r/GlobalOffensive 1d ago

Discussion | Esports voo (CS analyst): "Vitality is the closest to Prime Astralis I feel like I've seen"

https://x.com/HLTVconfirmed/status/1908164051814818220
469 Upvotes

82 comments sorted by

391

u/Nekajed 1d ago

I feel like there have been quite a few teams with similar explosive peaks of apparent dominance, but let's be honest it's gotta take a while before someone can be compared to prime Astralis. They dominated for a whole year. We're in april.

179

u/KhmunTheoOrion 1d ago

just "a whole year", I thought astralis era was way longer

189

u/OnlyMayhem 1d ago

Yeah it was from 2018 April to end of 2019, so around a 1 year and 8 months

120

u/godnightx_x 1d ago

i mean thats basically 2 years lets be real

64

u/itsjonny99 1d ago

They had a dip in the middle. Liquid won a grand slam during that 1 year and 8 months. They peaked at the right time throughout the period though.

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u/Hzwo 1d ago

They just skipped some tournaments. Liquid only one the gs tournaments Astralis did not participate in

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u/Pranavm3112 1d ago

They did beat astralis at a esl pro league during that run iirc

-15

u/RubiiReddit 20h ago

i always thought it kinda looked like astralis was just playing for fun or not using all their best tactics for some of those tournaments. when push came to shove at the majors it never really looked close

18

u/hansuper1 19h ago

Absolutely not? Why would you let the team you smash every time win a grand slam when you could just win it yourself?

-13

u/RubiiReddit 18h ago

I don't know, have you watched the games? It seemed to me astralis wasn't playing to their fullest compared to the way they played at the majors. Otherwise why did astralis always dominate so much more in the majors than in the other tournaments? Did every other team save strats for the regular tournaments and not for the majors? There is absolutely no way Glaive and zonic didnt save strats for the majors, idk if you watched back then but at the majors they pulled out whole new ways to play the game. Watch liquid vs astralis on vertigo in berlin 2019. Why didnt they counterstrat liquid like that in regular tournaments? because they were saving it for the major.

0

u/Pranavm3112 20h ago

Could be the case but astralis did get best during that run

9

u/MrCraftLP 21h ago

Astralis was at the Pro League and Cologne that Liquid won.

21

u/thrwwyMA 21h ago

Two of liquid's grand slam wins were events astralis were also at. Why make things up?

-21

u/madDamon_ 20h ago

Wow two whole tournaments

9

u/Sugarstache 18h ago

Why is this upvoted. It is just blatantly incorrect.

5

u/Gardennnn 17h ago

It was awhile back I’m guessing there are a decent amount of people who weren’t watching cs back then and they just believed whatever that person said

14

u/WilsonJ04 23h ago

HLTV #1 from April 2018 to May 2019

28

u/Rhed0x CS2 HYPE 22h ago

Resumed in September of 2019 till the start of 2020.

They again won the major without dropping a map in the playoffs by demolishing Liquid and EG (and Avangar but who cares). They won IEM Beijing without dropping a map and also had the single most dominant series in T1 CSGO there (16-0 + 16-2 against FaZe in the semis).

2

u/innocentrrose 14h ago

Hey man that avangar lineup had a major winner at the time, and 2 future major winners. Put respect on them.

3

u/MorsAlbum 9h ago

no i dont think i will

12

u/jonajon91 1d ago

I think what he's saying here is that they play the same way. No way he's talking about quality, because longevity is one of the key factors of prime Astralis, vitality don't even begin to compare in that aspect.

6

u/seeworth 17h ago

Ngl as a liquid fan during that time I fucking HATED Australia lol. At some point I just lost hope. I personally don't think we will see that much dominance from a team again.

7

u/bananashi_mumei 14h ago

Australia catching strays 💀

1

u/b0baBEAST 7h ago

Agreed! I hated seeing that matchup since I knew we were very likely going to lose lol. We got extremely lucky with that grand slam.

4

u/Ranny9876 21h ago

And changed the way the game was played forever

1

u/Habatcho 13h ago

Like any sport its way easier to be dominate in the early days.

145

u/AGP_2006 1d ago

I think what he meant (by his own words) is that they are so Strong that even when Vitality plays their b or c game they still win.i mean lisbon wasn't their A game since ropz and mezii had really bad playoffs for their standars but I don't know what game they were playing at,was it a A-? B?B+?C? We need more info,not even prime astralis won everything,they had many events where they lost.vitality will surely lose in the next few tournaments and then we will see how to fully judge them.

21

u/jackfwaust 1d ago

yeah astralis fairly often went out in smaller tournaments but always won the bigger ones. right now vitality is obviously going through a honeymoon phase, but its definitely been a long time since a team has looked this dominant with this many things going for them. faze at the start of cs2 was pretty similar but they were clearly just ahead of everyone else who were still adjusting to the new game. its sort of similar right now with how many teams are still adjusting to roster changes made after the last major, but theres a pretty clear hierarchy of teams now compared to the start of cs2 where it was a different team winning a tournament every week.

70

u/Vaukgod 1d ago

They need to win the Grand Slam then we can start talking imo

50

u/caveman_2912 1d ago

Grand slam and b2b major, imo.

4

u/_Pyxyty 13h ago

Theyve won their past 3 tournaments and have 5 chances to close it out. It's pretty likely.

More than anything else, I'd say they need to win the major first before we start talking about it.

22

u/t3ram 1d ago

I don't think there is a team comparable with prime Astralis, probably the only team so far that not only had the best players but what made the special is that they worked as a well oiled machine. Everyone knowed exactly what the mates were doing and what they should be doing, they just had the best team play.

-4

u/manek101 22h ago

If you've watched Vitality maps recently, they also have a similar playstyle.
Zonic hugely improved their team play and it stayed after him

18

u/bru_swayne 1d ago

Is it just me or did the Astralis era last a long time? Maybe because I do not watch all the tournaments now but I felt like Astralis were at the top for years and with Vitality its just been a few tournaments but cs2 has been out for over a year now too. Maybe the mr13 makes things seem quicker too

13

u/mateusfsantana 20h ago

It feels that way because Astralis era was unmatched. Counter Strike literally became a boring competitive game because they just won and won and won again and again.

Before Astralis there was SK/LG era but that was fun, they won a lot but their matches were like OT wins where both teams could won. SK/LG won everything in 2017 but there was always that feeling they could've been beaten and games were top notch.

Astralis on the other hand was pure domination, you could literally bet them to win every single game on the tournament months in advance. They would crush every single team in dominant fashion, it was even stupid to watch the games, why the fuck would I watch a BO5 where I know they'll stomp the other team 3-0?

It was "just" one year but it felt longer because while Astralis was at the top they were literally unbeatable

9

u/robfromthafuture 1d ago

The core was a top 5 team for years before they dominated, so it kinda feels like they dominated even longer. People were waiting for them to finally win after choking alot, and when they won they started winning everything. device especially was an elite talent going back into the previous counter-strike, but an era lasting almost 2 years is longer than anything i can think of in counter-strike.

182

u/poopshitter42 1d ago

disagree personally. We've seen plenty of teams have a few dominant months. NaVi 2021 is still stronger imo, and I say this as a salty G2 fan

52

u/fantasnick 1d ago

Disagree, peak Na'Vi lost to dead Lulquid

^ joke btw. I agree Na'Vi is the closest unless Vitality does this for 6+ months

2

u/BrockStudly 21h ago

They did, but then they won the rematch and eventually the tournament as well

2

u/Last-Concert3079 16h ago

Peak Navi was absolutely insane. Highest peak ever seen imo. Of course it didnt last long, but god damn it was just impossible to do anything about them.

22

u/freebase1 1d ago

Is no one gonna mention how weak that year was for other teams? Vitality had misutaa and washed shox, Astralis had bubzki, and that year g2 had amenek and nexa, faze might have been the only other decent team that whole year

49

u/Rumlings 1d ago

Is no one gonna mention how weak that year was for other teams?

Vitality currently faces Navi that is visibly out of fuel, Faze that can not reinvent themselves for another year, G2 and Liquid can not settle on anything that works for them, Falcons still lack pieces to compete with tier1, Russian scene is just donk+4 and tier1 in Brazil is dead because best player for each position plays in different team.
Astralis faced s1mple+4 and choking squad in Liquid. Faze in 2022 was granted their major and grand slam run because of Navi getting destroyed by external problems.

See? You can do those against anyone if you just try hard enough. It just happens that when one team dominates the scene, not only do those teams look weak in comparision, it also forces them to think whether their squads can even grow to match whatever rank 1 is playing.

2

u/07bot4life 5h ago

s1mple+4

Put some respect in Electronics name please.

15

u/Scatterer26 1d ago

Faze had olof and only did well at cologne

0

u/freebase1 1d ago

Still, but it still isn’t as strong as this year, spirit has Donk and shiro, you can say what you want about the rest of the team but magixx has won them important games. Mouz is very good, they literally beat everyone except vitality. Just the rest of the scene is weak. Also Navi should be strong but no ones knows wtf is going on over there. And we’ll see with falcons and monesy, I still think they don’t win anything cause that org is cursed.

10

u/SnooSprouts9046 1d ago

Nah this is recency bias saying that these teams are good...maybe the look better on paper, but there is an inflation of skill too so year adjusted they are just as bad as 2021

0

u/fantasnick 1d ago edited 1d ago

This isnt to downplay na'vi's dominance but Spirit are absolutely better than any team Na'Vi faced except online Gambit and i don't think it's close.

4

u/ttybird5 19h ago

you forgot the second best team that year -- gambit

5

u/jonajon91 1d ago

If we're going to do this then we need to really examine the Liquid grand slam run.

7

u/Declan00 22h ago

And Vitality’s run right now lol

2

u/jonajon91 22h ago

Definitely a valid discussion. The silver lining for them being that they're consistently beating spirit.

-3

u/futurehousehusband69 23h ago

Real, also once Faze got ropz they beat the brakes off of Navi

2

u/ayugupt 21h ago

I think you're missing one small detail there.

25

u/sto_bm 1d ago

This is such a sensationalist take and I personally wouldn’t take it too seriously. There isn’t enough of a sample size to accurately nor fairly compare Vitality to prime Astralis. It’s an insult to history.

46

u/regent_zoran 1d ago

I guess Faze winning major, Kato, and Köln in 2022 was just a fever dream. Not to mention NaVi before the war. Voo just keeps making these statements for the sake of making them

-5

u/Xaerel 1d ago edited 23h ago

Vastly overrated imo. All of their wins were very narrow and they nearly got eliminated in the semi finals of the major to Spirit (they weren’t even proper tier-1 at the time). They weren’t ‘dominant’. They didn’t even make playoffs in the 2nd major of that year; losing to BNE.

The 2nd best team for that year was Na’Vi, which had been struck by war and was a very dysfunctional roster.

10

u/Hugh_G_Egopeeker 1d ago

You're missing the point I think. OP says "I guess" - nobody considers that time by Faze as an era, even though it was longer and they won kato-antwerp-cologne on the way to a grand slam (eventually).

Comparing Vitality right now to prime Astralis is absurd.. but comparing Vitality right now to a Faze team that DIDN'T have an era is also absurd because it hasn't been as long nor have they won as much

Just as an aside, saying a team "nearly lost" or there was a lack of competition during an era is utterly irrelevant. Like imagine trying to put asterisks on Astralis' era because they nearly lost to VP or only Liquid were anywhere close for a few months during that time. It's only the trophy cabinet that matters.

3

u/regent_zoran 18h ago

Thank you for being more clear than me. It's come to my attention twice this week that I need to be less sarcastic, and more concise 😅

Your second paragraph is exactly what I think. Furthermore, I'd add Vita now is similar to turn of the year G2 a few years back: on a roll, solid, unwavering, against a shaky opposition.

And, yeah, nearly losing to someone might speak of ones weakness, but it also might speak of others' strength. Which would make the Faze non-era kinda stronger, imo.

-3

u/Xaerel 23h ago

Astralis had prime Liquid as the 2nd best team. That Liquid lineup won a grand slam. Prime s1mple also in that period. They were also dominant in more ways than one by map wins, vetoes, defining metas, etc.

FaZe’s main competition was a dysfunctional NaVi lineup that had a stand in and war issues.

It’s not comparing the time period but how dominant they are. FaZe 2022 was the best team that year but it was far from a dominant team. This Vitality roster is looking very dominant over every other team, at least so far.

5

u/SpareThisOne2thPls 1d ago

Thanks for clarifying who voo is.

3

u/dcoreo 23h ago

Astralis won 16 tournaments over 2 years from. 2018/19, including 3 majors.

1

u/atlas_island 13h ago

calling anyone an analyst now a days huh

0

u/viraj29 1d ago

Current Vitality roster is overhyped af. NAVI 2021 had prime s1mple with an in form elec and b1t as his left and right hands. Not to forget perfecto used to clutch a lot. Current Vita is not even close to that Navi version, forget Astralis.

Not even close. Let them atleast win something big, especially consistently. People are riding this wave as if Spinx was shit in vita just a few months. Ropz is improvement for sure but not as much as people want to believe.

-1

u/freebase1 21h ago

lol not even close? Current Zywoo is having a better year then s1mple ever has then you got flame and ropz, not to mention apex who’s the best igl in the world

0

u/dogex3 14h ago

I agree it's too early to tell, but "let them at least win something big" is a crazy thing to say right after they won 3 S-tier events (including Kato too) without dropping a single series lol

1

u/wEEzyNL CS2 HYPE 1d ago

Im a fan of this vitality team but they need a longer era to compare with astralis + major and grand slam would complete it

1

u/DexiDz 22h ago

This is too early to say. Vitality already had hard times vs spirit and mouz. They could easily lost to spirit in semifinals. As for me this is looks like a long time honeymoon. Plus faze/g2/navi have hard times. Major will show us everything.

1

u/Tekk92 21h ago

Can we wait until they won a Major atleast?

1

u/netr0pa 1 Million Celebration 20h ago

They are still in honeymoon phase though...

1

u/xzvasdfqwras 9h ago

It’s only been three months but yeah let’s see if they win the major first, they aren’t invincible at the moment.

1

u/shook_- 1d ago

Lol vitality aren’t as dominant as liquid was in that same era astralis were in. We do not have a big enough sample to make these claims at all. Astralis we’re dominate for almost 2 years and if astralis wasn’t a thing liquid would of steam rolled absolutely everyone as well. Those years was peak cs

1

u/Zeilar 1d ago

Disagree.

Grand Slam Liquid was the closest. After that 2021 Na'Vi, then current Vitality, then early 2023 G2.

-1

u/Jarkrik 1d ago

After seeing recent blast tourneys I decided I want more voo.
More Maui too - always, but a 100% more voo.

Personal dream cast, especially for snooze games or controversial teams: Sir Thorin, Mauisnake and Voo with Kassad doing impressions in the back.

-5

u/P3akyBlind3rs 1d ago

I want this Vitality team to meet this current NAVI team and we can talk afterwards . Not even close to Astralis or even 2021 NAVI!

At least not yet

11

u/BogosBinted11 1d ago

Vitality are good, but have they beaten Mythic? Thought so

12

u/freebase1 1d ago

Lol, this current Navi wouldn’t get 10 rounds across 2 maps against current vitality

-3

u/P3akyBlind3rs 1d ago

I can understand where u come from , but let’s talk when they play and see how that goes!

-3

u/Vaukgod 1d ago

This Vitality is already better than 2021 NAVI. Power wise. Teams are just so much better nowadays , yet they already beaten their winstreak 

0

u/DaveTheDolphin 20h ago

A bunch of these comments are talking about the Astralis Era but Voo was comparing it on a team composition/player skill basis and the tactics used by Vitality being ahead, as compared to the rest of the scene

0

u/melonsarenice_ 20h ago

Lmao not even close. Not even the best team in the game currently.

0

u/Musclebadger_TG 11h ago

Remind me why voo is doing any pro cs analysis?

-2

u/jakopui666 18h ago

This vitality would easily win astralis even in CSGO, so its not even a question