blameF: "We are trying to make Lucky as comfortable as possible"

In our latest interview from IEM Katowice, Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer discusses Astralis' issues as of late and addresses community criticism concerning his role in the team.

Ever since Astralis debuted their new lineup with blameF and Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke at the BLAST Premier Fall Final and made a great impression in their first appearance, the Danish powerhouse squad have struggled to make their mark.

Before the winter break began, the team went out early at IEM Winter and at the BLAST Premier World Final, and since competition returned in 2022 they suffered losses to K23 and Entropiq in the Funspark ULTI Finals and were unable to make it through the BLAST Spring Groups after conceding matches to OG and BIG.

To find out what's been going wrong in the Danish camp, we talked to one of the newest additions, blameF, at IEM Katowice, where Astralis advanced from the Play-in stage but now find themselves in the Group B lower bracket, having lost the opening series to FURIA and passed ENCE in a tight match.

The 24-year-old addressed issues Astralis have been facing with individuals not showing up at times and spoke about what the team has been work in on to get out of the rut.

What are your thoughts on why you've been struggling?

We haven't had any individuals show up enough, I think. I think the first tournament we had, we had a lot of individuals playing really good, and we got third place or something. That was a great tournament for us, but we still knew back then that our T sides weren't very good and there was stuff to fix, but the individuals showed up enough that we actually played up against the best teams in the world.

I think we had a drop off that in the tournaments after that. I think it just ruined some of the players' confidence, honestly. I think that's one of the biggest parts, but then obviously we still don't play very well together teamplay-wise and on the T side and stuff like that. There's still other stuff to fix, but I would say the biggest thing right now is that we're lacking some individuals in some of the matches. It's different from match to match who doesn't show up.

Touching on that, one of the players who has been the most criticized in the past couple of months is k0nfig, especially because of the great level he was at during the Fall Final. Is his drop-off something you've tried to address?

I think it's a very honest and open team in that sense. We have had talks where we just ask people 'is it because of this that you don't play good individually, or what's the reason, is it because of the calls, because of the setups, is it mid-round... what is it that makes it hard for you to perform as good as we need you to?' We've done that with multiple players in the team.

So yeah, with him [k0nfig] it might a bit of the confidence thing because he's a guy who likes to play on his intuition and feel the game. So maybe if his confidence isn't as high, then he maybe doesn't take those hard decisions in the middle of the map. I feel like it's been better at this tournament than it's been in the previous ones, but I think it was some confidence issue maybe.

Were there any changes in regards to how you approach his role?

It's not like it's been a sudden change, that we've had to change all the strats or anything like that. I think it's more a way of gla1ve calling in the sense that k0nfig has a lot of different options. He doesn't want to feel locked into having to do something, I think, so in a lot of rounds he has a lot of freedom, I think personally. It's more a conversation, if he wants to do something, then gla1ve is very good at calling around that, or adapting that to the rest of the map, or adapting the end call of the round to it.

What is your response to the criticism that you're too disconnected from the team, or too passive or bait too much at times?

It is what it is. I can't really change people's opinion about me. I feel like before the break, when I joined Astralis I was playing way more aggressive on T sides, and I didn't really get much criticism there. But the team came to me and told me like 'hey, we want you to switch all your positions on T side,' so it's hard for me outside positions and still be aggressive and still do a lot of stuff, I feel like. If that's what the team needs, I'll adapt to that. I can see it makes more sense to have gla1ve in map control for sure, he's the IGL, so of course I have to play on the sides. But I feel like I could be a more aggressive player if I wasn't in those positions.

But yeah, there's always going to be criticism towards me, it's a bit of a meme as well. Regardless of what I do, I think there's always going to be that.

You've talked about k0nfig specifically being better here in Katowice, and it's been obvious that he's more on at this tournament. Do you see that as a positive sign and something you can rise on the back of?

I haven't seen enough of a rise as I wanted to, as I expect from us. But of course we're doing better at this event than we have at the previous events, because I think we've lost pretty much every other event, like second to last place or something like that. So already now, winning a match is nice (laughs). But I do think that just the fact that k0nfig shows up individually already makes a big difference that makes us win games, you know. Having him there and fragging out also makes a big difference in calling, because he's taking map control and if he finds openings, it's way better than if someone on the side finds an opening or something like that because it opens up the map more.

We are doing a little bit better now, but not enough that I'd say 'this is insane, we're doing massive things right now.'

Is there anything in particular that you are still trying to address and see where you can improve?

I think one thing we do address a lot is making people comfortable. There are some new roles and stuff like that, so gla1ve asks us a lot like 'do you like to do this, or do you wanna do something else?' and that kind of stuff, and he also does that to Lucky, trying to say 'hey, I want you to peek a lot of stuff, I want you to do this...' I think that's something that we're working on as well right now, to help Lucky be more comfortable. I think he doesn't want to give us the feeling that he's taking our position or doing something that fucks up other people, but we're trying to tell him that he can just do that every round, that's what we want him to do, take all the chances and risks, and don't feel like he's taking space away from someone else from the team just because you're peeking something.

That is the last thing I would like to touch on, there was the whole AWPing change at the end of last year and now you're back to Lucky being the primary AWPer. First of all, are you set on that setup, and can you explain the thinking behind it?

The roles we have now are the roles we're going forward with, I would say. I'm not expecting them to switch back the AWP or anything like that. But we are trying to make Lucky as comfortable as possible, but he's also playing in a team with a lot of big names, so it can be hard for a young guy to just go in and say 'I just wanna do this and you guys adapt to me.' But he will get that over time, I hope.