Astralis defeated HOTU with a 2-1 map score in the Round of 16 at the BLAST Bounty Summer 2026 tournament on July 25, 2026.
The S-Tier event, held offline in Malta, saw Astralis advance in the bracket, while HOTU concluded their run with a 9-16th place finish.
Astralis, currently ranked #18 in the Strafe CS2 World Rankings, was favored to win the Best of 3 series against HOTU, who are ranked #45 globally.