When you think about dominance in the CS:GO scene, only one team comes to mind right now—Astralis. The Danish powerhouse have been unanimously the best team that we’ve seen in recent memory and they’re one of the best Counter-Strike teams of all-time. This past year has been a testament to Astralis’ incredible staying power as the world’s No. 1 team—they’ve officially kept that position in the HLTV rankings for a whole year.
After changing up its roster at the beginning of 2018, Astralis looked to change its fortunes a bit as it pushed through into the later months of the year. No one could have expected that adding Emil “Magisk” Reif to replace Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye would propel the team to superstardom.
Starting from their victory at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018, the team began their climb to become the best we’ve ever seen. In their last 22 major or premier events, Astralis have captured 15 titles, including the FACEIT London Major in 2018 and the recent 2019 Katowice Major.
Last year, Astralis even won the elusive Intel Grand Slam championship, which is awarded to the first team that wins four ESL or DreamHack Masters events out of 10 consecutive events on the year.
Now, Astralis look to march on their destructive path toward another dominating year by continuing to build on their brilliance since 2018. Astralis have to constantly stay hungry and avoid getting complacent, which is a problem that always seems to plague top teams. Their most recent defeat at BLAST Pro Series Miami should provide them with enough fire to want to come back stronger at their next event, though.
