There’s a perception in the CS:GO community that Astralis’ rifler blameF only has great stats because he baits his teammates by playing overly passive. This theory is repeated over and over in almost every Astralis post on Reddit, regardless of whether it is about blameF or not.
“[BlameF is] too passive, a bit of a bait here and there, saving way too often, not taking risks unless he’s been pressured to do so, he sometimes doesn’t even trade his teammates properly,” one fan wrote on Reddit on June 1, in a post discussing Astralis reportedly signing Victor Staerh from Sprout. “I just can’t watch this blameF baiting game man, come on is there no other tactics,” another fan wrote on Reddit in May.
What some fans don’t realize, however, is that CS:GO stats prove blameF isn’t as passive as they might think he is in the first place. The star rifler is the second-most aggressive player on Astralis in 2023, as you can see below according to stats from HLTV.
| Stats | dev1ce | blameF | Buzz | Altekz | gla1ve | Xyp9x |
| Percentage of rounds where a player was involved in opening kill or death | 22.9 percent | 21.5 percent | 19.6 percent | 19.6 percent | 19.4 percent | 15.1 percent |
| Percentage of rounds where the player won the opening duel | 66.7 percent | 60.3 percent | 47.2 percent | 52.8 percent | 46.3 percent | 50.5 percent |
| Opening kills per round | 0.15 | 0.13 | 0.09 | 0.10 | 0.09 | 0.08 |
| Deaths per round | 0.08 | 0.09 | 0.10 | 0.09 | 0.10 | 0.07 |
| Opening kill rating | 1.30 | 1.17 | 0.96 | 1.03 | 0.94 | 0.92 |
Related: Return of the King: dev1ce roars to life in IEM Dallas groups with incredible kill tally
What blameF’s numbers show is that fans sometimes get stuck on a narrative because of a few plays they’ve seen. The eye test is a valid way to measure whether a player is good or not when you’re watching a match, but you should also take stats into consideration before making any judgments.
BlameF is the second-best player on Astralis in 2023, only slightly below dev1ce—who’s undoubtedly one of the most consistent players of all time. Together, they helped the Danish team reach the playoffs at IEM Dallas after nearly one year away from the playoffs of big events.
