[hkes_show_google_ad] Astralis solidified themselves as the best team in CS:GO after they won the ELEAGUE Major 2017 over Virtus.pro and a slew of other top tier teams. CS:GO fans took notice, but so did the city that many of Astralis’ players call home. The Danish team was invited to Copenhagen’s City Hall and were honored by the city for their Major victory. They were served Rådhuspandekager, or City Hall Pancakes, which is a traditional Danish dish reserved for special ceremonies, among other things. theScore esports talked to Astralis co-founder and co-owner Frederik Byskov about the team’s experience at the Copenhagen City Hall and what it could mean for esports in Denmark. When did you first hear that you guys were being honored by the city of Copenhagen? Was it something you were expecting? After winning the ELEAGUE Major we joked about it: “All we need is pancakes now,” we said that during our celebration dinner Sunday evening. It’s a tradition in Denmark for sport teams to get invited to Copenhagen City Hall if they win gold medals. Three days after returning to Denmark the joke became a reality as I received the invitation from Carl Christian Ebbesen. So we weren’t expecting it and it’s a first ever for an esports team to get recognized on a political level like that here in Denmark. Is this something that you’ve ever experienced before? What were the players’ reactions? As [I] said, it’s a first ever. It’s a lifetime experience and everyone enjoyed it. We had a chat with the mayor and other members of the Copenhagen municipality. And we of course enjoyed the pancakes. Who exactly was at the ceremony? Anyone that you were surprised to see? Three different Danish TV stations, members of the Copenhagen municipality and other associates combined with different Danish press outlets. It was a very relaxing day; the mayor gave a speech and after that we chatted with different political stakeholders and gave interviews to the press about our victory and what the invitation meant to us all. How significant is this to you, to the team, to CS:GO and for esports in general? After being in esports for such a long period of time, it’s nice to see the players getting the recognition they deserve. They spend so many hours becoming a top athlete within their game and even though it isn’t the exact same as regular sport, it’s a close match. The political acceptance from the mayor is a big thing for us all, it’ll help esports grow even more, even though Denmark is a small country. We have a lot of talent here and Astralis winning the ELEAGUE Major has put a lot of focus on not only CS:GO, but esports in general in Denmark. Is this a one-off from the city of Copenhagen, or do you believe that esports is something they’ll continue to pay attention to? In Carl’s speech he told us that the municipality of Copenhagen will focus even more on esports in the coming years. So it wasn’t a one-off and I hope we get to experience the Copenhagen City Hall another time if we ever get so lucky to win our second Major title. [hkes_show_google_ad]