Photo by: BLAST Pro Series

CS:GO is currently under the supreme reign of Astralis. The Danish side is the undisputed best team in the world and they’re are about to enter their second year of full domination over the scene.

Between their win at DreamHack Marseille in April 2018 (when one can argue the Astralis era began) and present day, Astralis have made strong argument to not just be the best team in current CS:GO, but the greatest of all time. Whether or not that is truly the case is not the subject of this article, however, although most experts would indeed agree that Astralis are CS:GO’s GOATs even compared to the steamrolling rosters of Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic in the earlier years of the game. This article merely looks at the statistics behind Astralis in the past year, framing their success in numerical frames.

Astralis on LAN: 12-for-18

Between DreamHack Marseille and the most recent BLAST Pro Series Sao Paulo, Astralis attended 18 LAN events (counting the FACEIT Major qualifiers), including two Majors. This makes for 1.5 events every month — a very packed schedule, an unfortunate characteristic of the CS:GO scene.

What’s impressive, obviously, is not how many events Astralis played at, but their results at them and it starts with this one: Astralis never placed lower than top 4 at any of the LANs they attended.

LANs attended : 18

: 18 Top 4s : 18/18

: 18/18 Grand finals : 15/18

: 15/18 1st places: 12/18

Astralis’ streak during these events eventually led to them winning the $1M Intel Grand Slam, which torpedoed them up the rankings for esports’ all-time winningest players (but more on that later). In addition, Astralis’ 12 championships made them back-to-back champions of five separate tournament franchises.

Repeat Majors : FACEIT London + IEM Katowice

: FACEIT London + IEM Katowice Repeat IEM s: Chicago + Katowice

s: Chicago + Katowice Repeat EPL s: Season 7 + Season 8

s: Season 7 + Season 8 Repeat ECS s: Season 5 + Season 6

s: Season 5 + Season 6 Repeat BLASTs: Lisbon + Sao Paulo

Unparalleled win rates

A defining characteristic of this era-defining Astralis is not that they’re just winning championships: It’s the way they do it. The Danes maintain skyhigh win rates for series and individual maps alike and remain a formidable opponent in both best-of-1 and best-of-3+ scenarios.

Overall matches record : 83-11, 88.3% win rate

: 83-11, 88.3% win rate Individual map record : 130-31, 80.7% win rate

: 130-31, 80.7% win rate Best-of-3+ record: 45-7, 86.5% win rate

While these numbers are impressive in a vacuum, they’re even more so when compared to what Astralis’ biggest competition has put on in the past year. Taking a look at Team Liquid and Natus Vincere — considered by many to be #2 and #3 behind Astralis throughout most of the era — one sees how far ahead the Danes are, beating their immediate competition with a difference of more than 20% points:

Astralis matches record : 83-11, 88.3% win rate

: 83-11, 88.3% win rate Team Liquid matches record : 50-26, 65.8% win rate

: 50-26, 65.8% win rate Natus Vincere matches record: 53-25, 67.9% win rate

Astralis best-of-3+ record : 45-7, 86.5% win rate

: 45-7, 86.5% win rate Team Liquid best-of-3+ record : 31-22, 58.4% win rate

: 31-22, 58.4% win rate Natus Vincere best-of-3+ record: 35-18, 66.0% win rate

Photo by: Jennika Ojala | DreamHack

No bad maps

Win rates that high is what leads to championship runs, but taking one step back, we see that these rates are rooted in Astralis deep map pool. The reigning Major champions have managed to keep their map pool dynamic and unpredictable, switching their power maps and fine-tuning their weak spots every few months. They tend to avoid a couple of maps, notably Cache and Train, but even when they have to play them, they maintain a positive win rate.

In fact, Astralis win at least 66% of the matches they play on any given map. They have above 85% win rate on three of the maps in the pool, including a monstrous record on Inferno, one of the most popular maps in circulation and an undefeated record on Nuke, currently on a 26-0 streak on LANs.

This makes vetoing against Astralis, especially in best-of-3+ series, a problem with no clear solution. Banning Nuke (a map few teams like to play) leaves Inferno open. Even in best-of-1 games, teams are forced to play Astralis on maps like Dust2 — a map with 86% win rate for the Danes.

Astralis map record on LAN in the past year:

Nuke : 26-0, 100%

: 26-0, 100% Inferno : 43-6, 87.8%

: 43-6, 87.8% Dust2 : 19-3, 86.4%

: 19-3, 86.4% Cache : 4-1, 80%

: 4-1, 80% Mirage : 18-9, 66.7%

: 18-9, 66.7% Train : 8-4, 66.7%

: 8-4, 66.7% Overpass: 16-8, 66.7%

Individual firepower and the clutch factor

When it comes to Astralis’ individual players, experts are in agreement that the Danish side doesn’t necessarily have the best players on every single position. Where Astralis shine, however, is consistency: rarely does a player have a bad tournament and fall below 1.00 rating. Across the 160+ maps played in the past year, the Astralis players have in fact been incredibly consistent, averaging at least a 1.14 rating with Dev1ce on top of the leaderboards.

Average ratings of Astralis’ five

device : 1.27

: 1.27 Magisk : 1.18

: 1.18 dupreeh : 1.17

: 1.17 xyp9x : 1.15

: 1.15 gla1ve: 1.14

Peak ratings of Astarlis’ five

Dupreeh : 1.47 at FACEIT Major Main Qualifiers

: 1.47 at FACEIT Major Main Qualifiers Device : 1.44 at ELEAGUE Premier

: 1.44 at ELEAGUE Premier Magisk : 1.39 at BLAST Pro Series Lisbon

: 1.39 at BLAST Pro Series Lisbon Gla1ve : 1.34 at DreamHack Marseille

: 1.34 at DreamHack Marseille Xyp9x: 1.30 at iBUYPOWER Masters

Apart from overall consistency, the majority of Astralis come with the natural talent of winning clutches and winning rounds against difficult odds. Xyp9x made a name for himself as the best clutch player in the world, but IGL Gla1ve is not far behind either.

Clutch records

Xyp9x: 83-16, 83.8%

Gla1ve: 51-10, 83.6%

Magisk: 37-16, 69.8%

Device: 46-27, 63.0%

Dupreeh: 25-19, 56.8%

Photo by: Adele Sznajder | ESL

Future prospects

As it stands, Astralis are favorites to win every tournament they enter and it’s hard to say which team can become a reliable opposition to the Danes. Bar an unexpected slumping period, Astralis will likely take home the BLAST Pro Series Miami tournament, making them three-peat winners and giving them their fourth BLAST title overall for a total of $1M dollars won from the BLAST circuit alone.

If there isn’t a long-term shift in CS:GO power dynamics, Astralis will also enter the StarLadder Berlin Major as favorites and winning it will achieve a new record in CS:GO: the first three-peat Major champion and the first team to four titles. It would also equalize Fnatic’s record of four Major grand finals and be just one short of NiP’s five.

The same exact record Astralis can set at the upcoming ECS Season 7 finals. The Danes won Season 5 and Season 6 back-to-back, have another title from Season 2 and are already qualified for the Season 7 Finals.

Apart from furthering their era, the Astralis core are also looking to expand on their monetary fortune, which is already unparalleled in the scene.

The core four of Astralis in device, Gla1ve, Dupreeh and xyp9x have collectively won $5.588M

They are all in the top 50 highest earners of all time across all games

of all time across all games They are the only four non-Dota 2 players to be ranked in the top 50

Of course, it is unlikely that Astralis continue this domination forever but another half year under the sign of the crimson star is a real possibility.