Cover-Credits:
- Astralis have been knocked out of the top 10 HLTV rankings in latest update after more than 3 years.
- This is the first time since 21st November 2016 that Astralis are not in the top 10.
- Factors affecting the fall of Astralis and the team's current state has been discussed below.
The Danish giants Astralis has seen a massive drop in their global HLTV rankings in the past month, as they currently stand 11th on the rank list. This is the first time since November 2016 that the Danish organization is not listed among the top ten teams in the world.
While point decay might be a big factor behind their massive drop in rankings, other significant factors like player burnout, multiple roster changes, and the focus on future-proofing their CS:GO team, are all big reasons that have contributed to the current state of the organization.
Astralis Knocked Out Of The Top 10
Since entering the top ten HLTV rankings on 21st November 2016, Astralis after more than 3.5 years have dropped out of this bracket as they currently stand 11th on the leaderboard. This is a massive blow for Astralis who have not had a great year so far, managing to win just one tournament ESL One: Road to Rio - Europe.
On the other hand, the organization while expanding its roster by signing multiple players has consistently lost more as the year has progressed.
The Great Fall: Build Up
This year Astralis after taking a decision that they will be future-proofing their CS:GO team by expanding their roster and giving certain players a break so as to combat fatigue and burnout, went ahead and signed their sixth player Patrick “es3tag” Hansen.
Around this time Astralis actually made a lot of noise as discussions related to player substitutions in-game and during a particular tournament were sparked throughout the community. Many also believed that this move will allow Astralis to secure an additional layer of strategy where they can use some players for specific situations and maps.
As these discussions were dying out, the Danish organization once again caught everyone’s attention by announcing the signing of Jakob "JUGi" Hansen as their official seventh player. The reason for this move became clear a week later when Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander announced his temporary departure from Astralis due to prolonged stress and burnout, two days after Astralis had won ESL One: Road to Rio - Europe.
JUGi signed by Astralis as their seventh playerThe Great Fall: Crash And Burn
This was the start of the collapse. Though Astralis was prepared for this move losing out on an experienced IGL was a big setback, to top it off just a week later even Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth announced his momentary pause from competing in CS:GO.
The problem was that this time around Astralis was not prepared for it, out of the blue and without prior discussion Xyp9x had taken a break due to fatigue, just three days before BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown.
In a hurry, Astralis had to play the next two crucial tournaments with Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer playing for them temporarily. With two of their experienced players out, it was impossible to build the required team chemistry to perform well in these tournaments.
Poor results in consecutive tournaments, multiple roster shuffles, missing out on a Major qualifier, and going into the player break not having competed in a tournament for more than a month, are the reasons behind Astralis breaking a 43-month streak of staying in the HLTV top ten.
Recently in a podcast with HLTV Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz had said that gla1ve might be returning to Astralis in August. This could mean that we might see a slightly better Astralis post the player break, but as Xyp9x is still out of action with no news about his return Astralis will have a lot of catching up to do.
