Silent Champion

Current champions Astralis haven’t won a major title since March, but don’t belittle them here in Krakow.

It looks like Astralis’s win at the ELEAGUE Major happened a decade ago, but it actually happened only six months ago. A lot of international tournaments took place during that time and a lot has changed.

Astralis’ journey to win the title in Atlanta was an accident. A month before that, they had a lot of promise, when they were runner-up at ELEAGUE before winning ECS ​​Season 2. It was a signal that Astralis had finally gotten rid of the “psychosis” that had plagued them so much. much in the past.

Everything was ideal for Astralis at the time. SK was still finding itself after breaking up with Lincoln “fnx” Lau, and FaZe was still an outsider at the time – they only really exploded since the arrival of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač. And the situation of G2 at that time was quite bleak, they looked completely different from the G2 that surprised the CS:GO community before the summer of 2016.

^{Don’t underestimate Astralis’ ability at Krakow Major}

Under Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, Astralis also lived up to everyone’s expectations. With the new system introduced by its replacement “karrigan” (“gla1ve), Astralis had its first fruits in just a few months. After years of bitterness, the hard-working Danes finally made it – they reached Counter-strike’s Olympus.

Astralis then dropped themselves at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, where Virtus.pro made them leave with their suitcases after a strange match – all three maps tilted to one side. IEM Katowice was seen as the first powerful potion – SK had João “felps” Vasconcellos, and FaZe played against NiKo for the first time. With SK leaving right from the group stage, Astralis became the focus: a convincing victory over Natus Vincere and his compatriot Heroic, before digesting FaZe – the team that played less than a game thanks to the top of their group – in the round. final.

The flag of Astralis flew, but what left the most impression on everyone’s mind was the amazing performance from Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth. The 21-year-old player, who has been in the spotlight as the team struggles to regain form, this year’s record is the best we’ve ever seen from him: breaking the record for clutches in an event big and earned himself the title of MVP. The revival of Xyp9x, along with teammates, has shown improvement after working sessions with sports psychologist Mia Stellberg.

“I think losing so many semi-finals at the same time created the idea [thuê một nhà tâm lý thể thao]and that’s why no one on the team doubted it,” recalls Xyp9x.

“She really played a part in our success, and looking back, it was the right decision to hire her.”

And it’s also the closest Astralis has won – excluding the ELEAGUE Clash for Cash match. At Starladder i-League StarAseries Season 3, they almost became champions but wasted two important match points against FaZe before losing the final map in extra time. Karrigan’s team was once again Astralis’ roadblock at IEM Sydney, this time in the semi-finals. Meanwhile, Astralis could not overcome SK in the last four rounds.

Since the win at Katowice, Astralis has lost series to FaZe (StarSeries and IEM Sydney) and SK (ECS Season 3), but all of the series ended in map 3 – showing that the teams aren’t too disparate. much. Also, they lost best-of-one to North (StarSeries), SK (IEM Sydney) and Cloud9 (ECS Season 3).

FaZe looked unconvincing in Cologne, narrowly falling out of the Swiss group stage and then losing 2-0 to SK in the semi-finals, with the first map completely destroyed. This means that the fire FaZe is burning is very small, even as karrigan played at his best. As for SK, they were like a kite when they won 5 of the 6 events they attended. But the price for SK’s success is not small: the players feel exhausted by the tight schedule.

It’s been three weeks since Astralis’ last offline appearance. Their decision not to attend ESL One Cologne, announced in April, came as a surprise to many – as they had so much time to prepare compared to other championship contenders. Astralis had plenty of opportunities to study SK’s play and learn about the losses against FaZe. But before they can think about the playoffs, Astralis should worry about the Swiss group stage – where a lot of surprises await them.

After sitting on the world rankings, Astralis attended the Major with nearly 500 points lower than SK and about 100 points more than FaZe. Astralis arrives in Krakow this time with great preparation and determination to make history, even as Nicolai “device” Reedtz attending the funeral of two friends.

Source: HLTV