blameF: "I told k0nfig that I'd like to play with him for the rest of my career"

We spoke to the Astralis newcomer during the media day at BLAST Premier Fall Final to gain some insight into how his move from Complexity is panning out.

Astralis are set to make their first appearance with Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke, Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer, and coach Alexander "⁠ave⁠" Holdt at the BLAST Premier Fall Final on Wednesday, taking on Ninjas in Pyjamas in their opening match at 21:00 . The addition of the former Complexity duo has finally stabilized the Danish team's roster after a lengthy period of uncertainty, and we'll get our first glimpse at how the new composition is looking in short order.

To find out how Astralis are doing ahead of their opening match, HLTV spoke to blameF on media day, during which the 24-year-old shared some insight into his return to a Danish-speaking lineup, and spoke to joining Astralis alongside k0nfig, who will play his first official in over four months after being sidelined due to a wrist injury in August. He also touched on how he is helping take some of the weight off Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's shoulders by helping with preparation and by bringing new ideas to the table during practice.

It's been a pretty rocky couple of months with the end of Complexity, on stream you spoke about a couple of issues with the way the team was when it came to an end. What's it been like for you making the move to Astralis after that whole turbulent era on Complexity?

For me personally, it's been amazing to get to play in Astralis. The way they operate, the way the players think, and the way they handle criticism and all that is just completely different from what I'm used to. They're very focused on fixing mistakes and it's always in a nice way, so I really appreciate the way the practice has been going. Every day I look forward to the next day, and that is something I've been missing a little bit at the end of Complexity, so it's been amazing and hopefully it's going to keep being amazing.

With joining Astralis, you're back on a Danish lineup after being international for the better part of two years. How is it being with your countrymen?

It helps a lot just because we work easier with each other, it's easier to work with other Danish people. You kinda think a little more the same and have a little bit of the same opinions of how to play Counter-Strike. Obviously all Danish players have looked up to Astralis at some point, so even before joining them I knew a little bit about how they played because I've been watching all their demos and all their matches. I's just easy to play with other Danish people, and obviously we also talk in Danish, so that makes it a little bit easier as well.

You stuck together with k0nfig joining this team, was there some sort of talk between you two about joining a lineup together, or how did the move to Astralis as a pair come about?

It wasn't like we were a package deal or anything like that, but I did tell k0nfig very early in Complexity that I would like to play with him for the rest of my career, just because of how nice he is. His attitude toward me has always been so great, and as an IGL I really appreciate that. His playstyle is so aggressive and individually skilled that it's just such an important piece to have on the team, always, that you have one guy like that who can go up against the best aimers in the world easily, so that's just a big plus for me.

When Astralis contacted me I told them that if you guys want me, I would really like to play with k0nfig in my next team, so I told them that, and then in the end he also joined Astralis. Obviously for me it was an easy choice as well.

Speaking of k0nfig's raw aim and individual skill, he had a wrist injury in August. How had his recovery been as far as you've seen?

I think the injury is not going to hurt him in the sense that he has had enough time now to play himself warm again and be good individually, I think more the time off is going to hurt him because he hasn't played in officials for so long. I don't know the exact word for it, but you can get a little bit... not warm, really feel comfortable on the server when you haven't played officials in a long period of time, and he had a little extra time that he didn't play because of that injury. That might hut him a little bit, but k0nfig is k0nfig, he's always going to be insane, I'm not too worried.

Going back to talking about the new lineup, you've also picked up ave. I'm not sure how much time you've actually had to work with him given that I think he's still transitioning from his old job, but what has that experience been like, even in a limited capacity so far?

As you said, I haven't worked too much with him because of other stuff, but the short amount of time I have talked to him and worked with him, he's been great. Just the kind of coach I like. He's very tactical, it's really nice to have a guy that really wants to go into the details, that helps me a lot because that is something I appreciate a lot as well, maybe because I've been a caller.

I really appreciate going in and really trying to figure out how we make a round even 5% better, or how we make this system a little bit better, so I think that's very nice from him. He's just such a good guy, I don't think he's going to cause any problems, he has such a good attitude, he's really nice giving criticism, I just think he's a great guy.

Delving a little more into the IGL situation, you said towards the end of Complexity you wouldn't mind not being the primary caller, if I recall correctly.

I said I would do whatever my next team wanted, it's not like I have to call. If a team wants me to rifle and I feel like that's the best role for me, then I will do that, but if a team contacted me and said hey I want you to IGL, I would be down to do that as well, so it's more like I would do anything my next team prefers to make sure that I fit into a nice team with good roles.

Okay so with that in mind, what's the breakdown on Astralis between you and gla1ve, obviously he's the IGL but how is that dynamic unfolding?

Yeah obviously gla1ve is the caller, he's the guy that's calling on the server, and I try to have a really good attitude in the sense that I try to not mess with his calling. I really want to make sure that he is comfortable before I try to come in and add a lot of stuff and all that, but I have tried to help him a lot with preparation for practices, I feel like I've come in with a lot of new stuff and sending him new stuff that he can get inspired by. I let it be up to him if he wants to use it or not, but I try to every day come with a lot of stuff for him so he doesn't have to do too much work other than calling.

I know for myself how it is to call, sometimes it can be a lot of pressure on you, so it's nice, I would've liked as well when I was calling if someone came with ideas or something like that, so I feel like that's what I'm trying to help him with right now.

Astralis have been talking a lot about helping Lucky improve and develop as a player, so what is your impression of him coming into the team so far and how are the roles looking?

Obviously I don't want to talk too much about roles and stuff because we haven't played yet. I think Lucky is a great guy, I'm very impressed with how calm he is, I don't think he's a guy that gets stressed out or anything like that. He just does whatever the team needs. It's not like he has a big ego or he's trying to prove himself to the world, like 'I'm the best in the world' or something like that, he just tries to fit into the system and help the team.

How much practice time have you actually had coming into this event, and what're your expectations given some of the other teams that are here?

We haven't had much practice time, I think we had a total of 11 practice days if I'm not mistaken. We had just enough to go through a map pool, get some maps going, but obviously we haven't had that much time to really prepare anything. Saying my expectation for the event is always hard because you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot if you say something too high, but I think it's okay to have high expectations but also be alright with not accomplishing them for the first event here.

I'm hoping and a little bit expecting that we're going to do well, maybe win a couple of matches, at least do some upsets, but I would also be okay if it doesn't happen and we don't look that good because I understand that without much practice time and without much time together, it's going to be hard against some of these teams. Obviously playing against a team like NAVI or NIP that's doing really well, or are top five in the world, that's going to be a little rough.

You're also guaranteed to play in front of a home crowd on Friday, how does that feel especially with being able to represent Astralis there?

It's going to be amazing, I haven't played in front of a big Danish home crowd yet so that's going to be awesome, I'm really looking forward to it. I'm getting a lot of messages that a lot of people are still going to cheer for Astralis even though they lost half the team, so that's amazing to hear. I'm just hoping that we can make the Danish fans proud.