by Anders Hørsholt
What a year it has been. While we have all been affected by the COVID19 pandemic, esports has shown robust and moved from live events back to online competition with great success. Viewership numbers, engagement rates and the global fanbase have broken several records and steadily increased throughout the year, however, at the same time we have all faced different challenges.
Amid the global challenges, in Astralis Group we have never slowed down or even considered to set the progress on pause.
Business wise, we all look forward to the return of live events, meeting the fans again, a healthier sponsor and advertiser market. Performance wise, for the players and everybody in the organization, we look forward to normalizing the way we prepare, train, work and build as a group.
Amid the global challenges, in Astralis Group we have never slowed down or even considered to set the progress on pause. We prepared early and reduced our costs through a voluntary and gradual reduction in salaries which all employees and some of the players agreed to. This is part of the reason, while other industries and even some of our colleagues had to lay off staff, we were able to protect all jobs and continue to invest and grow in what will be an even stronger organization and business in 2021.
So what have we been up to?
Merger of all team brands and activities
Astralis Group is a result of the management buyout of the teams by the two Astralis Founders. As the focus shifted to team development, it has been a natural development to merge all team brands under the Astralis umbrella. All teams are built on the same values, the same performance model, the same attitude to constantly progress and to champion the positives of esports and the game itself.
Founder Jakob Lund Kristensen talks about the single brand strategy:
Commercial
We have added to the organization in key areas and despite a tough year for the sponsorship industry, the good people of our commercial department were able to enter and extend a range of great deals with new and existing commercial partners. We are extremely proud to have partnered up with iconic brands and great organizations like Hummel, Audi, B&O, Omen by HP, and Garmin and we’re to close the year with one of the most significant agreements in the history of our organization: The extension and increase of the agreement with Logitech G.
Being able to present the Astralis line of drinks with Royal Unibrew, introducing the Astralis Lunar app and credit card and launching our new line of casual merchandise are just a few examples of what has been developed through the year and this does not even touch upon the massive upgrade in our digital presence and creative, engaging content we’ve seen throughout the year.
Thank you to all partners, current and throughout the years. Without you and your engagement in esports, none of us would be able to support and develop this amazing scene.
We invest a lot in our communities and we ask a lot from our players and employees when it comes to giving back to fans.
Fans
Many might not realize, but the fanbase Astralis is truly global and this goes for all our teams.
In a year with a lot of challenges, a devastating pandemic, merger of team brands, player transfers, role changes, players on medical leaves – and successfully brought back and reintegrated, and a lot of the noise that comes with the territory of being Astralis, the massive support from fans all around the globe have been key for our players and organization.
To see the fanbase continue to grow throughout a year like 2020 and to experience the warm welcome to new players and members of the Astralis Family is humbling. We invest a lot in our communities and we ask a lot from our players and employees when it comes to giving back to fans.
We have quite a few initiatives to be launched over the coming months that will enable the fans to be an even bigger part of the Astralis Family and once the COVID19 situation is solved, to come even closer to the teams, players and Astralis Universe.
Teams
League of Legends
After two years under the legendary Origen brand, we decided it was time to do things the way we know best. We completely revamped the organization and set-up around the team with a new coaching duo and dedicating our Performance Manager to rethink the way we practice, prepare and work with a League og Legends team to better reflect the Astralis DNA.
The conceptualization of structure, organization and team principles started earlier in the year, and since mid-September, together with the Director of Sports, the new coaching team has worked to develop and implement the strategy.
Rather than signing only big names, we decided to build the team around players who are willing and eager as a group to move things in a new direction. All players have embraced the way of working and personally, I can’t wait to see how things develop during the Spring split and Summer!
Under Astralis, the League of Legends team made roster changes to all but one player: Erlend 'Nukeduck' Holm who will battle in the rift for Astralis' LEC debut in 2021 alongside Matti 'WhiteKnight' Sormunen, Nikolay 'Zanzarah' Akatov, Jesper 'Jeskla' Strömberg, Hampus 'promisq' Abrahamsson, and coach staff Baltat 'AOD' Alin-Ciprian and Bjørn-Vegar 'Hansen' Hansen.
We’re not going to win it all in 2021, but we have a strong belief that we are building a strong foundation under the League of Legends team and organization in Astralis.
FIFA
We started the year with 3 amazing players: Fatih Üstün, Roee Feldman and Stephanie “Teca” Luana, each among the best in their field. In September we added the Danish legend August “Agge” Rosenmeier as a player and brand ambassador, and eventhough 2020 has been a tough year, competition wise, all 4 players have already demonstrated their dedication and skills with Ustun coming in second in the European Championship, Teca winning the unofficial Women’s World Cup, Roee winning basically all of his Weekend League games and Agge taking over the role as the team mentor.
We have big expectations to these guys for 2021 and hope to have at least one World Champion in the black and red jersey before the year ends.
We have big expectations to these guys for 2021 and hope to have at least one World Champion in the black and red jersey before the year ends.
Counter-Strike
The Counter-Strike team has continued pushing the limits and the status quo of the industry. Bringing two players back from burn outs and medical leaves is an unpreceded accomplishment in an industry where benching and ultimately leaving poor performing players to themselves has been the standard.
Our foundation is stronger than ever, though, and even in a year of challenges like 2020, the Counter-Strike team took home 4 big tournament titles and showed a great performance and stamina throughout the year.
On top of this, the coach, players team and performance team have introduced an extended roster to enable players to rest and take necessary breaks, changed the IGL and other roles on the team several times during the year, re-adjusted after player transfers and worked with new ways of preparing, practicing and playing the game.
And the team has still managed to maintain a strong performance throughout the year.
We have taken some heat along the way, but that is part of an open communication. We believe it is important to address player burn outs and we have been very open around our ideas and actions when it comes to the introduction of a bigger roster. When doing something new, you always need to be able to adjust the course along the way, and we have. We have not veered an inch from our belief in the need of bigger rosters and we’re glad to see others pick up, and even refining the concept.
Our foundation is stronger than ever, though, and even in a year of challenges like 2020, the Counter-Strike team took home 4 big tournament titles and showed a great performance and stamina throughout the year.
Going into the year with the 6 man roster of Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen, Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, Emil “Magisk” Reif and Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth and coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen, 2021 will be another year of Astralis Counter-Strike fighting for trophies in all tournaments we participate!
Astralis Talent
Astralis Talent is the latest addition to the family. The ambition is to create a strong recruitment platform, sparring for our A teams and an even closer relationship with the talent scene and local eco system.
We have signed 3 exceptional coaches and two team managers, who will all start in January together with our Counter-Strike and League of Legend rosters.
We are extremely pleased about the way we have been received by the esports clubs and stake holders in general, and look forward to developing these relationships. We have great expectations towards this new set-up and hopefully, Astralis Talent will be yet another testament to the great tradition of Danish talent development in esports.
2021 and beyond
In Astralis we have always and will always push the boundaries. We have often paved our own untested paths, and 2021 will be no different.
We will for sure introduce new ways, new performance tools, new fan related initiatives, new commercial ideas and new ways of digital engagement that have not been seen before in esports. All with the ambition to continue to champion progress and the positives of esports and gaming in everything we do.
We can’t wait to get going, but until then, we hope you all have a safe New Year’s Eve and a new year with lots of progress and joyful moments!
Anders Hørsholt
CEO, Astralis Group.
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