Gla1ve’s era is Finished – BlameF’s Time is Coming

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking: 

“But Astralis got top four at Cologne!” 

“They’re top five in the world again!”

Yeah, that’s great, good for them. It doesn’t matter, though, does it? Because whether you like it or not, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander is in his end game.

I could talk about how he’s probably not as bothered about the game as he used to be. Something I don’t blame him for either. Even if we look past the fact that gla1ve is now a father, and that will take up a considerable amount of his time, the Astralis roster is a shadow of what it used to be.

Danny “zonic” Sorensen left and took Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Emil “Magisk” Reif with him, while Nicolai “device” Reedtz is stuck on NIP. Of the team known as the ‘greatest of all time,’ the only remaining is Andreas “xyp9x” Holsjeth. Not the one you’d want to rebuild around.

We won’t even start talking about device’s… ‘replacements.’

In truth, none of that is the reason why gla1ve is finished. Benjamin “blameF” Bremmer is.

Why? Because of the small fact that he is now IGLing on Mirage T sides.

Now I know this won’t seem like a big deal. Astralis never played too much Mirage at the height of their powers, while blameF and Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke made it their home during their time on Complexity. 

But it really is. Gla1ve is supposedly the ‘greatest IGL of all time’ (I’d say it’s Finn “karrigan” Andersen), yet this Astralis team needed a fresh mind to actually feel comfortable on a map.

Where have we heard this before?

Repeating history

Before both gla1ve and karrigan truly made their names as tournament-winning IGLs, there was Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, the Godfather of Brazilian CS, who led his team to first place in both Majors of 2016, MLG Columbus and ESL One Cologne. 

As FalleN’s LG/SK core began to fade, they tried everything to cling to the top: recycling the same few players, forcing those players into roles unsuited for them, but most notably, they allowed Marcelo “coldzera” David – the team’s star – to take over the role of IGLing.

While this change didn’t work out, it was clear by this point that FalleN couldn’t IGL any longer to the same capacity he had once before. The meta had changed, and the veteran AWPer couldn’t adapt.

With blameF taking over on Mirage, one of his more impactful maps, how long is it before he takes over on more maps? 

Astralis showed versus MOUZ that they have an impressive Ancient T side, one of the more challenging T sides in the game. But this is another map with a high blameF impact rating, as is Overpass.

Bar that game against MOUZ in the Cologne quarter-finals; Mirage results have improved since blameF started calling the T sides at Roobet Cup. They even took NAVI to a close overtime game on the map in the semi-finals.

If Astralis stagnate and slip down the rankings again, how long will it be before blameF takes over on those maps too? Or maybe even on maps, he struggles to be as impactful on, such as Inferno or Dust 2?

K0nfig seems happy with his calling, as he said in an interview with HLTV, stating that he likes the ‘riskier plays’ and the ‘faster rounds.’

That’s not something gla1ve is known for, and if it suits the current Astralis better, so much so that blameF has to take over on more maps… what’s gla1ve there for anyway?