When an Astralis games goes into a 1vX situation, the first thing I look to see is if it is Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth is still alive. Among all of the players in the world, his name is among the first when you think of when you remember incredible clutch moments throughout CS:GO history. As a player he is the pillar of Astralis. The last man in the line, the final hurdle that teams must pass to win rounds. Should he be alive, should he be in the clutch, the round is still in contest and Astralis still have a chance to win it.

Playing in the clutch or in a 1vX situation is unlike any other moment in the round. The rest of a round can rely on skill, tactics, or teamplay. But for a 1vX situation, it is more often about your game sense and decisiveness rather than your sheer skill as a player. While there are some players that have both like Richard “shox” Papillon or Marcelo “Coldzera” David, we often see great clutch plays from players we wouldn’t associate as stars of the team. Some of the examples that spring to mind are Finn “karrigan” Andersen or Richard “Xizt” Landstrom. Both good enough players, but no one would call them superstars.

One of the best insights you can get into the mind of a clutch player comes from Duncan “Thorin” Shield’s Grilled episode with Johan “face” Klasson, a retired Swedish pro from CS 1.6. He had played for numerous different teams and made a name for himself as a clutch player. For him, the science of playing a 1vX scenario came down to this,

“You need to make a quick decision and go all-in on that decision.”

A truly great 1vX player must look at and analyze all the information that is given. They have to analyze all of the positions and rotations the enemy have made, the potential plays they can make, the likely effective value of those plays, the probabilities of what the enemy players wish to do, and do all of that in however much time remains in the round or on the bomb timer. It is an incredibly hard task to accomplish. Even should a player do everything perfectly, they can still lose the round. However, should the player win, that player will have effectively taken a lost round and converted it into a won one for your team.

Among all of the players in the world, Xyp9x is one of the most famed for those moments. He is often compared to an advanced artificial intelligence as it feels as though all of his moves are calculated to create the best possible scenario for his victory. More than that, it is the level of consistent decision making he brings to every round. There is never a moment when you scrutinize his play and can’t understand why he did a certain move the way he did. This however isn’t some innate skill, but something that has been built in over time. He was initially a star player at the beginning of his CS:GO career on Fnatic.

During that time, his positioning, game sense, and firing technique were completely different. He was prioritized more to make plays and to break open rounds. However once he decided to go to the support role, his identity shifted. Unlike other games, there is no clear delineation of mechanics when you go from a star role to a support role. It is more of a change of mindset. A star player must think in their minds, “How do I win this round or win this game? What play can I make to effectively shut down the enemy team?”

A support player must think on a different plane, “My star players want to do X, so how can I enable that? How do I make sure that this move cannot be punished? What is the correct positional play to be at?”

These are hard questions to ask and to answer. That is why the transition is a hard move to make. It is one that very few stars have successfully navigated. Xyp9x is one of them and because of that, his team gains the luxury of having such a skilled player in a role that few played with star potential ever even try. Once he made that transition, his game changed. His thought processes and decisions now made more use of his knowledge rather than his aim. He was playing rotational or sacrificial CS, taking spots that no one wanted or putting himself in places to enable his team’s stars and his team’s tactics.

The problem with playing in those spots is that you don’t get as many kills as your star players so criticism is naturally fielded against you. To use a chess metaphor, the support player is the sacrificial pawn to the star’s queen. They die on the field to create space for the star to win the game. They are given few resources to shine themselves and can often be put in untenable spots where they cannot get kills. Where you are left in a 1v3 situations where the chances of victory are abysmal.

But for Xyp9x, this is where he shines. He is already the best support player in CS:GO history, someone who completely understands the position and team play aspect of the game and how his role in the system. However should he be put in these unwinnable situations, he has the some of the highest chances of anyone to close them out. He most famously broke the record of most clutches at IEM World Championship 2017 with 13 clutches throughout that tournament.

There is too much footage to go through, but the one that stuck out to me was a round against OpTic. He was in a 1v1 against Oscar “mixwell” Cannellas. Mixwell had to plant the bomb on A train in the smoke. In that moment Xyp9x had two choices, either try to get in during the plant or wait and make sure he wasn’t being faked out. An inexperienced player often hesitates in these situations as both moves are viable. It is a mind game and in this mind game, players can crumble under the pressure.

They can go too aggressive or go too passive. Xyp9x however is a cold calculating machine. He instantly made his decision to go forward and didn’t hesitate. So when the bomb was planted, mixwell naturally focused on the left side of the train as Xyp9x was in connector. Xyp9x knew this was the natural move of the opponent and popped out of the right side as he had already silently jumped there. He surprised mixwell, took him out and won the round.

This is one of many examples of how incredibly decisive, calm, and intelligent Xyp9x is in these situations. My own personal favorite comes from Game 2 of the ELeague Major Atlanta 2017 finals.

In the 20th round of that game, it was chaos. Virtus.Pro got two early kills so Astralis had to create a trap for Virtus.Pro. They had Peter “dupreeh” Rothmann go to water and the two remaining players take control of long. Then after taking long, Xyp9x pushed forward for a long lurk while the other player tried to hold A solo. The overall plan was to put their own players in positions to intercept and pincer the VP players. It worked as when they went to water, Dupreeh was able to get two. However he was traded and the player on A was taken out.

Xyp9x was left in a 1v3. Luckily for him, he completed his long lurk and found the player with the bomb and kills him. This leaves the bomb in a precarious position near A short.

Here is the information he has on hand. Pawel “byali” Bielinski is at B as he was the one who traded Dupreeh. Jaroslaw “pashaBiceps” Jarzabkowski is at A as he was the one who cleared it out. He immediately smokes off A short and it pops at around the 45 second mark. At this point pasha cannot get visual on the bomb and he has to rotate through toilets and clear those angles. He then sets himself up for a fight in connector against byali.

At this juncture, Xyp9x must keep track of both players and the smoke. It lasts 18 seconds and so the smoke will dissolve at the 27 second mark. Assuming that pasha will play safely in this 2v1 and he won’t push the smoke, that means that the only angle Xyp9x has to worry about is toilets until that moment, at which point he will be at a disadvantage as he is coming up from connector.

So he takes as much time as he can reasonably get as he waits until the 34 second mark for Byali to push into him. Byali is patient and this is almost Xyp9x’s undoing. Xyp9x knows that his position is no longer viable after a certain amount of time and this is what byali was playing for. Xyp9x survives with 1 hp and quickly pop flashes byali to delay him while he goes for the other 1v1 against pasha.

Pasha with the communication from byali that xyp9x is likely tagged comes out of toilets, but the rotation of Xyp9x is faster as he anticipated this and is able to take out pasha before he dies. Xyp9x then quickly rotates to an offangle at party and wins the critical round for Astralis.

That entire action took all of 30 seconds. Xyp9x had calculated all of the variables and created a scenario in which he could steal the entire round for Astralis and then executed on that.

That is the strength of Xyp9x. A player who can analyze any game scenario and come up with a potential plan that gives him the best chances of succeeding. From that point on he cooly executes it time and time again. It has gotten to the point now that we have come to expect nothing less from him. In these moments, he is the most dangerous player on earth. The one player you want above almost all others in these moments that can swing the game.

He is a critical piece to the five star puzzle of Astralis. He is known as a support player, but when things come down to the line. When you need someone to pull out an impossible 1vX situation, he is the guy you go to. All of the others on Astralis have incredible moments and have shown they can be strong in the clutch. If you need a superstar performance, you’re more likely to look towards Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz or Dupreeh to pull out the game. But in these 1vX situations, xyp9x is the one. In these moments, he is decisive. With the game on the line, outnumbered on the server, with the clock draining down, he is the one you want. This is his moment. When others hearts are jacked, when their palms shake from the pressure, Xyp9x stays cool. His heart calm, his hand steady. These are the moments that have come to define his career, these are the moments where he reminds the world why the clutch is his domain.

Welcome to the Clutch.

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