Party Astronauts blows up after internal issues: "Like the snap of a finger our roster is gone"

Members of the team aired grievances on X after certain relationships broke down.

Party Astronauts' roster has collapsed in dramatic fashion following the departure of Colby "⁠Walco⁠" Walsh and coach Tommy "⁠Axed⁠" Ryan, who both made posts on X pointing towards internal issues that were later revealed to be with Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley.

The team has no roster additions remaining in ESL Challenger League Season 49 — where they are in second place with an 8-2 record — and is now unable to field a complete lineup.

They were also one best-of-three away from qualifying for Ace North American Masters Spring, where a spot at BLAST Open Lisbon is on the line, and had recently qualified for the IEM Dallas closed qualifier. They have since forfeited their series in the former.

Despite saying it was an "easy decision" to leave, Axed expressed disappointment at his departure and said he joined the team last month in the hunt to qualify for his first Major but had to depart after recent events.

"There was a severe lack of internal trust, communication, and respect," he said in his announcement, which was the first to release. "I will not operate in a team where erratic and irrational roster decisions are made without the consultation of the coach and players.

"Your lack of professionalism has cost you the Blast Open Qualifiers, IEM Dallas Closed, PGL, Fragadelphia, ECL, and your VRS Core.

"You dug your own grave."

That "you" remained unnamed in Axed's announcement, but hours later FaNg made a post "speaking on behalf of Party Astronauts" where he rebuked Axed's claims, said he blindsided the team, and claimed Axed dug the grave himself.

"Our team IS built on communication, but you did very little to provide any guidance," FaNg said.

"And if by irrational and erratic decisions, you mean actually DEVELOPING players [sic] CS2 skills or gameplay as a team, then we stand by our 'behaviour.' What roster 'decisions'??? THEY’RE [sic] WERE NO ROSTER DECISIONS!!!

"This is truly disappointing and disrespectful. You show a true lack of maturity and empathy."

The public spat continued as Walco confirmed he was the one departing and directly called out FaNg for creating issues in another post.

"The team would've 100% survived and thrived had Fang not had an enormous ego or if Ben had taken action to try and deal with it as opposed to letting it go rampant for so long," Walco said.

"Fang in my experience has shown that he is unwilling to work with people who criticize him or don't agree with everything he says and when faced with critique or bad stats he will rage and lash out at people and decide that everything that went wrong in or out of the server is someone else's fault and that he's just simply 'doing his best,'" he added.

Walco also expressed regret towards Bogdan "⁠ogwizard⁠" Savula and Wesley "⁠viz⁠" Harris for getting caught up in the situation and said that while he disagreed with ben1337, believes that "he's a good guy who's just making a terrible decision."

Contacted by HLTV, ben1337 expressed sadness and shock at the way things suddenly collapsed.

"Every team has its issues," he said. "I’m shocked that it turned out this way and so fast. Like the snap of a finger our roster is gone.

"At the end of the day our team had issues about the vision/play style of the team, and we failed as a team to solve those issues. It’s a team game, we all had responsibilities set to achieve what we needed to. If you can’t put aside your differences for the team it’s never gonna function.

"It’s sad that it turned out this way. Counter-Strike has been my life and I don't want this to be the end. I look forward to whatever comes next."

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Update 05:18 : ben1337 asked to add the following to his statement:

"Justin [FaNg] and I have spent the last 9 months together and I enjoyed my time with him. I’ve learned a lot from him as a player and got to know him on a personal level. He elevated my game and the team’s game. Justin is a great player and I hope we can team again someday."

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Party Astronauts were:

Ben "⁠ben1337⁠" Smith
Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley
Bogdan "⁠ogwizard⁠" Savula
Wesley "⁠viz⁠" Harris
Colby "⁠Walco⁠" Walsh

Tommy "⁠Axed⁠" Ryan (coach)