Astralis is one of the most famous and titled teams in competitive Counter-Strike. The Danish team is represented by one roster, which protects the tag in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Having emerged on the esports field, Astralis shined so brightly that it has written itself in the history of the industry forever. We present to your attention the history of the organization Astralis.
The first appearance
The first mention about Astralis is dated in 2016. Then, the players who were playing under the tag Team Questionmark created their own organization, which was called Astralis. The first roster included:
- dupreeh
- Xyp9x
- dev1ce
- cajunb
- karrigan
The team was playing with this line-up till autumn 2016. In October 2016, there were two roster changes: Kjaerbye replaced cajunb in the team and karrigan’s spot was taken by gla1ve. With this roster, the team had to win the first Major tournament for the organization.
The achievements of Astralis
Having completed the roster, Astralis started preparing hard for the upcoming big tournaments. The championship ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017 was one of these. The team laid the foundation for future achievements there.
Astralis became the champion of ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017 in January 2017 and proved to the CS:GO community that the team deserved the title of one of the best CS:GO teams.
Dev1ce became inactive due to health issues at the end of 2017 but he returned in January 2018.
2018 and the beginning of «the era of Astralis»
The roster faced several changes in 2018. First of all, dev1ce returned to the team and, secondly, Kjaerbye left it. Magisk, who came to the team from North, took the departed player’s spot. With this line-up, the team was playing till 2020.
The team achieved victory at ESL Pro League Season 7 – Finals in May 2020 and prevailed at Esports Championship Series Season 5 – Finals a month later. In July of the same year, the team reinforced its success with the victory at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018, however, the real triumph was just ahead.
In September 2018, the team became the winner of the second Major tournament in history. Astralis achieved victory at FACEIT Major: London 2018. But the domination of Astralis did not stop in 2018. The team won Esports Championship Series Season 6 – Finals in November and became the champion of ESL Pro League Season 8 – Finals at the end of the year.
It seemed that there should be a decline after the year full of victories. However, it did not happen and the results only improved in 2019.
Astralis prevailed at the third Major tournament in March 2019. This time, it was Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major. After that, the team achieved victory at BLAST Pro Series: Sao Paulo 2019 in March 2019.
Having won BLAST, the team slowed down a bit to go forward to StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. The team prevailed at the fourth Major tournament. Astralis started playing a bit worse after that naturally and for a reason.
2020 and the period of reshuffles
At the end of 2019, Astralis achieved victories at a few more tournaments, including Intel Extreme Masters XIV – Beijing, Esports Championship Series Season 8 – Finals, and BLAST Pro Series: Global Final 2019.
The team could not boast of similar results at the beginning of 2020. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the roster faced radical changes.
Astralis signed JUGI in May, Xyp9x left active playing, and gla1ve left the roster due to his health condition. In summer, Astralis signed es3tag and also replaced JUGI on Bubzkji. Later, gla1ve returned to the team and Xyp9x stopped having a rest. The team refused es3tag’s services in October 2020.
The whole period of reshuffles was accompanied by not the most positive moments and results. For the first time in long years, Astralis failed at BLAST Premier: Spring, having held a 10th-12th place in the regular season 2020. Also, the team placed 7th-8th at BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown, with which it created rumors about the boycott of the BLAST tournaments.
ELS One: Road to Rio – Europe and ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe where the team held first places were the most successful championships for Astralis in 2020.
Records and sponsors
Astralis is an absolute record holder in the history of the competitive CS:GO. The organization has become the first team in history to win 4 Major tournaments and the first club to win 3 Major tournaments in a row. Also, the team prevailed in the first season of Intel Grand Slam, having earned 1,000,000 dollars. The team managed to hold first place in the world rate by HLTV for 406 days.
The organization is supported by many famous brands, including Unibet, Logitech G, OMEN by HP, Secretlab, GLHF.gg, CS.MONEY, hummel, Bang & Olufsen. Also, the organization has a wide network of brand stores in Denmark.
Since the foundation of the club, the CS:GO rosters have already made more than 8,349,000 dollars of prize money for the organization.
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