In Part 1 of our journey into the life and times of Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, we went through his personal life where we dug up interesting facts about this Danish IGL. In this part, it is time to go over his professional career, trophies and personal awards Rossander has won.
Early Days of CS:GO – 2012, 2013
Prior to the release of CS:GO, gla1ve competed in Counter-Strike: Source. Truth be told, his entire source career was not that impressive.
His CS:GO days were kickstarted with Copenhagen Wolves. They won several low-tier events, but once they played against the best teams, they struggled hard. Given the fact that Lukas was still attending school, Copenhagen Wolves soon fell apart.
Setting His Career Back
In 2014, gla1ve rejoined Copenhagen Wolves. During the GDK LAN Finals, he got into an argument with the tournament organizer where he stated that he would boycott the event if... his girlfriend was not allowed on the stage.
This came with consequences, of course – after the event, Lukas was banned from all GDK events and fined. It did not take long before he was removed from the Copenhagen Wolves roster. This setback in his professional career was a time where he played for various amateur teams in 2015.
Rejoining Copenhagen Wolves in 2016
In 2016, Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer was given the task of forming a new Copenhagen Wolves roster and he immediately called gla1ve. Despite facing several health issues, Lukas was able to carry his own weight and eventually, Team Heroic signed the entire Copenhagen Wolves roster.
We can freely say that 2016 was a breakout year for Lukas. At one point, he even played as a stand-in for Astralis. During ESL One Cologne 2016, he proved that he was able to perform at the same level as the other top contenders.
After achieving some mediocre results with Heroic, Astralis signed Lukas as they replaced Finn "karrigan" Andersen.
Making History
As soon as gla1ve joined Astralis, the Danish-based roster found success. They won several events, all based on Lukas’ insane mid-round calls and overall preparation for the matches.
Astralis put a lot of emphasis on utility and a lot of teams did not know how to react to that. This propelled them to the ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017 trophy. Alongside the CS:GO Major, Astralis won several other events but little did they know, they had not reached their peak just yet.
Here are the tournaments Astralis won with gla1ve in 2016 and 2017:
- Esports Championship Series Season 2 - Finals
- ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017(Major)
- Intel Extreme Masters XI - World Championship
How Astralis Became the Best CS:GO Team Ever
In 2018, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander established Astralis as the best CS:GO team that ever played this game. They have literally defeated everyone and won everything there is.
However, they had a poor start to 2018 as they were sent packing very early at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. Two more events did not go their way which led to the Markus "Kjærbye" Kjærbye leaving the squad.
- READ MORE: The story of Astralis – Part 1
Relatively unknown player, Emil "Magisk" Reif was brought in to try and bring Astralis back to life. He turned out to be a perfect signing for the Danish squad.
These are the events Astralis won in 2018:
- DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018
- ESL Pro League Season 7 - Finals
- Esports Championship Series Season 5 - Finals
- ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018
- FACEIT Major: London 2018
- BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018
- Intel Extreme Masters XIII - Chicago
- Esports Championship Series Season 6 - Finals
- ESL Pro League Season 8 - Finals
- BLAST Pro Series: Lisbon 2018
Alongside these trophies, Astralis also won Intel Grand Slam Season 1. Alongside Grand Slam trophy, gla1ve and co. won $1 million in prize money.
Individually, this was by far the best season of CS:GO gla1ve played in his career. He was rated as the 8th best player in the world by HLTV.org.
Gla1ve in 2019 and 2020
Once again, we have seen the same old Astralis. They have beaten everyone on their path and they won 2 Major titles in 2019. However, their overall form in 2019 was hot and cold.
It was clear from the start of 2020 season that both Astralis and gla1ve would not be able to keep things up at such a high level. Eventually, the entire roster snapped and gla1ve and Andreas “xyp9x” Højsleth decided to take a break from competitive play.
This snowballed Astralis from that #1 rank which leads to a simple conclusion. Both Lukas and Andreas were key factors in Astralis success. It is going to be interesting to see if Astralis will find a way to bounce back without these two and if Astralis will be able to reclaim their lost glory was gla1ve is back in the roster.
Do you like reading about the best and brightest in esports? Check out our other entries in our Life and Times series:
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