Jump to content

Astralis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Blorper234 (talk | contribs) at 02:46, 21 August 2019 (Fixed typo). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the esports team. For information about the wine, see Clarendon Hills (wine).
Not to be confused with Astralism.
Astralis
SportCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
Founded2016
LocationDenmark
PartnersUnibet, Turtle Beach, JACK & JONES, NOCCO, eSports.com, Omen by HP
Parent groupRFRSH Entertainment
Websiteastralis.gg

Astralis is a Danish organization owned by players of the former Danish Team SoloMid/Questionmark lineup, with the help of their manager, Frederik "realition" Byskov. The rights to the Astralis name were obtained from the original founders of the Finnish Counter-Strike team.

History

2016

January – May

Astralis’ first event was DreamHack Leipzig 2016 in January 2016. The team topped their group after defeating their Danish brethren Dignitas and the European-mix team mousesports in best-of-ones, however they exited the event in the semi-final losing 0-2 to Luminosity Gaming. Their next LAN was Global eSports Cup where they topped their group once again, this time with best-of-three wins over Method and G2 Esports. They would go on to lose the semi-final vs their rivals from the previous year, Team EnVyUs 1-2 and then defeat CLG in the third-place decider, only losing seven rounds over two maps. ESL Expo Barcelona was up next which featured an unusual format where each team had three lives and a map loss would mean a life lost. Astralis won five maps against G2 Esports, x6tence, Team EnVyUs and Dignitas. Astralis narrowly lost a life to G2 and played two close games vs Fnatic in the faux-final as the only two teams left.

IEM Katowice was next and Astralis would once again top their group and go straight to the semi-final with best-of-one wins over Team EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro, E-Frag, FaZe Clan and Tempo Storm. Astralis were set to play the last match of the day vs Fnatic, but due to delays, this didn’t start until midnight and finally finished at 3am with Astralis losing 1-2.

Astralis were expected to go far in MLG Columbus, the eighth CS:GO Major following their 2nd place finish to Natus Vincere at Counter Pit League Season 2. The event started well as Astralis beat Gambit and CLG to top their group but were rewarded by being drawn against Fnatic in the Quarterfinals, the favourites to win the whole event after winning their previous six events in a row. Things did not go well for the Swedes though, as Astralis won in two maps, 16-10 on Overpass and 16-5 on Fnatic’s map pick, Cache due to a standout performance from Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen. Astralis went on to face Navi in the semi-final where they narrowly lost Inferno 14-16 and were outclassed on Dust II thanks to stellar performances from Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev and Egor “flamie” Vasilyev.

Over the next few events Astralis did not live up to their reputation of cleaning up in groups and advancing comfortably to playoffs. Their first group stage exit in six months occurred at DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016, where they won the opener vs Lounge Gaming but were upset by their Danish counterparts, Dignitas 9-16 on their home map Overpass. Astralis drew the hometown heroes, Ninjas in Pyjamas in the decider match and lost 1-2 with poor performances from dupreeh and IGL Finn “karrigan" Andersen. NiP would go on to win the event in front of a roaring Swedish crowd. A month later, the team attended ESL Pro League S3 Finals in England. This time they lost to the North American mix of OpTic Gaming in a best-of-one 7-16 and came up against the Columbus Major champions, Luminosity. They fought a tough best-of-three, winning the first map and narrowly lost the remaining two despite Nicolai “device” Reedtz having a K-D of 81-50. Luminosity went on to win this event in a gruelling best-of-five vs G2. Following this defeat Astralis decided to swap René “cajunb” Borg for Dignitas’ Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjaerbye who was headhunted by Astralis’ coach, Danny “zonic” Sørensen whom he knew from his time coaching him during 2015.

June – October

With a month of practice Astralis attended DreamHack Summer 2016, and this time things were looking up as they topped their group, comfortably defeating the Finnish ENCE eSports and Danish SK Gaming. An all too familiar story occurred in playoffs where they faced NiP in the semi-finals and once again fought a strong best-of-three but ultimately lost 1-2, nearly winning on Cobblestone, Astralis’ perma-ban map. Astralis played their ELEAGUE Season 1 group in June, topping their group winning 5 out of 6 maps vs NRG, CLG and SK Gaming with the help of zonic standing in for IGL karrigan who arrived late to the event. They then won best-of-threes vs NRG and CLG. At ECS Season 1 Finals Astralis once again uncharacteristically lost to a North American team, this time being Team SoloMid led by Kory “SEMPHIS” Friesen. They went on to face Cloud9 in the decider match and were beaten 0-2.

Astralis went into ESL One Cologne 2016, the second CS:GO Major of the year with a stand-in for Kjaerbye in the form of Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander. This was because Kjaerbye played and won the European Minor with Dignitas and Valve rules dictated he had to sit the event out. In Germany, Astralis defeated their Danish rivals Dignitas in the event opener but were destroyed by the CIS Gambit Gaming team in the winner’s best-of-one 6-16. Tragedy struck after this loss with Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen getting appendicitis and resulted in him watching the remainder of the event from hospital. Coach zonic rose to the challenge having not played the game since ELEAGUE a month prior and Astralis scraped through to the playoffs besting Dignitas 2-1. Astralis were drawn vs the Polish legends Virtus.pro in the quarterfinals, however they were unable to best them despite a strong performance from device going 68-43 in K-D and taking the Poles to overtime on both maps.

After the Major Astralis returned to Atlanta to attend the ELEAGUE playoffs but lost to mousesports 0-2 in the quarterfinals. Shortly after they attended Power-LAN, a small Danish event. They advanced to the semi-finals as expected but lost to Heroic 1-2, led by their Major stand-in gla1ve. Less than two weeks later Heroic bested Astralis again, this time in the opener at StarLadder StarSeries Season 2 16-13 on Train. Astralis were pitted vs Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev’s Navi in the elimination match and won in overtime 19-17. Astralis won vs the Chinese TyLoo 2-1 to advance to the quarterfinals but once again lost to NiP 1-2.

In October Astralis attended ESL New York 2016 featuring an 8 team Swiss format in which they grinded past G2 Esports 16-13 but didn’t win another map against opponents SK Gaming (former Luminosity), Fnatic and OpTic Gaming. A week later they bombed out in the round of 12 at WESG 2016 European Finals losing 1-2 to GODSENT with the two maps they lost being 14-16. A breakdown in the team occurred and Astralis decided it was time for karrigan to go, opting for gla1ve instead. karrigan had led the core players since December 2014 to five tournament wins in 2015 but none since forming Astralis.

November – December

Astralis returned to what was expected from them after poor placings throughout the majority of 2016 by topping their group at ELEAGUE Season 2 with best-of-one victories against ALTERNATE aTTaX and SK Gaming. A week later they topped their six-team group at IEM Oakland 2016 with wins vs Team Liquid, Natus Vincere, Immortals and TyLoo with the only loss vs G2 Esports. This netted them a semi-final spot and they lost 0-2 to SK Gaming 14-16 and 12-16 where Nicolai “device” Reedtz had an uncharacteristically poor showing. The team returned to Atlanta for the ELEAGUE playoffs and reached the final, triumphing over Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 with Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjaerbye posting a 1.56 HLTV rating, beating SK 2-0 with a stellar performance by Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth. Astralis were expected to win the final vs OpTic Gaming after defeating the Brazilian favourites in the semi-final and OpTic causing upsets on the other side of the bracket. The Danes looked like they were on their way to do this with a 16-9 win on Train but lost the next two maps 6-16 and 11-16 with Keith “NAF” Markovic putting up an incredible 78-45 K-D.

Astralis would get revenge against the North American side a week later at ECS Season 2 Finals in Anaheim winning their first match of the group 16-7, followed by a 16-3 trouncing over FaZe Clan with Xyp9x going 25-5 against the European team. In the semi-final Astralis bested SK Gaming 2-0 with device achieving a 46-19 K-D over 45 rounds. OpTic met them in the final but this time the Danish side were too hot for them to handle and Astralis obtained their first trophy since they formed twelve months prior.

2018

February – December

In February, Kjaerbye unexpectedly left Astralis to join North. Astralis were left scrambling for a fifth player but fortunately, they were able to sign Emil "Magisk" Reif a few days later. This would mark the beginning of an astronomical rise to the top and domination over the Counter-Strike scene. After a quarter-final finish at StarSeries S4 and a semi-final loss at IEM Katowice 2018, they reached the summit after a spectacular performance at DreamHack Marseille 2018, convincingly beating FaZe Clan, Fnatic, and Natus Vincere on their way to the title. Although they lost to FaZe Clan in the grand final after a narrow 3-0 best of five series at IEM Sydney 2018, they bounced back at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, swiftly defeating FaZe Clan and beating Team Liquid 3-1 to grab the trophy. They continued their dominance with trophies at ECS Season 5 Finals and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018, with a semi-final loss to Natus Vincere at ESL One: Cologne 2018 in between.

Astralis then crowned their era with their second Major title at FACEIT Major: London 2018, quickly beating FaZe Clan, Team Liquid, and Natus Vincere without dropping a single map in the playoffs. A mere 6 days later, they defeated MIBR 2-1 in the grand-final at BLAST Pro Series Istanbul 2018 - after having an undefeated 5-0 group stage - to continue their dominance over the scene.

2019

At the IEM Katowice Major 2019, they picked up their third Major title, becoming the second team in CS:GO history (after Fnatic) to take home three Major titles, and the third to win two majors back-to-back. They made it into the New Champions stage after a convincing 3-0 score in the New Legends stage, beating Complexity Gaming, Cloud9 and Renegades. They then went through the New Champions stage without dropping a single map, beating Ninjas in Pyjamas, MIBR, and finally ENCE to secure the Major win.

Roster

Alias Name Join date
Denmark dev1ce Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz January 19, 2016
Denmark dupreeh Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen January 19, 2016
Denmark Xyp9x Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth January 19, 2016
Denmark Gla1ve Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander October 24, 2016
Denmark Magisk Emil "Magisk" Reif February 7, 2018 [1]
Denmark zonic (coach) Danny "zonic" Sørensen January 19, 2016

Tournament results

Bold denotes a CSGO Major

References

  1. ^ "Astralis sign Magisk". Fragbite.com. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  2. ^ "Astralis wygrywa Intel Extreme Masters Katowice Major 2019!". esportradio24.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  3. ^ "Astralis take down NA'VI to win FACEIT Major".
  4. ^ "Virtus.pro win ELEAGUE Season 1". HLTV.org.
  5. ^ "OpTic win ELEAGUE Season 2". HLTV.org.
  6. ^ "Astralis win ECS Season 2 Finals". HLTV.org.
  7. ^ "Astralis win the ELEAGUE Major!". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  8. ^ "Astralis beat FaZe; win IEM Katowice". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  9. ^ "SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  10. ^ "IEM Sydney 2017". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  11. ^ "ELEAGUE Clash for Cash". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  12. ^ "ECS Season 3 Finals". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  13. ^ "PGL Major Krakow 2017". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  14. ^ "ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2017-11-25.
  15. ^ "DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  16. ^ "IEM Sydney 2018". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  17. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  18. ^ "ECS Season 5 Finals". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  19. ^ "ESL One Cologne 2018". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  20. ^ "ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  21. ^ "ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-12-09.
  22. ^ "Astralis beat Na`Vi in three maps to win BLAST Pro Series Lisbon". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  23. ^ "Astralis wygrywa IEM Chicago 2018!". esportradio24.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-03-03.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by ELEAGUE Major 2017 winner
2017 		Succeeded by
Preceded by FACEIT London Major 2018 winner
2018 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – World Championship Major winner
2019 		Succeeded by

As of this edit, this article uses content from "Astralis", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed.

Stub icon

This article related to an esports organization is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Astralis&oldid=911777575"