Jakob Lund Kristensen on Astralis' growth: "we thought we were better than everyone else"

Jakob Lund Kristensen is about as experienced as they come in esports. Having been involved with the scene for well over a decade, he started out working lower-level jobs in the industry before founding the Copenhagen Wolves in 2012. Once the Wolves disbanded in 2016, Kristensen founded Astralis, BLAST, and most recently, Astralis Group, which brought together Astralis' various brands and titles. He's witnessed the esports ecosystem grow from infancy to its current state.

Most famous for their catalogue of Counter-Strike:Global Offensive successes, Astralis is a household name in the world of competitive gaming. However, the organisation has also set benchmarks in the often overlooked commercial side of esports, becoming one of the first publicly listed esports teams in late 2019, as well as expanding into League of Legends and FIFA in recent years before bringing their teams together under the Astralis banner in 2020. It's perhaps characteristic of its success that these milestones occurred close to a year of economic and logistical turbulence.

So how does Astralis go about navigating the esports landscape? And what does the future hold for an industry that continues to strive towards profitability? We talked to Kristensen to find out.

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