Gla1ve

Lukas Egholm Rossander (born 7 June 1995),^[1] better known as gla1ve, is a Danish professional Counter-Strike 2 player for ENCE. Considered one of the best captains in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, he became the first (along with three of his teammates) to win 4 majors in CS:GO, and to win 3 majors consecutively.^[2]

gla1ve
gla1ve during IEM Katowice 2019
Current team
Team	ENCE
Role	Captain
Game	Counter-Strike 2
Personal information
Name	Lukas Rossander
Born	(1995-06-07) 7 June 1995 (age 29)
Nationality	Danish
Career information
Games	Counter-Strike: Source Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Counter-Strike 2
Team history
2012; 2014; 2016	Copenhagen Wolves
2016	Heroic
2016–2023	Astralis
2023–present	ENCE
Career highlights and awards
4× CS:GO Major champion (Atlanta 2017, London 2018, Katowice 2019, Berlin 2019) IEM Grand Slam champion (Season 1) HLTV Top 20 Player of the Year (2018) HLTV MVP

Career

Source career

Gla1ve's first Counter-Strike game he played at a professional level was Counter-Strike: Source, where he played with teams such as Reason Gaming and Epsilon Esports. Throughout his entire Source career, he found modest success and won $4924.99 in total.^{[citation needed]}

2012/2013

Gla1ve's debut in professional CS:GO came in the form of a briefly lived TT Dragons roster, before he ended up in his first top team, Anexis Esports, along with Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen, Nichlas "Nille" Busk, Jacob "Pimp" Winneche, and Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen.^[3] Western Wolves found minor success,^[4] and placed 2nd at Copenhagen Games 2013, losing to the dominant team at the time Ninjas in Pyjamas, and also finished 3rd place at Mad Catz Invitational: Birmingham.^{[citation needed]} However, despite these early successes, Western Wolves soon fell apart due to gla1ve and the team's star AWPer Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen's educational commitments.^[5]

2014/2015

Gla1ve would return to Copenhagen Wolves in mid 2014. At the GDK LAN finals, a dispute originated between the tournament organizer and gla1ve, after he said he would boycott the tournament unless his girlfriend was allowed on stage.^[6] According to the organiser's rules, only 5 players and 1 manager would be allowed on to the stage. Nicolaj "Nico" Jensen's girlfriend had already been registered as the manager, and the finals ended up being delayed for 45 minutes. Afterwards, gla1ve would be handed a ban from all GDK tournaments, along with an 1800 DKK fine. After this incident, gla1ve was removed from Copenhagen Wolves with the team citing unprofessionalism. This ended up being a major setback in his career, and he spent the 2015 at a semi-professional level on no top teams.^[7][8]

2016

In early 2016, gla1ve returned to Copenhagen Wolves in a revamped Danish lineup containing Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, Danny "smF" Dyg, Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså, and Daniel "mertz" Mertz. gla1ve suffered from health issues at this time, and had multiple collapsed lungs.^[9] The roster was eventually signed by Heroic, containing gla1ve, Snappi, valde, along with Michael "Friis" Jørgensen and Andreas "MODDII" Fridh.^[10] gla1ve would stand-in for his future team Astralis at ESL One Cologne 2016 for Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye who was a recent addition that had already played with another team at a major qualifier.^[11] In Heroic gla1ve found moderate success, including a 3rd-place finish at Northern Arena 2016 in Toronto, and a quarterfinals appearance at Starladder and i-League StarSeries Season 2. In Heroic, gla1ve and Snappi would share in game leadership duties between them, and gla1ve was considered a secondary caller.^[12] Gla1ve would soon transfer to Astralis, replacing the former in-game leader Finn "karrigan" Andersen.^[13] Astralis would immediately find success, earning a 2nd-place finish at ELEAGUE Season 2, and they won at the ECS Season 2 Finals.

2017

gla1ve started off the year by leading his team to the ELEAGUE Major 2017 trophy in Atlanta, taking home $500,000.^[14] They would follow this up with a win at IEM Katowice 2017, and a 2nd-place finish at Starladder & i-League Season 3. At the second major of the year, PGL Major Kraków 2017, Astralis were upset in the semifinals by the underdogs Gambit, who went on to win the event. Astralis managed two more 2nd-place finishes in 2017 at ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017, and at BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2017.

2018

Astralis would exit ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 in the group stage. This led to Markus "Kjærbye" Kjærbye leaving Astralis for the lower ranked Danish team North, a move which was considered by many of his former teammates to be a major surprise.^[15][16] Astralis replaced him with Emil "Magisk" Reif.^[17] After a semifinal exit at IEM Katowice 2018, Astralis won multiple LAN tournaments including the FACEIT Major: London 2018. Astralis won the first Intel Grand Slam, which handed out 1 million dollars to whoever won 4 ESL/Dreamhack organized tournaments within a 10 event window.^[18] Gla1ve, along with their coach Danny "zonic" Sørensen are credited with creating the tactical system which led to Astralis' success.^{[19][20][21][22]} Astralis achieved one of the all-time best streaks on Nuke: 31 consecutive wins on LAN.^[23] For gla1ve, 2019 was a stand-out individual year for himself, leading to him achieving the #8 spot on the HLTV Top 20 Players of the year, which was a high rank for an In Game Leader.^[24][25]

2019

Gla1ve led Astralis to their third victory in IEM Katowice 2019 over Finnish team ENCE. Hence, the 4 Astralis players excluding Magisk are currently tied with the fnatic players of Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, Jesper "JW" Wecksell, and Markus "pronax" Wallsten in terms of major wins. Astralis were described by many people to be the greatest CS:GO team of all time following their second consecutive major victory.^[26][27][28] However, despite this success, their form soon dropped off, as they won their last event at BLAST Pro Series: São Paulo 2019.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. Wells, Jessica (8 June 2018). "Astralis is handling the pressure of being ECS5 favourites, according to gla1ve". PCGamesN. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
2. Petrosyan, Albert. "CSGO: Astralis make history with win at StarLadder Berlin Major - Final Placements". Dexerto. Archived from the original on 20 September 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
3. Kovanen, Tomi "lurppis". "Changes in Anexis". Archived from the original on 27 April 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
4. "CS:GO TEAM RANKING: FEBRUARY 2013". HLTV. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
5. Kovanen, Tomi "lurppis". "Western Wolves Disband". Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
6. Jansson, Joakim. "Gla1ve Sparkad Från CPH Wolves Efter Tjejstrul" (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
7. Švejda, Milan "Striker". "gla1ve removed from CPH Wolves". HLTV. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
8. Kovanen, Tomi "lurppis" (10 January 2017). "I had to go Back, All In". Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
9. Lewis, Richard. "Gla1ve 1-1 Interview". YouTube.
10. "Heroic". Archived from the original on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
11. "gla1ve to stand in for Kjaerbye on Astralis at ESL One Cologne". The Score Esports. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
12. Gonzales, Dennis. "Heroic Snappi: 'I will always miss having gla1ve by my side'". theScore Esports. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
13. Gonzalez, Dennis. "Astralis sign gla1ve". TheScore Esports. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
14. Burazin, Zvonimir "Professeur". "Astralis win the ELEAGUE Major!". HLTV. Archived from the original on 4 February 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
15. Mira, Luis "MIRAA". "Kjærbye Confirms North Move". Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
16. Nordmark, Sam (2 February 2018). "Kjærbye Announces Departure from Astralis, Seemingly Headed to North". Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
17. Burazin, Zvonimir "Professeur". "Astralis Sign Magisk". Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
18. "Intel Grand Slam Information". Archived from the original on 16 March 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
19. "Why can no team overcome Astralis?". Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
20. "Glaive and Xyp9x are the biggest reasons for the Astralis supremacy". Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
21. Chiu, Stephen. "Tactical Supremacy, A gla1ve Story". VPEsports. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
22. Chiu, Stephen. "From Unheralded to Undisputed, Astralis 2018". VPEsports. Archived from the original on 3 December 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
23. Švejda, Milan "Striker". "Astralis's Nuke: Analyzing the 26-0 Streak". Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
24. Burazin, Zvonimir "Professeur". "Top 20 Players of 2018: Gla1ve (8)". Archived from the original on 13 January 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
25. Phillips, Dom (26 November 2018). "gla1ve — Leading By Example". Medium. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
26. Chiu, Stephen. "Why Astralis are the Greatest of All Time". Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
27. Doughty, Benjamin (11 December 2018). "Why Astralis Are The Best Team We've Ever Seen in Professional CS:GO". Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
28. Masters, Tim. "Why Liquid could stay longer on the top than Astralis did". Rivalry Esports. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.