What has happened to Astralis? Earlier in the year, they seemed set to build on an impressive IEM Cologne 2023 run. Instead, it’s been a waking nightmare ever since, with terrible result after terrible result compounding on this team’s mental state.

Now, after being eliminated from the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023, everything seems set to come to a head.

Credit: AstralisCS on Twitter

The stavn and jabbi Effect

It’s no secret that playing good Counter-Strike is harder amidst serious roster rumors. The Heroic CS2 drama has rumbled on for ages now, and the result seems to be a deal set in stone for jabbi and stavn to join Astralis. Staehr and b0RUP will seemingly move to the bench, and with how those two played throughout the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023, you could tell they were aware of the possibility.

With jabbi and stavn, Astralis will definitely be a force again. But here at BLAST, their looming shadow did more harm than good.

Two Terrible Comebacks

Credit: AstralisCS on Twitter

Astralis’ run at the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023 will be defined by two of the biggest throws you’ll ever see in professional Counter-Strike happening back-to-back. Yesterday, in their opener against Complexity, they held a 12:2 lead, needing a single round to see out the map. Astralis’ blameF was getting loud, screaming “You’re behind 11:2 – you might want to go for this!” in response to a Complexity save. Ironically, it was that saved Galil that sparked the comeback, with Astralis losing 14(!) straight rounds to lose both map and series. No doubt, blameF will be hearing those words in his sleep.

So surely, it couldn’t happen again, right? Wrong. Heroic were up next, and Astralis took a commanding 8:0 lead on Vertigo. Then, like a light switch, something flipped. They lost another 13 rounds in a row, falling 8:13 against their biggest rivals. This sort of thing can completely shatter a team’s mental game. To have it happen back-to-back to such a volatile roster is truly a killer blow, the type where you just know it’s their last game together.

What’s Next For Astralis?

It’s hard to imagine a world where Astralis don’t instantly announce stavn and jabbi now. They’ve got the BetBoom Dacha 2023 in December, their only officials left for this year. Astralis are a team built to win, and they’ll want to put their new roster together as soon as possible. This was just sad to watch.