The professional scene of CSGO can’t be explained without mentioning the name of Astralis. The Danish giants have single-handedly defined an era in professional CSGO and continue to do so. After entering into the list of top 4 teams with a first-place finish in DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018, they have managed to stay there for two whole years and counting.
Following several roster changes and semi-final exits, Astralis finally rose to fame towards the end of 2016, with back to back first place finishes in ECS Season 2 Finals and ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017. They had also managed to attain victory at IEM Katowice 2017, but from then it was a downhill slope. The team was constantly underperforming and made several uncharacteristic finishes ranging from 5th place to 13th place exits from big tournaments.
However, they bounced back, and when they did, they bounced back hard. Following their first place victory at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018, the team seemed to have regained its pace. After an exit from the finals of IEM Sydney 2018, they stole the show in ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals and ECS Season 5 Finals.
Their next major victory came in FACEIT Major: London 2018, where they took home a whopping $500,000 as prize money. They also won the consecutive BLAST Pro Series which was held in Istanbul. From then, it was all Astralis as they took home the titles of IEM Chicago 2018, ECS Season 6 Finals, ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, BLAST Pro Series: Lisbon 2018 and finally, the IEM Katowice 2019.
From then onwards, the team weren’t at the apex of the pro scene but still performed consistently throughout the tournaments, making sure to not give up a place among the top 4 CSGO teams. After the conclusion of ESL One: Road to Rio, they are once again at the #1 spot following them destroying FaZe 2:0 in the grand finals.
