“They make a desolation and call it peace.” – Tacitus

Astralis have walked down victory road and taken the FACEIT Major London. For the current lineup of: Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, Peter “dupreeh” Rothmann, Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, and Emil “Magisk” Reif, this will be their fifth tournament victory in this year. Since 2018 has started, they have won DreamHack Marseille, ESL Proleague Season 7 Finals, ECS Season 5 Finals, ELeague Premier 2018, and now the Major. This was the coronating moment. The last achievement to cement the age as the Astralis Era. This should have been no easy feat. No one had done it since the Luminosity/SK squad since 2016. People said that the competition was too much, that it could never be done again. Yet Astralis have not only succeeded, they have destroyed the competition and have completed their dominion.

Throughout this event alone Astralis have a 12-2 record. Their two losses came from two overtime losses in the group stages. One loss was to NiP in the Challengers Stage on Mirage. The other came from Liquid in the Legends Stage. Beyond that, they destroyed every other team. Their run to the finals and eventual victory was paved with the world’s strongest teams. In the Legends stage, they faced off against MIBR in a bo1. It was a match that all of the analysts believed that MIBR was going to win. Astralis smashed them 16-0.

Once they got into the playoffs, they then faced off against the three other top teams in the world: FaZe, Liquid, and Na`Vi. FaZe have had a long history with Astralis. While the modern lineup isn’t the same, the core of this team: Havard “rain” Nygaard, Finn “karrigan” Andersen, and Nikola “NiKo” Kovac. The Astralis of 2017 were on their way to creating an era, the iteration with Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjaerbye. However they were stopped at the last moment in the finals of Starladder i-League Season 3 in 2017. Even in the modern era, FaZe have shown themselves to be a potential weakness for the Astralis squad. Before Olof “olofmeister” Kjabjer took time off to deal with personal issues, FaZe played against Astralis at IEM World Championship 2018 and beat them in the semifinals 2-0. When Richard “Xizt” Landstrom stood-in for the team, they won a miraculous victory at IEM Sydney in what is likely the closest 3-0 in CS:GO history.

However when it came down to the FACEIT Major Finals, Astralis were a cut above. While FaZe had the individual skill to win their CT-sides, their own T-sides could not avail them against the system and structure of the Danes. Astralis ended up winning the series 2-0 with 16-14 on Mirage and 16-12 on Inferno. That was to be their closest series in the playoffs.

Astralis then met Liquid in the semifinals. Liquid were hyped up as the team that looked ready to finally knock off Astralis in the semifinals. Liquid had played Astralis in multiple finals throughout the year and were smashed each time. Once at ESL Proleague season 7, once at ECS Season 5, and once at ELeague Premier 2018. With their overtime victory on inferno in the Legends Stage, hopes were high that Liquid could elevate their play and bring home a second trophy to NA. Instead it was a comprehensive beat down as Astralis destroyed everything Liquid came up with and while there were some sparse moments of individual skill from the Liquid side, Astralis looked to be a step above.

The final opponent was Na`Vi. This was another team that people had reason to believe could beat Astralis. They had beaten Astralis in the semifinals of ESL One Cologne 2018 in an epic best-of-three. The team had the best duo in CS:GO, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Denis “electronic” Sharipov. S1mple’s potential is so high that he could go down as the greatest player to ever touch CS:GO. Electronic’s 2018 has been a revelation with him playing at a top 5 level in the entire world. With two stars such as these and Na`Vi’s increasing form throughhout this tournament, people believed that this was to be a match for the ages.

It was, just not how people expected it. It wasn’t a close knit affair, it was a blow out. Astralis destroyed Na`Vi with almost contemptuous ease. With that victory, Astralis took their Major victory. When I look back at their run through this Major, I do get the same feelings back when I witnessed the Fnatic dynasty. During that time, the community kept pitching challengers against them in some hope that they could deny Fnatic the accolades they deserved. Teams like NiP, LDLC/EnVyUs, VP, and TSM were all challengers to Fnatic’s throne. By the end of it all, Fnatic had won out.

The same could be said here. The community and analysts tried to pitch different teams that could stop Astralis: MIBR, FaZe, Liquid, and Na`Vi. However in the case of Astralis, it was even more dominant than during the Fnatic era. That Fnatic had a 5-6 map pool they could realistically play on. This Astralis team can play all seven maps at a high level. Their nuke is indomitable as it stands at a 19-0 win streak. It is even crazier considering that they pick nuke themselves, so they always start on the T-side of a CT dominant map and still have huge blowouts on the T-side.

Their brilliance in the map pool shines in the brilliance of their tactics, systems, and players. Gla1ve has proven himself to be the best tactical leader in the world for the last two years. He was a player that was nearly lost in the wilderness after his early playing days in Western Wolves. However he was able to come back years later. Astralis bet the farm on him to become their new in-game leader after they struggled with Karrigan and ever since that change, he has delivered and is now a two time Major Champion. As if that wasn’t enough, gla1ve has also proven himself to be the best fragging in-game leader in the world with a consistent ability to get impactful entry kills and to clutch rounds.

The core of this squad: Dupreeh, dev1ce, and Xyp9x have been around for a long period of time in CS:GO. Their first few years in Major history has marked them as chokers because of their infamous losses in semifinals. The last two years under Astralis and gla1ve has changed all of that. Dupreeh has proven himself to be one of the most versatile players in the world in 2017 as he was forced to switch roles from entry to lurker to AWPer. In 2018, he has come back to the entry role and is likely the best player in that role in the world. Dev1ce has also changed. His early career had him as a hybrid player, but he has since become the world’s best AWPer. He has combined the AWP with his consistency, preparation, and eye for detail making him one of, and at times the best mobile AWPer in the world for the last two years. Xyp9x also changed roles as before he joined this core of players, he was a star. But once he joined up, he picked up the support role and is instrumental in enabling the other players and having huge rounds himself as one of the world’s best clutch players. Those early years of failure have been mitigated and instead of people remembering them as losing in the bigger moments, they will be remembered as two time Major Champions, the core of players that created the Astralis Era.

The final member of this squad is Magisk. He was the player who shifted the roles into perfection after Kjaerbye left the lineup. Magisk was a player with a lot of potential who showed himself to be world class at the end of 2016 under North. In early 2017, he had an incredible carry performance against Virtus.Pro at ELeague Major Atlanta where he nearly hard carried North past the team, but it wasn’t enough. Virtus.Pro made the comeback and North was broken. Soon after, Magisk hit a slump and was abandoned by the Danish community as he was sent into exile to play under OpTic in NA. In 2018 though, he got the call back up as Kjaerbye had left Astralis in the lurch. There was a role conflict between him and Dupreeh, so Kjaerbye decided to try his luck elsewhere. So Astralis needed someone to fill in the role that Dupreeh left behind and Magisk was that player. This had the unintended consequence of not only giving Dupreeh his favored roles, but of also repositioning gla1ve into his own better roles. Magisk himself has also increased the raw firepower of the squad. His placement in the team has solidified their strength in things like the pistol round or pit on inferno. His ability to play lurk or be part of the entry pack on occasion has given Astralis incredible flexibility that allowed them to employ all of the tactics in their minds. Magisk was a player who nearly broke after his loss to Virtus.Pro and his kick from North, but he now stands as a Major Champion and part of the Astralis Era.

The final member of the squad is the coach Danny “zonic” Sorensen. A critical figure in the lineup who helps the team both psychologically and tactically. He is the one who gets the team on the same page and enforces a certain culture within the squad. Among the team, he is credited the most for pushing forward the use of utility within the squad which has significantly boosted the overall floor of the squad and has pushed the CS:GO meta forward.

What makes the Astralis Era so commendable is that people no longer believed that dominant eras could happen in CS:GO. The reasons were always the same. There was too much anti-stratting and scouting. Too many rising teams. Too much talent. Overall, the scene had become too competitive and there was no way that an era could be established, even if there was a clear best team in the world.

However Astralis have shown otherwise. With the perfect balance of roles, the best tactics, and a system that is unmatched. This is a team where the roles are so good that they can reliably do any kind of tactic or any kind of play. They have the perfect leader who is a mastermind from the tactical side and the perfect system to enable the entire team to play at the highest level. Julius Caesar once said, “Veni, Vidi, Vici.” I came, I saw, I conquered.

No other phrase can so succinctly describe what Astralis has done to the CS:GO world. Astralis Came. Astralis Saw. Astralis Conquered. This is now the Age of Astralis and this is the Pax Astralis. The peace that has come after the desolation of the CS:GO world. Welcome to the new world order.

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