De hjerteligste hilsner til alle! Ha' en goddag!
Respect all the good players. It's okay to be a fan, but not okay at all to be a hater. In the quest for "who's better?", we miss out on appreciating the good. Don't be like that. Peace.

Edit-1: Due to increasing work-responsibilities and some pleasant changes in my personal life, I will rarely be available on HLTV, for a while :D

Note about me:
1) Education - Computer Science and Engineering Major.
2) Profession - SDE-2 at Microsoft, Lyngby, Denmark.
3) I am a total stats-nerd :D
4) 24 years old - Male. Height - 1.88M. Weight - 82 KG
5) Haven't played CS in 2 years, but I like to follow the professional scene, since I love the game. Faceit elo when I quit - 2197. Max Faceit Elo - 2488. Nearly 3.5K hours in CSGO. Primarily played 5-stack with friends, for casual entertainment/relaxation.
6) Love Tennis, Badminton, Football, Debating, Reading Novels, Listening to all genres of music, Gymming, Swimming, and of course, engaging with esports xD Also love problem solving, chess, solving puzzles, and competitive programming. I am also quite interested in Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies, in addition to ML, High-performance computing, modelling and simulation.
7) I also like to remain in sync with the global financial world, being an active investor in stocks, ETFs, and various sorts of Mutual Funds.


A - WHY I LIKE ASTRALIS:
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Astralis is one of my most favourite teams of all time. Here's my few words on them - The GOAT team of CSGO.

Disheartening Prologue:
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In the past, particularly till 2017, Astralis' core used to be a laughingstock in the community. Sometimes they play on the map they’re strong at, gain commendable leads like 14–7, 15–11 or 12–5, only to choke hard and lose their map pick. Karrigan and TSM character seemed ingrained into the core. The core that had existed since CPH Wolves - dupreeh, device, and Xyp9x. They did win a few events and were heavy favourites in quite a few tournaments, but they went for disappointing exits, sometimes they fell against tier 2 teams.

The Astralis Core reaches a tumultuous point:
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Then came 2018!

They participated in Eleague Boston Major 2018 as defending champion of the last Eleague Major at Atlanta. Astralis were the heavy favourites once again but, they tragically crashed out 1–3 in the Swiss Groups. Disappointing result in the Major, the team did undergo a major overhaul, in what would become an everlasting meme and the move that established the GOAT of CSGO - they replaced Markus “Kjærbye” Kjærbye for Emil “Magisk” Reif.

Rest is history!

The Core laying the foundation to become GOAT:
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The first trimester of 2018 was a struggle for the number one. FaZe, Mousesports, Fnatic simultaneously won an event or played in the finals, back and forth between number 1 team in the world back then. In the meantime, Brazilian Gods of SK Gaming start to disintegrate. IEM Katowice sees Astralis with new roster, go into semifinal, only to fall short 0–2 to FaZe who were eventually defeated by Fnatic in the final.

Astralis ERA begins:
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The Real Astralis era: https://m.imgur.com/a/Oj5Pj6Z

Dreamhack Masters Marseille 2018. This is where the dominance began. They smashed Fnatic, they obliterated FaZe and NaVi in the final. Swept all of them in the best of three series with their efficient, effective and decisive gameplan. Even against 2018 prime s1mple (https://www.hltv.org/stats/players/7998/s1mple?startDate=2018-01-01&endDate=2018-05-01) and Electronic, Astralis just steamrolled everyone in their path.

They went on to win 12 of the next 16 big events in a row

• Won ESL Pro-League 7 and ECS Season 5, they dismantled FaZe in semis and Liquid in final in the process
• Won ELEAGUE Premier by once again beating Liquid in final after dismantled Mousesports prior in semi
• Won FACEIT Major, showcases the most ever dominant play by single-team in the run. 16–0?d MIBR (first ever 16–0 in Major history), sweep their way to win their second major. 2–0, 2–0, 2–0 against FaZe, Liquid and NaVi in the final.
• IEM Chicago they paid their revenge against North. Miraculously saved match point down against Fnatic in thrilling semifinal comeback and once again swept Liquid aside 3–0 in bo5 final

The Intel Grand Slam:
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One tournament short to become first ever team completing Grandslam and $1.000.000…

ESL Pro League Season 8 is where history was written.

City: Odense, Denmark. In pursuit of Grand Slam and $1.000.000 on their homesoil.

For fourth time to play Liquid, they must win in front of Danish fans.

Maps picked: Train (A). Mirage (L). Inferno (A). Dust2 (L). Overpass (decider)

First map: Astralis’ sloppiness punished. Liquid dominate their opponents map-pick. 16–8 for Liquid. 1–0 Liquid

Second map: Liquid starts well 4–0. Astralis fight back to lead 6–4. But Liquid close their CT half 9–6. Mirage has been a backyard of very strong Astralis CT side all along, Liquid’s T side collapsed.
In-Game-Leader Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander lead by example, topping the fragging table. The Danes equalised 1–1

Third map: Once again, why Astralis is the best team in the world right now. Their CT and T sides are excellent as all of Astralis ended the map without negative K-D ratio. Liquid’s mentalities crumble. Astralis took a 2–1 lead along with crowd cheers

Fourth map: Dust2. The map who traditionally where the Terrorist side have slight advantage over CT ones, Astralis starts as CT, but they hang-on trail by only 1 round, 7–8. Switch side, Astralis’ T side are monster, Nicolai “device” Reedtz back into his awping groove, their offense overrun Liquid CT side. Comeback complete. 16–10

3–1 Astralis

Grandslam Champions! First ever team to win $1.000.000!

HLTV Top20 Rankings:
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They are also first and only team ever to have all of their players into HLTV Top20, and practically all 5 of them were Top10

13th. xyp9x; 8th. gla1ve; 7th. Magisk; 5th. dupreeh; 2nd. device

That is why it is so damn difficult to do what Astralis did. Every single piece was perfect!

The last half of Astralis Era (2019) :
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They actually won so many events that it gets "boring" at one point xD. I'll mention the Major though.

The most dominant team effort at any Major - IEM Katowice 2019. 1.24 team Rating (even higher than Navi's 1.23 Major Rating at PGL Stockholm 2021). They picked up their third Major title, becoming the second team in CS:GO history to take home three Major titles, and the third to win two majors back-to-back. They then went through the New Champions stage without dropping a single map, beating Ninjas in Pyjamas, MIBR, and finally ENCE to secure the Major win.

The late summer of 2019 marked the end of Astralis era. They were still the best team in the world, but the flame was no longer as brighter. Needless to say, Legends NEVER die! They remained the Top1 team of 2018, 2019, and 2020, in a row.

Notable Achievements of Astralis:
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• 28 Trophies
• 24 LANs
• 4 Majors
• 1 Grand Slam
• Almost all 5 Players in HLTV Top10 (2018 Prime Astralis)
• Top1 team of 2018, 2019, and 2020
• Only team to win 3 majors in a row
• 41 total rounds lost across 3 major finals, with 0 maps dropped.
• Highest Rated Major-winning team - 1.24 (Katowice 2019)
• Map Win-streak - 31 maps on Nuke, in a row.
• Big Event Win-streak - 6 big events in a row.
• Highest Earning Team in CSGO history. Astralis have $8,165,634 in winnings.
• 58 weeks as Top1 in a row (max Top1 streak ever).
• Astralis as a team have reigned as #1 on the HLTV rankings for 104 weeks in total.

Notable Achievements of Astralis Core Players:
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• device - 8 Top20, 6 Top5, 5 Top3, 1 Top2, 19 MVPs, 2 Major MVPs
• dupreeh - 7 Top20, 3 Top10, 1 Top5, 2 MVPs
• Magisk - 4 Top20, 2 Top10, 2 MVPs, 1 Major MVP
• Gla1ve - 1 Top20, 1 Top10, 1 MVP
• Xyp9x - 4 Top20, 1 MVP
• The core of device, dupreeh, and xyp9x have reigned as #1 for 106 weeks total. This is, by far, the most of any organization or core.
• The legendary core of device, dupreeh and xyp9x:
> Is the only core to have never dropped out of the HLTV top30. The lowest they ever dropped was #15.
> is the only core to have been ranked as #1 for at least 1 week every year since the rankings were made. (2015-2020)
> is the longest persisting core ever, having lasted a total of 2505 days as of 28-05-2020 as xyp9x took leave and the core was split up.


B - WHY I LIKE NAVI:
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Some people wonder why me, just like so many of my friends here in Copenhagen, really like Navi. As someone who has grown up playing CS since 6 years of age, and surrounded by people who love CS, I've been watching CS for a very long time, ever since CS1.6. I first came across Navi in 2009.

• Navi has been a Top10 team for the last 12 years, in a row. So many orgs and teams all around, but one of them is not like the others. Navi is one of the most consistent rosters in all of Counter-Strike history.
• They made 6 Major Finals out of the last 7 Majors in CS1.6, and won 4 Majors in a row. I have been a fan ever since.
• They always had some of the best players - Edward and Markeloff in 1.6, to Flamie and GuardiaN in mid-CSGO, to s1mple and Electronic since the past few years.
• In CSGO: Nearly 50 Tier-1 GrandFinals, 25 Trophies, 21 LANs, 1 Major, 1 Grand Slam.

S1MPLE:
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s1mple is hands-down the Best Player of all time:

1) 5 times Top1/Top2 player in the world, IN A ROW (World Record) - 3 times Top1 (World Record)
2) 8 MVPs in 1 year (World Record)
3) 21 MVPs in total (World Record)
4) 17 Trophies (including 2x Cologne, 1x Katowice, 1x Pro League, 2x BLAST World Finals, and tons more)
5) 1 Major + 1 Major MVP
6) 1 Grand Slam
7) 3 times Esports PC Player of the year
8) 1 time Esports Player of the year
9) Legendary CSGO Graffiti
10) Highest Rating in a Major, in all of CSGO history.
11) Highest Rated Player in all of Tier-1 CSGO history
12) Highest Rated Player in "Big Events" in all of CSGO history
13) Highest Rated Player in Tier-1 LAN Events, in all of CSGO History.
14) 2nd Highest Rated Player across MAJORS, in all of CSGO history.
15) Tons of statistical world records (too many to list, so just putting a few notable ones here):
> First player in CSGO history to win MVP/EVP in literally every event attended in the year, with green stats (+5% above average) in every single stat category/component.
> Most Aces at a big event in CSGO history.
> Most clutches at a big event in CSGO history.
> In Tier-1 CSGO: Highest Annual Big events rating in CSGO history, Highest playoffs rating in CSGO history, highest annual Impact Rating in CSGO history, Highest annual ADR in CSGO history, highest annual LAN Rating in CSGO history.
> Nearly 100 tournaments (almost 6 years in a row) without any negative-rated/below-average event (World Record).
> 1.30+ Annual Rating for 4 years (World Record in Tier-1 CSGO).