The $1,000,000 tournament in Saudi Arabia this summer will have seven of the current top 10 teams participating in the so-called Esports World Cup 2024 during this summer.

FaZe, NAVI, MOUZ, Spirit, G2, Vitality, and Virtus.pro are the top teams that will be among the favorites to scoop the title as World Cup winners.

Complexity and FURIA are also qualified via their rankings in North and South America, while the remaining six teams were found this weekend through regional qualifiers.

TheMongolz, FlyQuest, MIBR, M80, JijieHao, and Sashi qualified for the tournament with M80 and Sashi being the most surprising teams to find their way through. M80 defeated Team Liquid in the final of the North American qualifier with a solid 2-0 victory. Another disappointing result from Casper 'cadiaN' Møller and his men.

Sashi defeated Eternal Fire in the European closed qualifier winning 2-1. On Overpass Casper 'Cabbi' Jensen drove the Danes to a crushing 13-4 win with an insane 2.23 rating, where the Danish rifler averaged 153.4 in damage per round. The two former Astralis players, Philip "Lucky" Ewald and Mikkel "MistR" Thomsen are also part of the Sashi lineup, which is coached by the controversial figure Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen. 

The Esports World Cup 2024 CS2 tournament will be played from July 17th to July 21st in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Lucky

MistR

The recent news of both OG and Fnatic putting their academy projects on hold came to me at first as a surprise, for me the academy projects as a whole were more successful than what I had expected initially. Their tournaments had a considerable amount of viewership, the players were given exposure and support and, on top of that, top tier players were being produced (as it is shown in both b1t and m0NESY rookie year’s performance).

However, my perspective was that of a spectator, I never stopped to think about how profitable these projects were and the “risk” involved in them. If we look at the players who transitioned the best to tier 1 (m0NESY, b1t, xertioN, JDC, torzsi) we also have to look at the players who had a tough transition.

Just to clarify, a decrease in rating when transitioning into tier 1 is both expected and normal, even the players that I used as examples of a good adaptation to tier 1 suffer from it, therefore, it is not the only indicator to determine if the player managed to adapt or not to the highest level of counter-strike.

The best examples of players not adapting completely to tier 1 are, in my opinion, MistR, ztr, LNZ and phzy, however it is not completely on them that they didn’t manage to adapt. In all cases they were called to fill a gap for the time being, in other words, they were not supposed to be there, which is a completely opposite case to the players that I mentioned did adapt well. In the case of the three ex-NIP players they were called into a team that already had structure and identity problems, which only got worse when device took the mental health break. For MistR it was moreless the same, Astralis was already struggling to find a consistent way to win as they heavily depended on both blameF and k0nfig to have stellar performances and when the latter was let go due to some issues the lack of firepower was more evident than ever, and Astralis knew MistR wouldn’t fill that gap.

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See the pattern yet? When the team wants the player to permanently be part of the roster (G2 signing m0NESY, MOUZ adapting the system to the ex-academy players, Na’Vi trying out b1t before fully introducing him) they end up adapting well to tier 1 and in some cases reaching super-star levels of performance and when the team only promotes the academy players in order to temporarily fill a gap these players are not given the chance nor the necessary support to fully transition.

We have already seen that the academy project can produce plenty of players different in skill and style, and these have varying results that are directly affected by the organization’s commitment on said player, but what about the players that are never called to fill a gap or to be promoted permanently to the main roster? 

Without exact numbers of players and staff’s salaries and how much revenue the team as a whole generates we will never know for sure if the academy projects are profitable or not (or if it is result-dependent). However, the fact that  OG and Fnatic (two well established organizations not only in CS:GO) have decided to put them on hold tells that at the very least it is an investment of both time and money to consider and some organizations might just want to be extra safe.

One can only speculate and hope, maybe they will resume their academy projects in the near future, maybe they won’t, I don’t really know, but I do hope that this is not the beginning of the end for the academy projects as a whole because I think they are really healthy for the professional scene and offer unique opportunities.

phzy

Natus Vincere

Fnatic

MOUZ

Ninjas in Pyjamas

G2 Esports

While the best teams of the year compete at BLAST World Finals, Astralis is preparing for the next season by participating in the CCT Central Europe Series 4.

Here Astralis received a direct invitation to the playoffs alongside teams such as BIG, forZe, and GamerLegion. In their Round of 16 match, Astralis was matched with their countrymen from ECSTATIC. On Mirage and Ancient, it was two very good T-sides that paved the way for Astralis for a 16-10, 16-9 win. 

Top fragger was once again Benjamin "blameF" Bremer, while Mikkel 'MistR' Thomsen also played a solid match for the Danes.

[twitchClip:ClearCrazyKittenFloof-LYzrwR6u28U4yqAV]

In the Quarter-Final Astralis will face the winner of 1WIN vs HONORIS.

blameF

Astralis

The goal is clear for Astralis: They need to become a CS:GO powerhouse once again, and be a team that competes for titles and not second places.

The blockbuster signing and return of Nicolai “device” Reedtz look to be a step in the right direction and a necessary investment. However, several experts have stated that bringing back the superstar AWPer is not enough.

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We have asked Niels Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen to take a look at three potential players to take the last spot on the roster, which was left vacant after the release of Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke.

Here are the three players and their player profiles:

Mikkel “Mistr” Thomsen | 18-years-old

MistR is the only player of the three, who already is under contract with Astralis and will therefore be the easiest option to pick. The 18-year-old rifler has already featured for Astralis’ main team at the RMRs and BLAST Fall Showdown as a temporary stand-in following k0nfig’s exit.  

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Staehr is widely considered as one of the hottest prospects in CS:GO right now, and has strived massively ever since his transfer from the lower-ranked Danes OPAA to Sprout in early 2022. Astralis have reportedly already shown interest in signing the promising talent, which Sprout afterwards have declined publicly.  

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Team: Free agent (stand-in at Astralis Talent)

Rating in 2022: 0.78 (against top 50) ((only played 2 maps))

This is more of an unknown quantity for the wider Counter-Strike fan. With that being said, br0 has been playing some very impressive CS:GO as a stand-in for Astralis lately. So good that some Astralis fans, and also NaToSaphiX, have thrown his name into the mix of players who can round off Astralis’ star-studded roster consisting of device, gla1ve, blameF and Xyp9x.

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Staehr

Yesterday, Heroic secured a ticket to the BLAST Premier Fall Final in Copenhagen, Denmark, following a hard-fought 2-0 victory over gla1ve’s troops from Astralis in the Danish derby. By securing a spot in the exciting Fall Finals event, Heroic earned themselves a chance to play in front of a home crowd in the Royal Arena, while denying Astralis the exact same opportunity.

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A player who stole the show in the Danish derby with his good performance, despite losing the match, was Astralis’ young academy player, Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen, who in his debut event with the first team played a big role in getting his team to the grand final. A strong showing from the 18-year-old Dane against his fellow countrymen left Heroic’s captain Casper “cadiaN” Møller very impressed and even made him jump to Twitter after the match to acknowledge the level of Counter-Strike the young academy player has been showcasing throughout the event.

The BLAST Premier Fall Showdown event is scheduled to start on November 23 and will have eight top-tier teams competing for the lion’s share of a $425.000 prize pool. You can read about the event right here:

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cadiaN

Heroic

Yesterday Astralis stunned the CS:GO world by announcing the release of their star rifler Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke due to “personal circumstances”, where k0nfig himself later on confirmed that he was involved in a violent interaction in Malta during ESL Pro League Season 16.

In the k0nfig statement, Astralis also confirmed that they will keep their academy player Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen as a stand-in for the upcoming BLAST Premier Fall Showdown starting next week. Here they will battle strong teams like BIG, Heroic, and Vitality for a spot at BLAST Premier Fall Final which is set to take place in massive Royal Arena located in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

That means the Danes are set to feature the same roster as they did in last week’s Major qualifier, where k0nfig was sidelined due to an ankle injury caused by the above-mentioned events in Malta. At the RMR, Astralis failed to qualify after losses to NIP, Bad News Eagles and forZe.

With Astralis not making it to the Major in Rio de Janeiro later this month, BLAST Premier Fall Final should be one of their main goals to qualify for as it will grant them the possibility to play in front of a packed Royal Arena on home soil. BLAST Showdown will kick off next Wednesday (19th October), where Astralis will start their campaign against Eternal Fire. 

Astralis will field the following roster for BLAST Showdown:

{cflag:DK} Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander

{cflag:DK} Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth

{cflag:DK} Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer

{cflag:DK} Mikkel "⁠MistR⁠" Thomsen (stand-in)

{cflag:DK} Martin "⁠trace⁠" Heldt (coach)

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k0nfig

Astralis Talent

The news of the injury for Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke hit hard in the Danish camp before the RMR tournament for IEM Rio starts next month. 

The chances of qualifying for the Rio Major looked difficult even before the injury, while the absence of Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke could seal the deal of Astralis not making it to the Major. An almost unfathomable thought. Mikkel "MistR" Thomsen was registered as a substitution before the injury, and now the 18-year-old Astralis Talent player will have to deliver on the big stage to fill out the shoes of k0nfig. But maybe Astralis has been hit by a little luck after all?  Our CS:GO analyst, Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen has looked at the demos of MistR, and found that he actually played a lot like k0nfig.

You can see it for yourselves in the video below.

Astralis face NIP in the first round of the RMR tournament next month.

MistR will be stepping in on the main roster for the RMR qualifier as k0nfig is out with a foot injury that he got shortly after Astralis failed to qualify for the ESL Pro League Season 16 playoffs. This will be a very tough challenge for the Astralis team, but they are hopeful and believes that MistR can get the job done.

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MistR is an 18-year-old Dane who plays for the Astralis Talent, For the past 3 months, he has had a 0.95 rating 2.0.

As MistR joins the Astralis first team, the 32-year-old cajunb will replace MistR on the Astralis Talent roster until k0nfig is back in action for the first team. Cajunb played under the Astralis banner doing the 2016 MLG Columbus where he and his old team members device, dupreeh, Xyp9x, and karrigan got 3-4th place.

cajunb

Yesterday Astralis revealed that Kristian “k0nfing” Wieneke is set to miss the upcoming Major qualifier on Malta due to a “complicated ankle fracture”. Tough news for the Danish side who already have struggled massively after the summer break.

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Following Monday’s news, some people in the community questioned why k0nfig couldn’t compete “just because” of an ankle injury. But that is something, the Astralis rifler quickly explained on his Twitter saying he needs to undergo an ankle operation.

- Great. Surgery needed and the doctors tell me I won't be able to sit upright for long periods of time the next 10-14 days. GL [Good luck] MistR, k0nfig wrote on Twitter.

The Regional Major Ranking tournament for the RIO is set to begin in 14 days with the European edition being divided into two groups. Astralis is placed in Group A alongside strong teams like Cloud9, NIP, Fnatic, and the world leaders from FaZe.

If Astralis has hope of qualifying for the Major, they need to place within the Top 8 out of the 16 attending teams. Something, which can be extremely tough now when they are forced to play with their academy player Mikkel "MistR" Thomsen instead of k0nfig.

Astralis’ first match is against NIP and will be played on October 4th.

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Astralis Talent won 2-1 against MASONIC yesterday at the Grand Final of the MistGames Heroies of Tomorrow tournament.

The win was established on Inferno, where Mikkel 'MistR' Thomsen took matters into his own hands by winning a 1vs4 clutch. The young Dane used both guns and utility to secure the round for Astralis Talent.

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

MistR

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