LONDON -- When Lukas Rossander woke up on Sunday morning in his room at the Hilton at Wembley, he could feel the butterflies in his stomach.
For the past three weeks, Rossander, known as "gla1ve" in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, competed in a grueling marathon of matches across Twickenham and Wembley against some of the best teams in the world, such as Team Liquid, MiBR, Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan. A veteran of the game with an eight-year career across CS:GO and the previous version of the game, Source, Rossander was no stranger to tough opposition.
But nothing was like stepping on the main stage at SSE Arena on Sunday. A victory meant everything.
"I had a really tough time sleeping [Saturday night] because I was so nervous or just excited about playing this Major final, but I didn't feel the hype too much before being in the final," Rossander said. "I had made my goal to be in the final, but I now had to set a new goal. It was amazing."
Nearly two years ago, Rossander was given the best opportunity in his professional esports life: to assume the role of in-game leader of Astralis, one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's most successful teams. Since the formation of its core in mid-2013, the full Danish team -- which has competed under Copenhagen Wolves, über G33KZ, Team Dignitas, Team SoloMid, Questionmark and now Astralis -- has consistently fought for championships and led its countrymen as one of the best Counter-Strike teams from Denmark.
In late 2015, Rossander became a standout leader on one of those teams, Heroic, a sister team of Astralis, both owned by Danish holding company RFRSH Entertainment. He had also filled in for Astralis in a previous major, ESL One Cologne in July 2016. Those performances and friction within the Astralis lineup after constant attempts and subsequent failures to hoist a championship, led Rossander to get his chance.
In its honeymoon phase after picking him up, Astralis took third/fourth in Oakland in November 2016, second at the ELEAGUE Season 2 Finals in Atlanta and first at the Esports Championship Series Season 2 Finals that December in Anaheim, California.
For a roster with fluctuation in its results yet so much potential, Rossander seemed like the key that would lead them to what had eluded the Danes for more than three years: a win at a Counter-Strike Major. The pressure existed -- it was only the second time Rossander, then 21, had stepped foot on a Major stage -- but with only one previous tournament win, a loss wouldn't put a scar on his or Astralis' legacy.
In a return to Atlanta a few months later, Rossander and tournament favorites Astralis fought through a playoff littered with difficult opponents. It concluded in a matchup against Virtus.pro, the high-caliber Polish lineup that had a previous Major title under its belt. In the end, the Asralis squad were champions. Rossander had done it.
Heading into London 18 months later, the team again was a favorite. The difference? An immense amount of pressure, built up by previous expectations and results. Without a win at Wembley, cementing Astralis' era would be a lost task. The trek to the finals didn't start without errors, though.
"[Friday] was a mix of thoughts on wanting to end the game faster than we actually should," Astralis rifler Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen said. "We want to force end the game, rather than playing out time and win the game correctly. We had the lead, and we wanted to finish then and go on in the tournament. That was a mistake on our part."
"When we get into hectic rounds, we need to calm down," Rossander said. "I'm saying it like every 10 seconds. 'Calm down, guys. Calm down.' Every time they throw a flashbang, 'Calm down, guys.' Otherwise, the Teamspeak gets so hectic, and you're going to lose rounds if the Teamspeak is hectic. You need to be calm, you need to focus on your aim, you need to focus on what the other players are doing, and I need to tell my team what to do in those situations."
In the end, corrections were made, and Rossander and Astralis were resolute and have made it to the end to face Natus Vincere.
It's rare that a playoff bracket at a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major shakes out to have the consensus top two teams against one another in the final. Often, one will falter in group stages or in bracket stage against comparable opponents. But not on Sunday. There was something about it, whether that be the thousands of fans cheering the Astralis name or chanting "send them home" to CIS's Natus Vincere. Whatever it was, Rossander did his best to swallow the feelings and focus on the goal: another championship.
What was scheduled to be a four-hour bout lasted no more than two-and-a-half hours. Rossander and team weren't making boneheaded mistakes any longer. In periods that included incredible clutches -- breaking a stat line that saw Natus Vincere convert pistol-round victories into three consecutive rounds across the entire tournament -- Astralis put down the Eastern Europeans. It looked like clockwork. Natus Vincere would gain momentum, Astralis would pull off a remarkable play and break Na'Vi's mental fortitude.
"I could see the evolution, and these were definitely the best games for us the entire tournament, no doubt," Rossander said.
Loud cannons shot orange confetti. Cheers from both British and Danish fans roared from a sea of thousands. Tears and screams of excitement from the players erupted from the stage. Legacy cemented.
"We felt a lot more comfortable playing our own game. We didn't get so nervous like we did against Virtus.pro in the final last time," Rossander said. "It feels different, but the feeling of winning a Major is still the same. But the feeling of playing the game itself was different."
With the victory, Rossander, Højsleth, Reedz and Rasmussen join a small list of multi-time Major champions in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive history. In less than two years, the team's big wins netted them more than $1 million across the two tournaments. Earlier in the year, Rasmussen promised teammate Emil "Magisk" Reif, 20, the only player not to be a repeat champion, that they would get him a title. Promise fulfilled.
"I'm proud of everyone on the team. They've been working so hard throughout 2018, winning our second Major title and our first for [Reif]," Rossander said. "It just means a lot to us.
"We're such a young team, I don't know how we're going to accomplish more than we've already been doing and how we can evolve our game even more than we already have. For my legacy, it means a lot for me to win a second Major because some players have done it, and they're already written in history. I just want to join them."
The triumph in London comes with so much more than the one in January in Atlanta. Following its first Major win, Astralis struggled to remain consistent, winning only one tournament the remainder of 2017. Other teams took the title of the best in the world, and Astralis went through struggles that made it add Reif in place of Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye. Now, it will try to do what it could not last year: keep together and keep winning.
"Hopefully we learned from the last time we were No. 1 for such a long time," Rossander said. "Now we've been No. 1 for a long time for some time again. We need to work at least as hard as we have done. Don't try to rest too much. Otherwise, people will catch up to us fast. We need to work as hard as we have been doing."