Astralis Will Keep Casle As CS:GO Head Coach

Despite Astralis’ struggles over the 2022 season and the team’s recent slip-up at CCT North Europe Series #2, the Danish organization won’t make changes to its coaching personnel.

As revealed on Tuesday, December 20, Peter “casle” Ardenskjold will remain with Astralis going into 2023 after spending the last two months as interim head coach.

Astralis have announced that its interim head coach casle, will remain with the main Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team heading into the 2023 season. But while the Danish squad decided to keep casle, Astralis announced the departure of Frederik “LOMME “Nielse, who will leave the team after a one-year stint as an analyst.

“There were several profiles in play for the role, but it is impossible to neglect Peter’s qualities, so the choice was easy in the end,” said Astralis Director of Sports, Kasper Hvidt.

“Peter has the values we always look for in Astralis, and we are delighted that he has accepted the challenge to be a vital part of what will be our new organization around the team.”

Casle is a former professional CS:GO player, who transitioned to coaching in July 2019 with maquinas. He has since served as a coach for Singularity.dk, Team Singularity, and MASONIC, before casle joined Astralis Talent as a head coach in August 2022.

Casle spent just two months with Astralis’ academy team, with who he placed 17th-32nd at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Rotterdam 2022: European Open Qualifier #2 and ninth-12th at CCT North Europe Series #1: Closed Qualifier. And after a short stint with the academy lineup casle got promoted to the position of interim head coach for Astralis’ main team.

In the main team, casle replaced Martin “trace” Heldt, former Astralis Talent coach, who got promoted to the main lineup in March to replace Alexander “ave” Holdt.

Since joining Astralis As head coach, casle has led Astralis through only two tournaments, including Elisa Masters Espoo 2022 and CCT North Europe Series #2, where he placed third-fourth and fifth-eight, respectively. But despite the team’s lack of success, casle will remain at the helm of the squad.

Even though casle has failed to win much as a head coach of Astralis, he has spent just two months with the main team, so he deserves some slack. Moreover, the 36-year-old feels confident that this is only the beginning and that Astralis still have a lot more to show.

“We have come a long way with the roles on the team, but we are by no means finished. Neither with roles nor with the organization, and I am glad that I can now continue with the work we have started,” said casle.

“I will be a permanent part of that work, and I am very much looking forward to 2023, where we have one single goal: To prove that we belong at the very top of Counter-Strike. I hope we can unveil more before the new year.”

Despite casle’s optimism, Astralis have recently found themselves in a tricky spot. As a former CS:GO powerhouse, Astralis have recently crashed out of CCT North Europe Series #2 and lost the grand finals of CCT Central Europe Series #4 against Copenhagen Flames, continuing their dry streak.

Astralis last won a CS:GO tournament in December 2020, when they lifted the Intel Extreme Masters XV – Global Challenge trophy. Since then, Astralis came close to adding another silverware but consistently fell flat.

In 2022 alone, Astralis have managed three runner-up finishes and three semifinal appearances, most recently at Elisa Masters Espoo 2022 in November. But while the last two years were fairly uneventful for Astralis, the Danes still possess enough talent to make a comeback in 2023.