What has Farlig brought to Astralis?

Just how much have the Danes benefitted from their newest arrival?

Astralis have been on an upswing in form ever since Asger "⁠Farlig⁠" Jensen joined, of that there can be no doubt. With Philip "⁠Lucky⁠" Ewald, the current roster had a 46% map win rate. Since the arrival of Farlig, the Danes have posted just shy of a 60% win rate. Astralis went from crashing out early of Funspark ULTI Finals and IEM Katowice to the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 15 and strong showings at the RMR and BLAST Spring Showdown.

The individual players have also improved dramatically, more than one might expect simply due to the team winning more: Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's rating went from 1.16 to 1.22, with Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke experiencing an even sharper rise, from 1.06 to 1.16. Farlig himself has outperformed the man he replaced significantly, 1.05 to Lucky's 0.92.

It seems undeniable then that the Danes have found a more successful formula with Farlig in the lineup, but what exactly does this improved version of Astralis look like?

As usual, a quick look at the stats can point us in the right direction and show us where to look for answers. Whilst the T side statistics are comparable before and after Farlig's edition, if slightly improved, the Astralis CT side has come on leaps and bounds; struggling to break a 50% round win previously, the team posted 60%+ during Pro League, the RMR and BLAST Spring Showdown. From this information we can glean two key, if fairly apparent, conclusions: Farlig's arrival has caused the Danes' CT side to flourish and resulted in a far more modest improvement in their offence.

Marginal changes to the offence

Let us look to the Astralis attack first and foremost. They are a reasonably structured team, one that will usually undertake a methodical default to take map control before allowing their star players to look for plays, namely k0nfig and blameF. On the Terrorist side, Farlig and Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth will usually perform supportive roles, either by aiding their stars in whatever they are doing or by throwing grenades. For a particularly prevalent example of this, one only needs to examine the Astralis T side on Nuke; more often than not, Farlig is the man sat behind his team with flashbangs or a smoke in hand.

Little has changed from the Lucky iteration of Astralis to now in that aspect. Rarely, if ever, do the Danes try and play around their AWPer on their T side. Whilst Farlig is likely an upgrade in firepower and certainly an upgrade in terms of tier-one experience, he is not given much agency or room to affect the offensive halves of his team, and as such their approach is quite similar. The one area where Farlig is contributing positively in attack is in the late round; he is more comfortable and effective in clutch situations than even Lucky was (this was actually one of his strengths), posting multiple successful clutches in every event that he has attended to date with his new team.

Whilst a small improvement in clutching is certainly a benefit, it is likely that the main benefit Astralis will have seen with Farlig is his added experience when compared to Lucky; Farlig has simply played more tier-one CS than his counterpart. To the eye test the former FunPlus Phoenix AWPer seems more comfortable in his role on the offence, moves quicker around the map to react to unfolding events, and finds more ways to effectively contribute to rounds. Considering he not only has more experience, but experience playing with international rosters, where communication would not have been quite as effective as playing in his native tongue, it is unsurprising that Farlig is more self-sufficient even in a supportive role.

A new layer to the CT side

The Counter-Terrorist side is where Astralis have seen the biggest immediate improvement, and the aforementioned point about experience and self-sufficiency applies here as well, to Farlig's credit, but there are deeper structural improvements to be discussed when examining the Danes' defensive halves.

Consistent with Astralis' overall structure and approach, blameF and k0nfig tend to get the high action, high impact spots on the map on defence. Generally they both play towards the centre of the map, albeit with slightly different styles; blameF likes to play spots with more rotation possibilities, whereas k0nfig seems more comfortable in positions that call for a turret/battering ram approach. Either he multifrags from where he stands, or he can push aggressively to find those kills. Xyp9x will always be the small-site anchor, whilst Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander tends to facilitate what the team needs, either anchoring a site, pushing aggressively or supporting his teammates. Farlig has undertaken what I like to call the "middle-man" role within the team; he will at times play to what the team requires, at other times he will be more proactive and assertive in his play.

Often, Farlig will get some of the "better" spots on CT side, usually playing towards the centre of the map like k0nfig and blameF, but he will also at times perform a more utilitarian role in defensive rounds. A perfect example of this would be Mirage, where you may find Farlig locking down an angle from CT with a passive AWP hold, or you might find him aggressively contesting middle with the support of his teammates, or you might see him pushing A ramp with gla1ve to contest map control and find information. He seems to perfectly understand the Astralis approach to defence, which tends towards finding out where the T side are and seeking to "contain" them; this is in contrast to, for example, committing to constant flank attempts, or more passive approaches.

The fundamental difference between Farlig on the CT side and Lucky is that the latter essentially just filled gaps, was very rarely proactive, and generally preferred not to be involved in any dynamic manoeuvres on the map. Not only does Farlig have more impact personally, finding impact frags, looking for information and constricting the opponent's offence, but he has more impact in supporting his teammate's aggressive plays; you can often find Farlig proactively rotating to support his teammates. Combine these traits with the fact that Farlig is simply more effective as a pure AWPer (he has posted 0.30 AWP kills per round across three events in 2022, where his counterpart only managed 0.28 with roughly the same sample size), and you have a much more potent defence coming from the Danes. In a meta where the AWP is so important, this should be unsurprising.

A rejuvenated map pool

A final note to mention in favour of Astralis' improvement with Farlig is their map pool. The Danes were struggling mightily for a decent map pool prior to Farlig's arrival, with woeful win rates on their two most played maps Mirage and Nuke, 30.8% and 46.2% respectively. Their only good map was Ancient, with Inferno and Overpass being coinflip maps for the squad. Now, not only do they play all seven maps after having dropped Vertigo as a perma-ban, but they are posting strong win rates on many maps, like 70% and 75% on Ancient and Nuke. Their only losing win rates are on Inferno, Vertigo and Dust2, but with small sample sizes and considering the opponents, only Dust2 is particularly concerning.

Astralis have benefitted hugely from the arrival of their new AWPer in pretty much every sense. They are performing better as a team, the players individually have found better form and their map pool is stronger and deeper. It all seems to be getting better with each passing event as well, their overall round win rate going from 50.1% at EPL 15 to 52.3% at the RMR to 61% at BLAST Spring Showdown. With this kind of upward trajectory apparent and the Major just around the corner, those in the know will be looking to Astralis as a dark horse to go deep in the Major. Who knows, maybe they are peaking just in time to seriously contend for the title? Either way, the Danes are finally back on the right track, with a team that just might be able to honour the legacy of the Astralis name.