blameF on becoming IGL: "I know my individual level is going to take a hit"

The Dane spoke to HLTV ahead of the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, Astralis' first LAN with their new-look roster.

Astralis didn't rest on their laurels over the off-season, not content with their slight uptick in form at the end of the previous.

Instead, the Danes opted to bench long-time in-game leader Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and send Alexander "⁠Altekz⁠" Givskov back down to the academy roster, making space for the signings of Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup and up-and-comer Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr, the latter of whom Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz had even singled out as being one of Denmark's biggest talents in five years.

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Official: Astralis add Staehr, b0RUP

This new-look roster is now ready to make their LAN debut at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups in Copenhagen, eager to get off on the right foot early and qualify for the Fall Finals and make it to the Royal Arena in their nation's capital.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023
14/07/2023	Natus Vincere 14:45 Astralis	Match

HLTV was able to sit down with Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer, the team's new captain, ahead of Astralis' run through the Fall Groups. The Dane spoke candidly about becoming the team's new in-game leader, the two roster moves made over the off-season, the recent changes within the Astralis organization, and how he admires the way HEROIC approach Counter-Strike in today's meta.

Audio version: If you cannot see the Soundcloud embed below, head over here to listen to the interview.

You are taking on the IGL role, something you have done before for Complexity. Was it something you were wanting to do again, or more what the team needed?

Both the team and the management came to me and asked me to do it, so it was just a no-brainer. I always said to my teammates that I'll play whatever they want me to, maybe I've said it more to my coaches because obviously they are the ones in charge (laughs). I've always said I will play whatever roles, whatever they wanted, so when both parties came to me and asked me it was a no-brainer. Of course it's a big responsibility and quite new for me, because it's been a long time since I've been IGLing, but it's a no-brainer if that's the direction the team wants to go.

Were there any thoughts about getting someone else in to IGL?

It would be hard because I don't think there were any clear Danish IGLs right now that you could get…

No birdfromsky?

I mean we have been playing against him in some officials lately, but no, no birdfromsky, not right now (smiles). He's definitely a GOAT though in the tier two scene, slaying everyone (laughs).

Any thoughts about what this might do to your individual level? Obviously you have been one of the best players in the world in recent years, are you worried your fragging might take a hit?

I know it's going to take a hit. I am giving a lot of my positions away that I think I was good at to some of the new players in the team, because they are supposed to shine in those positions, so I definitely feel like my fragging will take a hit. The new players bring some new firepower to the team, so if that's the direction the team needs to go in, I am totally fine with it.

It seemed the previous roster, with Altekz and gla1ve, was starting to ramp up a little towards the end — you took second in Brazy Party, won a CCT event, got to the playoffs in Dallas — did you feel that roster couldn't go any further, couldn't hit the heights you were maybe expecting?

I do think that we saw a lot of potential in that roster as well, especially before we travelled to America, we had big hopes for those two tournaments. Maybe we ran into some of the same problems as a team that we have been running into the last couple of… maybe even years honestly, but definitely months. I think our results were better those past couple of months than they had been before, but we still sat with the feeling that some of the things weren't really successful for us. It's not something I can speak on regarding the specifics, but some of the feelings on how we were playing and if we were moving in the correct direction. When we got Staehr, if we were going to rebuild the roster, it was the right time to do it.

When it came to putting together the new roster — did you have much input, as the new IGL, or how did it come about?

I definitely had some input after I became the captain, the main focus was making sure the roles were good, that we didn't have all of the role clashes that we had the past couple of years. So making sure we had two anchor players, two rotation players and an AWP on CT, and then on T side finding people who can play map control aggressively whilst making sure we had a lurker and a support player.

Just making sure we found a balance so roles wouldn't be an issue moving forward, so we weren't sitting and talking about who should play what, maybe we should switch because this isn't working out, because it's just confusing for people. I know its an issue other players had on the team before, they said it was confusing because on one map they play this, but on another map they do something different, so we wanted to have something that made sense on paper.

It feels like the Staehr move has been a long time coming, there's been a lot of talk about him going to Astralis one day. Are you excited to finally have him in the team?

Yeah I'm very excited, I think he's definitely one of the biggest talents right now. He just needs to get some experience and then I think he will be playing insane, he knows how he wants to play and we try to give him a lot of freedom. He's also playing a lot of the positions I was playing in before, and I'm playing gla1ve's role, so it's easy for me to talk to him about how he plays. He's a great player.

Are you trying to impart a bit of your wisdom to him and give him a bit of your experience, especially since you play the same roles?

I definitely try to give him some tips and all that, but also a big focus of mine is making sure that people can play with freedom and play their own game. So I think that's just something that I will try to focus on a lot; I'm not going to be very strict and say, 'Hey, you have to play like this because this is how I want to play.'

I much rather want to listen to the players and then try to figure out how to play as a team and then if there is a lot of different direction at some point then I might have to take charge. I think, in the beginning, it's more about finding out how everyone wants to play and sometimes you cannot figure that out by just talking about it. Sometimes you have to play officials and then see how people react in certain situations and then go from there, which is why I also know that we need some experience together as a team, which is why playing officials is greater.

You said you've had to take the IGL role and you'll have to take a bit of a hit on the fragging front, are you expecting Staehr to be stepping up into the shoes and providing a bit of star power?

Yeah for sure, the goal is definitely that he's going to be one of the stars of the team — no doubt about it.

So the other player that has come in, b0RUP, he raised a few eyebrows, not because he's a bad player or anything but not a signing many would have predicted Astralis to make. What was the thinking behind getting him?

I think, for me, it made perfect sense because aim-wise, I think he has one of the best aims in Denmark, he's insane at aiming and has great first-bullet accuracy. Individually speaking, he's very good, and then role-wise it made very good sense because he can play Anchor on CT-sides and on T-side he can play a bit more of a supportive role and at the same time not being a total passive support, but still be an aggressive player and make moves.

He also has a lot of experience even though some people forget that. He's been playing against a lot of tier-one teams for a long period of time, so I think a guy that can help the team fill out the last couple of roles and make everything good, because all the other roles were all set so we needed a guy that was a little more adaptive than the rest of the team, and I think he's that guy: great player, great aim, great mood as well. He's one of the funniest players there is, laughing all the time, so I just think b0RUP is one of the best players you could get.

Does it balance out that you have a couple of younger players in Buzz and Staehr, who maybe don't have the most experience, does b0RUP balance it out since he's been around for quite a while?

For sure, I actually think that the only guy on the team who has a lot, a lot of experience is device. Even me, I think I have a lot of experience, but it's not big semi-final or finals, or like group stages playing at big tournaments and maybe a couple of playoffs. It's not a lot, so I think even though people think that I have a lot, it's not that much. We needed someone who has also played against good teams and can give the rest of the team some insight and help the team in that sense.

You've obviously had some big changes behind the scenes within Astralis — coaching changes and stuff like that. How much has all that affected you guys, the players?

I think it's impacted us a lot. The direction that Astralis has moved to now, with the management, is really good. It's been pretty bad before, honestly, with some of the things that has been there, so those new changes that have come, I'm very positive towards that and I think that's going to have a big impact.

A lot of people see that we're moving the roster in a different direction, but when you're in Astralis, you also feel like the organization is moving in a different direction as well. It feels really very good to be here right now and the support I am getting right now is insane. It feels like a great place where we can start developing, whereas before there has been talk about 'Let's develop, let's build' and all that, but we weren't really building much, in all honesty. So now, the support staff and everything they're giving us and how present they are all the time, it's a vast contrast to before.

You're coming into BLAST, the first tournament with the new lineup, do you have any goals or expectations here?

The goal is for sure to qualify for the Royal Arena because that's a big thing as a Dane, obviously. That's going to be the goal for sure, but we also know right now that we're a new team, just as so many other teams are, and it's hard to know where we are exactly in the process because we've only been playing together for like a week. The goal is for sure to qualify for the Royal Arena but we're going to take it one match at a time.

Looking longer term for the rest of the season, let's say we fast-forward it to the end of the year, where do you guys want to be? Do you have any ranking goals or 'We wanna have made top-four at a tournament' or anything like that?

I don't think we wanna go out... as I said before, it's hard to know where the team is right now. So if I go out and say we need to be top-three, then it's gonna look stupid if we feel like right now that we're in a process, but in maybe two weeks we think we're way ahead than what we thought, but in two weeks' time we could also be like 'Ok we actually need more time.'

Right now, it's very hard to tell, but obviously, we're in Astralis and we want to be one of the best teams in the world. So we wanna be able to compete with the very best, and if that makes us sometimes play semi-finals and finals, then that's great, and if it just makes us play a lot of playoffs then that's also great. We wanna be in a place where we can say we can compete with the likes of Heroic and FaZe and G2, and all those giants. That's the goal for the end of the season.

Is it tough at all seeing a team like Heroic get so much success recently, especially since Astralis are probably still the most popular team in Denmark, the flagship team? Does it make it tough to see Heroic doing so well when you guys have been struggling a little bit?

No I don't think so. I know some people think that...

A big rivalry...

Yeah... something like that. Honestly, in Astralis, we respect Heroic a lot. Me personally, I think they were the ones that were ahead and changing the meta, they have a clear playstyle, they have amazing team play, the way they're calling and where they are tactically, I think they are ahead of many other teams and they don't rely on star power, they rely on team play. I don't think there's anything negative towards them playing well.

I watch a lot of their demos, and every time I watch, I say to myself something like: 'It makes so much sense what they're doing,' you know? I always watch and am like 'It's incredible how they're playing.' I don't think there's any negative thoughts to them, if anything I think they deserve more credit because a lot of the time they don't get a lot of credit because maybe they're not as prominent an organization, if you could say that. But for sure, they deserve a lot of their praise.

Looking a bit further forward. CS2, it's coming eventually, have you as an organization or team had any thoughts about CS2? Have you made any plans, looked at the game or is it just a case of waiting for it to release and tackling it then?

No... even when we built this roster now, we're not building to be the best team in the world in the next two months because we know we're not going to be that with what we have right now and the experience we have. We tried to build a long-term project that when we have a lot of young players that are grinding. Everyone is playing every night after practice, we could practice for 10/11 hours, and I come home at 9pm and I see half of the team sitting in there and talking.

I think that's something that is going to be really important going into CS2, that we're one of the teams that are willing to put a lot of hours into it. I don't think maybe some of the last couple of lineups were as willing to do that. So that's also something that went into the talks, when building this new roster, especially for me. I said 'It's important that we think about CS2' and the way you think about that is young players who are able to grind and have that fresh mindset. I think that's something that's been really important for us.

And for you personally, do you have any personal goals? Do you wanna make the top-20 list again or is that going to be a little bit harder as an IGL?

I don't think I have many individual goals in that sense. I think my biggest goal is to just be a good captain for my teammates. I want them to feel like I am listening to them and they get heard in the team. If my teammates tell me that they feel like I am a good captain, then that's going to make me happy. So that's going to be the primary focus.

That's the only award you need? From your teammates?

Yeah.