Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander is finally back in Counter-Strike after his absence during the ESL One Cologne 2020 Online tournament had more than a few analysts looking at the team with a keen eye as they wondered what the Danish team could possibly have up their sleeve.
Lukas is considered to be one of the best in-game leaders in the world on the professional scene of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive which made his absence the slightest bit stranger.
Yet he had been gone for months at this point, in spite of occasional appearances on social media, and was considered out of the loop regarding to current strategies and tactics that Astralis was developing for the European region of the tourney.
Now, with great fanfare and excitement, Astralis announce that Gla1ve is getting back into the server today with his old team plus Bubzkji, as they battled Complexity in their first showing of the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe.
It didn’t exactly work out as planned; Astralis walked away from a clean-sweep (0-2) after both matches went to overtime, and ended on the same score (17-19) for both Train (Astralis pick) and Dust2 (Complexity pick).
He's back.#ToTheStars I #ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/3LQVB9Fvlw
— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) September 3, 2020
Complexity surely didn’t have the easiest time fighting against an Astralis that seems set to slowly return to form, but they did walk away with the points from the W that all teams are currently keen on amassing prior to the Major that is still scheduled, as far as official announcements go, for November.
es3tag took a step back from the active roster today to make room for the legendary IGL. Bubzkji had a frankly mediocre performance today considering server-wide statistics, yet did maintain two clutch situations (one on each map). Gla1ve was second best for his team on the server considering average damage per round at 68.1; Magisk played the role of hard carry with 80.4.
Going LIVE with the second series of the day and it's a spicy one! 🌶@Complexity vs. @astralisgg
They're into Train NOW!#ESLProLeaguehttps://t.co/ZvDWXMUbM0 pic.twitter.com/WDZvVyKh8p
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 3, 2020
Fans of Astralis have little to be concerned about: Xyp9x is still out on leave and Gla1ve is still clearly getting comfortable again with his role within the team and server. There’s a wealth of time before the Majors, giving Astralis plenty of time to ramp up for the competition.
Questions remain, however, as to whether Xyp9x still has his place on the team considering how well Bubzkji has performed recently with the team; Astralis look set to have two competent fraggers withering on the bench, and their intent of cycling players through to avoid burnout could officially mean that the era of Astralis is finally coming to an end.
It’s up to you whether you believe that.