Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has one of the most hyper-competitive communities in the world of Esports, with almost any side currently ranked in the world’s top thirty teams seemingly able to pull off a shock at even the most elite of competitions thanks partly to the ‘online era’ the game has rolled into in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, even in a game as volatile as CS:GO, one side has continued to stand out from the rest and reached a level of top-level consistency once thought impossible.
They are one of the most formidable organisations in competitive gaming, setting the trend with their investment in mental health coaching, better nutrition and dieting for their players, and a training schedule (with coaching insights the likes of which had never been seen before in the game before) led to the side winning four Major Championships in just two years, becoming the first ever side to do so and the first to win three in a row.
2020 looked to be the same old story for Astralis, but following their win at the ESL Road to Rio online event, the side were thrown into disarray when two of their stars, Xyp9x and Gla1ve, were placed on medical leave.
JUGI and Snappi were brought in as the talisman’s replacements, and it was clear this was not the Astralis of old CS:GO fans, players and pundits had grown to fear and respect over the years. Whilst certainly not bad players outright, (Snappi in particular looked decent in sparks during the course of his loan spell) it became clear that Astralis were in for a rocky middle of the year.
The Danes plummeted in the CS:GO betting odds for every competition they entered, and failed to even qualify for the BLAST Summer finals. They announced that they would be skipping the CS_Summit 6 event later that month, something CS fans had never seen before from the Danish org, and they fell all the way down to as low as 17th by August.
However, Astralis have proven time and time again that they are a side that can bounce back from hardships and the revolving door spun round again with the announcements that Es3eag and Bubzksji would be joining the ranks in place of Snappi and JUGI. Unlike before, these moves would be permanent ones meaning Astralis had once again become a trend setter with the first ever seven man roster in CS:GO.
Gla1ve made his return to the team in September, Magisk took over IGL duties and Bubzksji was moved to the bench as Astralis began their surge back up the world rankings. And the results were almost immediate.
Since the start of September and at the time of writing, Astralis have won fifteen games out of their last sixteen matches and are on a winning streak of nine heading into their winners bracket fixture in Dreamhack Open Fall.
They won the ESL Pro League Season 12 EU edition at the end of September and rose back up to the top of tree ranked number one in the world again. The world’s best Esports org was back in effect, and they are showing no signs of slowing down again now the gang is all back together again.