It’s only been one day since Fnatic’s grand victory at DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019, but Astralis’ in-game leader Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander has already detailed some complaints about the playing conditions at the tournament in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV2.
Astralis were knocked out of the playoffs in the semifinals against Fnatic, where gla1ve said that they could hear the casters in the background and when the team was talking to each other. As a result, it was hard for the teammates to communicate well without having extra information distracting them.
Gla1ve also compared the DreamHack tournament to ESL events, where he said the environment is a lot better. The headphones at ESL events “completely shut out” sound and the players can only hear each other and the game, which effectively reduce stress, according to gla1ve.
But gla1ve isn’t placing all of the blame on the sound issues. Since Astralis were experiencing these sound problems, it also means that Fnatic were suffering from the same issues on their end. The 24-year-old admitted that “[they] always have to be able to perform” because Fnatic were able to persevere and outplay them to move forward in the tournament.
Sound issues can be one of the worst problems to run into at a CS:GO event because of how important sound cues can be for players. Although Astralis dropped out of DreamHack Malmö early, they’ll be hunting for revenge at their next event.
