"One thing I learned about getting bigger, it's not girls that write to you, it's mostly guys". BlameF on gym life, new Astralis and CS2
During one of the last CS:GO LAN events, IEM Cologne 2023, we've met with Benjamin "blameF" Bremer. New Astralis IGL talked with us about the transformation of the team, Counter Strike 2, and another thing that he cares about a lot — the gym!
— Is the new Astralis roster an update to the previous one, or did you do a major overhaul of the roster?
— I think we did an overhaul, it's a new roster in my opinion. Yes, we only changed two players, but we changed a lot of roles around the team, so it's a brand new roster, and under a new IGL too. Almost every single player has a new role, even I got new positions on every single T-side and some CT-sides also changed. I think it's a brand new team.
— In June, dev1ce said that IGL role matters less and less, as there are a lot of micro decisions mid-rounds, where IGL cannot help. Do you feel the same?
— I think, to some extent he is right, the way Counter-Strike is being played now is that you need good players to make good decisions mid-round and not rely on set rounds all the time. Mid-rounds are more about reacting and taking chances. So yeah, in that sense there is a truth to that.
— When you just joined Astralis, you were saying that you did not want to be an IGL, but later it came out that you were calling on Mirage, and now you are a full IGL. How do you feel about that?
— I always said the same in all my teams, that I play whatever role that makes the team the best, what the team needs. If my team needs me to be an IGL, I will do that, and if it needs me to be a fragger, I will do that. The team and management came to me and asked if I could be an IGL, and of course I was open to that.
It wasn't about me going in and trying to get an IGL role, it wasn't like that at all. I did not go and say “I want to do this”, but I think I'm good at many roles, and I also think I'm a good IGL. So it was easy for me to decide when they asked me to do it.
— Unfortunately, we don't have a second CS:GO Major this season, but if we had it, who would be in the finals?
— I'd say Heroic and Vitality. They are the two best teams in the world right now.
— What about Astralis? Could you make it to the finals, playoffs, group stage?
— We haven't even made it to the Major the last two times, so it would be stupid of me to say that I think we will be in the finals or something like that. But, of course I'd think we would qualify and get further than we did the last couple times. It's about where we are as a team, and it’s hard to predict.
— Recently there were a lot of arguments about the trash-talk during the games. How do you feel about it?
— I don't care, the people could trash talk us as much as they want, as long as they can go to us and say “thank you for the match” after, and shake hands and respect each other outside of the server. As long as people do that, I don't care. I only care if people are not behaving friendly outside of the server, like if people hold grudges or do something like that, then I think that's childish on their part.
— Everyone knows that you love to go to the gym. Previously, you were a bodybuilder, if I could say that, and you also have a nutritionist diploma. How did you get into it?
— Like most guys that go to the gym, I was in the school and wanted to get some abs for the girls. And then I got a little bigger. And then all of the sudden I thought it would be fun to get a little bit bigger than that, and then a little bigger than that, and it just became something more of a lifestyle than just a hobby. In part it became something who I was.
I cared so much about it that I would never eat any stuff that wasn’t in my diet, even when I was on vacations or on birthday parties, I would always bring my own food. People maybe thought that I was a bit weird, but it just became something that taught me a lot in life. Discipline, hard work, being alone and still be able to get stuff done, counting on yourself. That was a very healthy sport for me, it taught me a lot of good stuff while I had fun with it.
— Is it hard to keep such shape with a schedule that CS players have?
— To be honest, I think it's pretty much impossible, I wouldn't be able to be even close to what I did back then, diet-wise and training-wise. You have to go to hotel gyms all the time, and they don't have big weights, and then you get back home and you are tired from travel.
It's really hard to make good choices in nutrition. I do my best, but it's hard, because you are not choosing where you get it from, if it's good quality sources and stuff. I don't care about it as much anymore, now I care more about still moving my body, running a bit, training a bit, just keeping active. My focus is on that now instead of getting bigger.
— What is your daily routine during an event or just being at home?
— I train once a day, and try to do it every day. I prefer to not take off days and just have shorter trainings than most people. I do one muscle group a day, so a 5 day split. A normal day would be like one muscle group, it would be like 30-35 minutes to train that, and then I would do some cardio just to get some sweat on, 15-20 minutes max, and that's it.
— You mentioned that you came to the gym because you wanted to attract girls. Did you get more girls like you wanted?
— No [laughs]. One thing I learned about getting bigger as a guy, it's not the girls that write to you, it's actually the guys. I had countless messages from all the guys, and there were no girls messaging me. You don't get girls by getting big. You only get guys asking you, “how did you get these abs, how did you get these biceps?”. So, no. Maybe just a little bit of girls.
— The truth hurts.
— It hurts, but it's also just the beginning of your training, that thing about girls. As soon as you go down there and start to enjoy it, you start doing it for yourself, personal gains, health benefits, and not for the girls. It's just when you are 15 and you get to the gym for the first time, you definitely think a bit about impressing the girls.
— Do you think your training makes it easier for you to bear the stress and loads top CS players have, compared to someone who doesn't train?
— I don't think it's about actually playing the game. It's more about all the stuff around it. Like, I'm able to play and watch a lot of CS without getting tired of it. So, I can easily sit and practice the whole day, and then at night I could sit and watch demos the whole night, while my team needs a break or something.
Or after matches, when other people go to bed, I like to sit and watch our games back and prepare notes for the next day, so my team don't have to do it. I think it's more about those kinds of things that maybe give me a little bit of an edge. Just when you are feeling good in your body, you don't get tired that fast, all that stuff. But I don't think that when you are actually playing, it gives you an advantage, because all Counter-Strike players know how to play 3-4 hours in a row.
— Any advice for the teenagers who want to become like you, playing CS, but also be cool in the gym, outside of the server?
— I think it's more about finding a consistent regime they could do, rather than trying to do something crazy, like “Oh I'm going to work out every day”. Find something that you feel that you can do consistently, and then you can always do more after. Just start with two days a week at the gym, and then be consistent with it. Get slower results over a long period of time than go hard at the gym for one month and then skip the next month and so on. Don't set the bar too high, and it will go natural after that.
— Let's talk a bit about CS2. Do you believe the game will be out in the next few months?
— From what I'm hearing it would be. I think it's going to be hard for the players to manage at least, in terms of schedule and adaptation. It should be this summer, and there is not much time left in the summer. Basically two months and it's not summer anymore.
— How do you feel about the first CS2 tournaments? Is it ok for them to be more “random”, because you obviously won't have that much time to prepare?
— I think yeah, it will be more random at the start, because of lack of practice. There will be less time to watch demos and stuff. Some people will try to play the same they did in CS:GO, and some will change a lot. I think the first couple of tournaments could be a little bit random, but it's still the same top teams going to these events, so it will probably still be one of the good teams winning it.
— We already know the first Major will be held in Denmark, and the second is rumored to be in China. What cities would you like to see hosting more Majors in CS2?
— It's hard for me to tell. I'm happy about the Denmark one for sure, because that's my country, but for me it's more about going to exciting places with exciting fanbases, that's what deserves a Major for me. Going to the place you know is going to have a lot of fans and a lot of attention around it, that's important for me. I'd rather do that than going to a country which doesn't have a lot of fans and hype around it. So, as long as those criteria met, I don't really care where exactly it is.
