Despite losing the 1st place, coach Astralis is still determined not to participate in tournaments

Astralis CSGO coach Danny’ zonic’ Serensen has just shared his thoughts on the controversy surrounding the prioritization of certain events.

Astralis has been criticized recently for prioritizing BLAST Pro Series events while ignoring prestigious tournaments like IEM Sydney, StarSeries Season 7 and DreamHack Masters Dallas.

BLAST, which is currently owned by Astralis’ parent company RFRSH Entertainment, has also been criticized for its poor format. And yet, they are also seen as deliberately degrading the value of other major tournaments by forcing the top teams to not be able to compete in other tournaments while participating in the BLAST Pro Series.

In a lengthy letter on Facebook, zonic said that Astralis’ decision to participate in events in recent months was the result of many factors, such as “the format of the tournament, the ability to prepare, the reputation, the location. fit with travel plans, the team’s previous results at the tournament, as well as the fans and their experience with the tournament organisers.

Regarding the events that the team decided to skip, specifically DreamHack Masters Dallas, due to it being too close to ECS Season 7 and ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals. “We are consecutive champions of ECS and EPL, and want to choose the best path for us to defend these titles.”

The absence of Astralis in recent major tournaments has caused the Danish boys to be kicked out of the world No. 1 position of the HLTV rankings. Liquid’s recent DreamHack Masters Dallas championship helped them overcome the competition.

The change also ends a record world No. 1 run, held by Astralis since April 2018 – they are the first team to defend the position in more than a year. However, according to zonic, rankings are not Astralis’ main driving force, “our mission is not world rankings, it’s about proving that we can do everything to win the game. Win the biggest and most relevant tournaments.”

For many fans, losing the No. 1 spot would mean the end of the Astralis era, at least for the time being. Fans were quite upset when the team considered the strongest in CSGO history did not compete – the main reason for the loss of rankings, not the defeat.

However, Astralis is ready to participate in a series of major tournaments, starting with the ECS Season 7 Finals from June 6 to 9. The team will defend its championship title at the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals. from June 18 to 23, before attending ESL One Cologne from July 2-7.