It came as a surprise to many to see Astralis lose their opening map of ECS Season 7 Finals on Thursday, but Furia were well prepared for the match and the Danes didn’t appear to be on top form.
While the London crowd hasn’t been treated to the best of Astralis, they have possibly been gifted the chance to see the future, or at least a future for the former world number ones.
Alongside Astralis at ECS Season 7 Finals are North, the ‘other’ Danish side, owned by FC Copenhagen and current led by Valdemar ‘Valde’ Bjørn Vangså. While the team has been up and down for some time, Valde has been a consistent ray of light for them, and the failure of previous IGL Casper ‘Cadian’ Møller led to the team deciding to do what many badly run teams do, and make their best player their leader, too.
ECS Season 7 Finals schedule, streams and betting
While that does show a continuing lack of long-term thinking at the org, it also demonstrates what many have long suspected about Valde - that he is capable of doing pretty much anything in the game. Clutching, leading, and with fantastic fundamentals as well as a killer work ethic, he’s proven himself time and again, and looks to be the perfect option if Astralis decide they need to make a roster change to arrest their current decline.
Valde can do (almost) anything
Before we go any further with this, It has to be said that there is one position in the Astralis team that Valve could almost certainly not take, that being the primary AWP, but outside of that specialist role he seems capable of anything. He has great fundamentals, which lead to the same level of consistent aim we see from the likes of coldzera, as well as a temperament that seems tailor-made for competitive play, something he shares with the Astralis team.
In theory, it wouldn’t matter who (other than dev1ce) he replaced in Astralis, if that were to happen, as he appears capable of doing almost any job. Equally, if it were gla1ve who left Valde would be coming in as a IGL to a situation where the players are already fantastic at playing off each other, meaning he would probably not suffer that much from his lack of experience at the top level.
Astralis would undoubtedly prefer to fix their problems without making a change, but compared to the last move everyone thought they were going to make this one at least seems to be logical with the player and team in mind. K0nfig may have had the talent, but it’s clear his attitude has held him back, where Valde looks like a fully rounded, ready-made member of Astralis in waiting, if they can afford him and need him, that is.
Picture: Bart Oerbekke / ESL
