blameF reveals his 200 IQ decoy strats at IEM Dallas

Astralis is out of IEM Dallas, but Benjamin “blameF” Bremer still has his head held high.

For most teams, a fifth-place finish at Intel Extreme Masters is something to celebrate. However, Astralis is not like most teams. The historic organization entered the event gunning for a championship but fell short after losing to MOUZ in the quarter-finals. WIN.gg was lucky to catch up with star rifler blameF to talk about his personal performance, team problems, and Counter-Strike 2 at IEM Dallas.

An interview with blameF at IEM Dallas

WIN.gg: Astralis’ results weren’t great here in Dallas, but you yourself played pretty well with a 1.13 KDA and five wins in the clutch. Does a good individual performance help you feel better?

blameF: I don’t think I played that well individually, honestly. I think I was decent, but it wasn’t some of my best play in that tournament. I played really well in the matches we won, and I contributed a lot there, but I feel like we could have played a lot better against ENCE. Then yesterday we lost so big that it was quite hard to play well. I think I could have done better, and I’m looking to play a lot these next couple of days and put up a better showing [at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2023] in Washington.

How were the team’s emotions after the loss to MOUZ? Any harsh words exchanged?

No. I think it’s positive for us that we are making playoffs. Of course, we want to beat MOUZ. Last year at Pro League and in playoffs at Cologne, we beat them. Unfortunately, they’ve become better as well. I don’t think there were any harsh words, it was more like we were a little bit sad that we didn’t show up better on the stage. 

But we also knew that we had a couple of people that were a bit inexperienced. It wasn’t the toughest loss, for sure, but it’s something we would have liked to win. 

What do you think Astralis needs to solidify itself as a top contender?

I think it’s just that there’s been so many player changes all the time. It’s been hard to find stability. It’s really hard to play when you constantly have to go through the same strats and all that. Just some stability is probably the main thing.

On a brighter note, you currently have the most-viewed clip of the tournament with that clutch against Cloud9 on Ancient. Have you been working on your pistol skills lately? 

I’ve played a lot of Deathmatch and there’s those three or four-minute window gaps where you have to play as pistols, so maybe it’s that. But really, that was just one of those rounds where I killed the first three, and then you just have so much confidence, peeking the rest is kinda just, you know your gonna headshot them when you kill the first two or three already. 

blameF, you also showed off a pretty cool piece of tech on Inferno in the IEM Dallas playoffs, using a decoy as a fake flash. Did you plan that out with dev1ce before, or was it an impromptu play? 

I actually threw the decoy so that if the guy stands close to the wall, it will hit him so we can hear that he’s standing close to the wall. 

So the decoy is meant to actually hit the player?

If the CT is standing there, that’s the setup that they did a lot. The coach [Peter “casle” Ardenskjold] told me that he would stand there, and then dev1ce could clear top banana, and then I can just decoy him so we can hear if he’s there. If he’s not there, then dev1ce can just swing because they’re not doing the setup. It’s just to check if they’re doing a top banana stack.

After Paris, there are no more CSGO majors to look forward to. Does that have an impact on your mentality?

No, not really. It’s not like I have so many achievements that I can just focus on the majors. Every tournament I can get to playoffs in. Of course, I want to win them, but even if I just get playoffs in a lot of tournaments, that’s something I’m looking for right now. I’m not looking for winning a major, that’s not my main goal. I just want to play as many tournaments as I can and get to tier one. And get a lot of good moments for me as well.

Assuming new maps were added, do you think Counter-Strike 2 is ready for tournament play?

No. They’ve only put out one update, and not much has changed. They could put out a giant update tomorrow, but there’s only one map right now, and we don’t know how many boxes there are going to be on all the other maps. So if they put out six or seven maps right now, there’s going to be 100 boxes in total. Personally, I don’t think so. I also think the ‘nading in the smokes is a problem, but I’m not the one making that decision.

Could you elaborate on that?

It changes too much in the meta. You cannot cross on Nuke down secret, for example. I think the meta right now is about blocking with smokes and timing and playing to block getting the info. Like with banana control, you can block them and not if there are three or four people there and the guys on the other bomb site don’t have the data to see. If you just ‘nade the smoke away and peek it, it’s too hard to hold stuff. There’s going to be a new meta for sure with how people play. You’re going to be so scared just sitting and holding smokes because people can just throw a ‘nade in there and peek you. I think it will change too much, in my opinion.

What gameplay or balance changes would you like to see in CS2? Maybe a nerf to the AWP?

I definitely think the AWP is extremely strong, but I also think it’s a little bit of fun. Not everyone is equal. If you just nerf the AWP so much that they kinda play the same game as the rifles, it’s that hard to get kills, it wouldn’t be Counter-Strike. I don’t mind that the AWP is stronger than the rifles, but I think the gameplay is fine honestly. I played a lot of CS2 deathmatch and some matchmaking, and I think the game is fine except for the ‘nades and smokes.

Do you have a favorite skin?

I’m the type that’s been playing with the same skins for my entire life, so I love the ones I have. I have a karambit I really like and a butterfly I really like. The karambit is green, and the butterfly is like a purple blue-ish. I don’t even know the names, honestly, but those are the ones I bought four, five years ago and I’ve just used them ever since.