit of a cliche, but it’s rare to see him drop just 18 kills in a series.

A lot of credit has to go to Passion UA, and hallzerk, who sometimes goes under the radar. He may not be the most consistent, but he is a top tier AWPer at his best.

Imperial played out an exhilarating series against M80 that saw them lose one map 2-13, but win two 13-11 and move into the third stage.

This one was a wild game that deserves a rewatch. Very few expected Imperial to do too much, but they have stepped up to every challenge and gone from strength to strength.

B8 also moved through into the next stage with barely a hitch, as they assuredly dealt with 3DMAX and stay quietly progressing.

Nobody will want to play against them, as they've shown themselves to be very tough to beat with enough quality to trouble anyone. For 3DMAX, it was a bit powderpuff on map three, but they have one last shot to make it through after some pretty uncomfortable games.

The headline game tomorrow is, of course, Astralis vs Liquid, a classic match-up through the years, and a really tough one to call right now. Liquid have arguably significantly more firepower, but look much less cohesive than a rejuvenated Astralis, who have looked like a much better team despite their issues.

Anything can happen, though, and an in-form Liquid are unstoppable.

Passion UA and M80 clash in a local derby, while NIP and 3DMAX play out what should be an intense series to close the stage. Both have been under-par, but we know there's a lot more to come from both.