Astralis’ first event was DreamHack Leipzig 2016 in January 2016.

The team
topped their group after defeating their Danish brethren Dignitas and the
European-mix team mousesports in best-of-ones, however they exited the event
in the semi-final losing 0-2 to Luminosity Gaming. Their next LAN was Global
eSports Cup where they topped their group once again, this time with best-of-
three wins over Method and G2 Esports. They would go on to lose the semi-final
vs their rivals from the previous year, Team EnVyUs 1-2 and then defeat CLG in
the third-place decider, only losing seven rounds over two maps. ESL Expo
Barcelona was up next which featured an unusual format where each team had
three lives and a map loss would mean a life lost. Astralis won five maps
against G2 Esports, x6tence, Team EnVyUs and Dignitas. Astralis narrowly lost a
life to G2 and played two close games vs Fnatic in the faux-final as the only two
teams left.
IEM Katowice was next and Astralis would once again top their group and go
straight to the semi-final with best-of-one wins over Team EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro, E-
Frag, FaZe Clan and Tempo Storm. Astralis were set to play the last match of the
day vs Fnatic, but due to delays, this didn’t start until midnight and finally finished
at 3am with Astralis losing 1-2.
Astralis were expected to go far in MLG Columbus, the eighth CS:GO Major
following their 2nd place finish to Natus Vincere at Counter Pit League Season 2.
The event started well as Astralis beat Gambit and CLG to top their group but
were rewarded by being drawn against Fnatic in the Quarterfinals, the favourites
to win the whole event after winning their previous six events in a row. Things did
not go well for the Swedes though, as Astralis won in two maps, 16-10 on
Overpass and 16-5 on Fnatic’s map pick, Cache due to a standout performance
from Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen. Astralis went on to face Navi in the semi-final
where they narrowly lost Inferno 14-16 and were outclassed on Dust II thanks to
stellar performances from Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev and Egor “flamie” Vasilyev.