Astralis is a Danish esports organization. It is most famous for its Counter-Strike 2 team, but it also has teams in other games like FIFA and previously Rainbow Six Siege. The group that owns Astralis is called the Astralis Group. This group previously managed teams named Origen and Future F.C. before combining all teams under the Astralis brand. The Astralis Group was the first esports organization to hold a public stock sale. It was once listed on the stock market with the symbol Nasdaq Copenhagen: ASTRLS. The Astralis Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team has won the most CS:GO Major Championships, with 4 titles.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensivedivision
On January 19, Astralis joined the ELEAGUE Major in the United States. The group stages were held in Atlanta, and the playoffs took place in Boston. Astralis had previously won the ELEAGUE Major and hoped to win again in 2018 after a strong performance in 2017. However, their tournament began with a loss to Mousesports. The Danish team faced challenges but recovered by beating North in a match known as a Danish derby. On the third day, they lost to Fnatic, which left them with no remaining losses to qualify for the playoffs. Astralis was later eliminated by Cloud9, who eventually won the major after defeating FaZe Clan in the grand final.
In February, Kjaerbye left Astralis to join North. Astralis needed a fifth player but quickly signed Emil "Magisk" Reif. This change marked the start of Astralis' rise to the top of the Counter-Strike scene. They finished fourth at StarSeries S4 and lost in the semifinals at IEM Katowice 2018. However, they won the title at DreamHack Marseille 2018 by defeating FaZe Clan, Fnatic, and Natus Vincere. Although they lost to FaZe Clan in the grand final at IEM Sydney 2018, they won the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals by beating FaZe Clan and Team Liquid. They also won trophies at ECS Season 5 Finals and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018, with a semifinal loss to Natus Vincere at ESL One: Cologne 2018.
Astralis won their second Major title at the FACEIT Major: London 2018, defeating FaZe Clan, Team Liquid, and Natus Vincere without losing a single map in the playoffs. Six days later, they won the BLAST Pro Series Istanbul 2018 grand final against MIBR after an undefeated group stage. Their success was due to strong teamwork and high average utility damage per round.
At the IEM Katowice Major 2019, Astralis won their third Major title, becoming the second team in CS:GO history (after Fnatic) to win three Majors and the third to win two Majors in a row. They advanced to the New Champions stage with a 3–0 win in the New Legends stage, beating Complexity Gaming, Cloud9, and Renegades. They then won all their matches in the New Champions stage, defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas, MIBR, and ENCE to win the Major.
Astralis' dominance declined after the IEM Katowice Major 2019, and Team Liquid became the top CS:GO team in the world. In August 2019, Astralis participated in the StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019. They won their first match but lost to NRG Esports in a historic 59-round match. They later defeated CR4ZY and reached the playoffs. Astralis beat Team Liquid in the quarterfinals and NRG Esports in the semifinals. They won the grand final against Avangar, becoming the first team to win three consecutive Majors and the first team with four Major titles total.
In November 2019, Astralis' coach, zonic, won the "Coach of the Year Award" at the Esports Awards 2019.
On March 22, 2020, Astralis expanded their roster beyond five players, a first for CS:GO teams. They signed Patrick "es3tag" Hansen from Heroic, who joined in July. On May 11, they signed Jakob "JUGi" Hansen, who had been benched on North. On May 19, gla1ve took a break due to stress-like symptoms, and JUGi made his debut. Nine days later, Xyp9x also took an indefinite break for mental health reasons. Marko "Snappi" Pfeiffer stood in for Xyp9x until es3tag joined. In July 2020, JUGi was replaced by Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen, and gla1ve returned to the roster four months later.
In September 2020, Astralis Group merged all teams under the Astralis brand.
In October 2020, Astralis fielded es3tag, gla1ve, Dev1ce, Magisk, and Dupreeh to win six matches in a row during the group stages of ESL Pro League S12, with only one loss when Bubzkji replaced es3tag. They later lost to Heroic but defeated Natus Vincere in the grand finals.
After Valve changed major qualifiers to penalize teams using mid-match substitutions, Astralis adjusted their strategy.
In April 2021, Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz left Astralis after five years and joined Ninjas in Pyjamas. During his time with Astralis, dev1ce held the record for most MVP medals in Counter-Strike history with 18.
In July 2021, gla1ve signed a new three-year contract with Astralis through 2024. Later, Astralis signed Philip "Lucky" Ewald, an 18-year-old AWPer who previously played for Tricked.
Astralis failed to reach the playoffs of the PGL Stockholm Major, finishing the Legends group stage with one win and three losses.
On November 4, 2021, Astralis added former Complexity players Benjamin "blameF" Bremer and Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke, along with Alexander "ave" Holdt as the new head coach. Magisk, Dupreeh, and zonic were inactive while waiting for their contracts to expire in January 2022.
In January 2022, Magisk, dupreeh, and zonic left Astralis to join Team Vitality.
On January 31, 2022, Bubzkji was released from his 18-month contract with Astralis. During his time with the team, he played few maps and faced criticism from fans. Bubzkji described the situation as being caught between the team and the organization. He later worked for Danish broadcaster TV2 and did not rule out returning to competition.
On February 22, Asger "Farlig" Jensen was signed as the new primary AWPer, and Lucky was benched.
On May 4, Phillip "Lucky" Ewald announced he would search for new opportunities as his contract with Astralis was set to expire.
On September 20, it was announced that Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke would miss the European Regional Major Ranking due to an injury. Later, on October 10, it was announced that his contract with Astralis would end.
Counter-Strike 2division
Astralis' first tournament after the release of Counter-Strike 2 was the Roobet Cup 2023 in October. They finished 13th to 16th after losing to 9INE and Apeks. The team was invited to the CS Asia Championships 2023 the next month. They qualified for the semi-finals by beating Lynn Vision and ENCE. Astralis was eliminated after losing 2–1 to MOUZ in the semi-finals.
On November 22, 2023, Astralis announced that gla1ve would join the team. Two days later, jabbi and stavn moved from Heroic to Astralis, which caused Buzz and b0RUP to be benched. On January 1, 2024, b0RUP left Astralis after joining Sashi.
Astralis participated in BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024. They reached the group finals by beating Team Falcons and previously defeating Team Vitality. However, they lost to Vitality in the group final and fell to the play-in stage. They then defeated BIG Clan to qualify for BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2024.
Astralis did not qualify for IEM Katowice 2024 after losing to Heroic and ENCE. They also failed to qualify for the PGL Copenhagen Major 2024, the first Valve-sponsored major in Denmark, after losing to 9 Pandas in the last chance qualifier. Many analysts said Astralis had poor performance and lacked leadership. They criticized the team for having Staehr, their youngest and best-performing player in the RMR, conduct the exit interview, which is usually done by senior players. Because of their poor RMR results, Astralis announced on February 28 that they would bench blameF, whose contract ends in 2025. The RMR also marked the end of R0nic’s time as coach. Casper "ruggah" Due, a former OG coach, will coach Astralis in IEM Chengdu 2024.
On February 29, Astralis announced the signing of Alexander "br0" Bro, who previously played for Astralis’ academy team and was part of the Ukrainian organization Monte. They also announced that dev1ce would become the team’s in-game leader after blameF left.
Company
Astralis was first created by a Danish company called RFRSH Entertainment ApS. In November 2018, it was separated into a new company named RFRESH Teams ApS. In November 2019, RFRSH decided to split Astralis apart because of concerns about conflicts between RFRSH and its tournament series, BLAST Pro Series. At the same time, RFRSH changed its name to Blast ApS in July 2019. RFRESH Teams ApS also changed its name to Astralis Group Management ApS and became a fully owned part of a new company called Astralis Group Holding ApS. In November 2019, Astralis Group became the first esports organization to have an initial public offering. After this, Astralis Group Holding ApS was renamed to Astralis Group A/S.
Controversy
In 2019, RFRSH Entertainment faced criticism from the Counter-Strike community because of a possible problem where interests might clash between Astralis and BLAST Pro Series, a tournament organized by RFRSH. RFRSH previously managed Astralis's business and strategy decisions until summer of that year. Astralis missed several tournaments to compete in BLAST Pro Series events. This, along with the fact that some teams had to attend many BLAST events each year, caused controversy. In July, RFRSH announced it would end its partnership with Astralis, though some in the community still criticized RFRSH and BLAST.
In March 2020, the Chinese group FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) was trying to sign the team Heroic, which included a player named es3tag, just before Flashpoint 1 began. Astralis signed es3tag, which made FPX decide not to sign the rest of the Heroic team. FPX was a founding member of Flashpoint, so the Heroic team could not continue in Flashpoint and had to be replaced by a team chosen by FPX. FPX originally planned to use the American team Swole Patrol, but disagreements over naming rights led FPX to use Bad News Bears instead. Astralis was criticized for signing es3tag even though FPX was trying to sign him, and for causing the other Heroic players to not be able to join Flashpoint and sign with FPX.