Why Astralis failed in Challengers Stage

Astralis totally rebuilt the squad in preparation for PGL Major Antwerp 2022. Back in 2021, the team changed two players, and before the tournament signed a new sniper. However, the new line-up failed even with the Challengers Stage. What caused the failure?

In order to determine the reasons for the failure, it is necessary to consider the matches that the team played. It is worth immediately excluding the IHC match from the list of games, as the opponent was convenient for Astralis. In none of the other matches, the Danish team was able to score a rating higher than 5.9. This score was obtained in the match with MIBR, and this is the second game that Astralis won. In the rest of the clashes, the team scored a rating from 5.3 to 5.8. However, who exactly failed in these matches?

The only Astralis player who has never failed during the tournament is blameF. Moreover, the Dane became the best Challengers Stage player with an average rating of 7.3. And if we talk about all the other players, none of them has ever scored a rating higher than 6. The worst player in terms of rating was Xyp9x. If we exclude the match with IHC, then the average rating of Xyp9x becomes 4.85, which is a disastrous result. At the same time, it cannot be said that the Dane played the role of support, because according to statistics related to blinding grenades, Xyp9x is in 59th place out of 70.

However, even the failure of Xyp9x did not affect Astralis as much as the uncertain performance of Farlig. The average sniper rating is 5.3, excluding the IHC match. And a sniper is the player who should play the role of a playmaker in most situations. Farlig did not have enough time to adapt to the team and it seemed that the Dane was playing the role of a sniper only at the direction of the captain, without making his own decisions. At the same time, the individual sniper's game also suffers, as evidenced by his KD difference at the tournament - -25.

Should Astralis change the roster after the end of the tournament? Since 4 out of 5 players failed, we can say that the team could not build its game and it is worth starting with working on teamwork. Farlig mostly failed because of the shortage of the time to adapt. Astralis should be given a few more months to adapt to each other, and if the failures continue, then think about changes.