One of the most controversial and discussed incidents in Counter-Strike last year was undoubtedly the drama surrounding BLAST and Astralis’ emergency substitution of Aleksander “br0” Bro at BLAST Fall Final in September.
In an interview with HLTV, Andrew Haworth, VP of Ecosystems at BLAST, addressed the disputed saga, admitting there have been “clear learnings” for the powerful tournament organizer.
Haworth explained that the episode forced BLAST to confront procedural gaps, leading to significant changes in their handbook:
– There were clear learnings for us from this. We changed the format of how rosters are submitted and sort of validated. We’ve undertaken a complete holistic review of rosters, substitutions, and emergency substitutions heading into 2025. We released our rulebook at the end of 2024, and people will be able to look at what we’ve done and how we’ve changed that. We had always, until that point, taken the team’s information at face value when they told us things. We never had reason to question it in the past.
Changes have been made
He highlighted two major takeaways from the incident:
– Our two key learnings from this are; that we needed to change processes around this, which we’ve done, and that in this instance we should have brought in ESIC earlier as they are better placed as a third party to investigate conflicting positions between parties.
Haworth also elaborated on a specific change detailed in their updated handbook:
– We’ve taken a completely holistic review of how rosters are submitted for 2025, as detailed in the handbook. Into 2025, we’re inviting rosters, rather than teams, so the process of changing a roster has much more impact on a potential ranking and the team’s attendance at a tournament, he told HLTV.
You can read the entire interview with Andrew Haworth here.
The story short
The Astralis and BLAST controversy unfolded during the BLAST Fall Final when Astralis made an emergency substitution, replacing Aleksander “br0” Bro with Casper “cadiaN” Møller. Astralis claimed br0 was unfit to play, but reports suggested inconsistencies in their reasoning.
The substitution drew backlash from other teams, with several IGLs threatening to boycott media day in protest. BLAST faced criticism for its handling of the situation, as many questioned the transparency and enforcement of its rules.
Following the event, ESIC sanctioned Astralis for breaching integrity guidelines, while BLAST committed to reviewing and revising its processes to prevent similar issues in the future.
