Look Sports Media – Astralis has become the first casualty of ESL Pro League Season 22, suffering a devastating elimination after a series of lackluster performances culminating in a defeat against FaZe Clan. The Danish squad’s struggles were evident as they bowed out of the tournament with a disheartening 0-3 record.
The final nail in the coffin was a one-sided 2-0 loss to FaZe, where Astralis failed to find their footing. Their map pick of Ancient resulted in a 13-7 defeat, followed by an even more disappointing performance on Dust 2, where they couldn’t secure a single round on the T-side. These losses compounded earlier defeats against Aurora and Falcons, sealing Astralis’ fate at the event.
Astralis’ woes on the T-side continued to plague them, particularly in the absence of Martin "stavn" Lund, who is currently on leave due to personal reasons. The team, already struggling to maintain aggression, has lost a key source of firepower. His replacement, Emil "Magisk" Reif, is a player known for his preference for trading rather than initiating plays, further exacerbating the team’s issues.
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Earlier in the tournament, Astralis suffered consecutive games without securing a single T-side round on their own map pick of Nuke against both ENCE and GamerLegion, resulting in 0-12 halves. Against FaZe, HooXi recorded a dismal 2/12 opening K/D record, while jabbi went 2/6 in opening duels. While HooXi is often the "sacrificial lamb" for Astralis, intended to set up trades, the same cannot be said for the rest of the roster.
While some leniency can be afforded to Astralis given the mid-season loss of a key player, fans are unlikely to tolerate prolonged periods of stagnant Counter-Strike. With no confirmed return date for stavn, Astralis must find solutions to their structural problems before the PGL Budapest Major.
Interestingly, FaZe’s stand-in player, Håvard "rain" Nygaard, who was recently benched, delivered a standout performance against Astralis, achieving a 1.64 rating on Dust 2. Rain is only filling in for ESL Pro League Season 22 before Jakub "jcobbb" Pietruszewski takes his place. FaZe was forced to use rain due to the loss of the invited core to the event. Tournament regulations require that the core of the invited roster and the playing roster must be the same, meaning three of the five invited players must attend the event.
While Astralis’ T-side struggles continued against FaZe, their CT-side also faltered against the new duo of David "frozen" Čerňanský and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken. The team must address these issues quickly to avoid further disappointment.
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