Anders Blume

File:IEM 2015 San Jose Day 1 - 86.jpg]]

Blume's entry into commentary stemmed from his dissatisfaction with the commentators at the time he played the game. He was unsatisfied with how they described the game, in particular their failure to acknowledge the use of flashes, smoke, and grenades as a tactical element.{{Cite web|url =http://esport.aftonbladet.se/csgo/anders-blume-next-year-we-will-see-the-game/|title = Anders Blume: "Next year we will see the game elevate to a whole new level"|date = 26 November 2014|access-date = 3 December 2015|website = Aftonbladet|last = Ehrnberg|first = Björn }}

Blume had his first live-streamed cast in January 2013 on a Twitch channel called pugcasts.{{cite web|last1=O'Neill|first1=Patrick Howell|title=Meet Anders Blume, the voice of Counter-Strike| url=https://www.dailydot.com/esports/anders-blume-caster-counter-strike-global-offensive/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160805150630/https://www.dailydot.com/esports/anders-blume-caster-counter-strike-global-offensive/ | publisher=The Daily Dot | date=11 December 2015 | archive-date=5 August 2016 | access-date=3 October 2018|url-status=unfit | ref=ddAnders}} His popularity grew quickly and he was soon invited to join NiPTV, a branch of the Ninjas in Pyjamas organisation.{{Cite news|last=Malinowski|first=Kamil|date=25 July 2019|title=CS:GO: Anders to open up about his time on NiP, following player mistreatment allegations|work=Dexerto|url=https://www.dexerto.com/csgo/csgo-anders-to-open-up-about-his-time-on-nip-following-player-mistreatment-allegations-843714/|access-date=20 April 2021}} He began to cast at LAN events soon after. His first event was a local Danish event called the Blast 2013. Soon after this, Anders had his first major break at a large event with his selection as a commentator for DreamHack Summer 2013. At the time, the event had the second highest prize-pool in the game's history. Another commentator at the event, Auguste Massonnat, would go on to become a regular fixture of any NiPTV broadcast.

To date, Anders has been part of the commentary team for the grand finals at 10 out of the 17 Valve sponsored majors.

In July 2014, Anders officially left NiPTV to build his own brand, RoomOnFire, alongside Semmler. Initially, the only other member of the organization was Halvor "vENdetta" Gulestøl. In the beginning they ran their own weekly online cups in partnership with Caseking.de called the CaseKing of the Hill. These cups ran weekly featuring a variety of different top teams. The series of cups culminated with an eight team online invitational tournament called the CaseKing of Kings.{{Cite web|url = http://www.hltv.org/n/13366|title = Caseking King of Kings announced|date = 8 October 2014|access-date = 27 November 2015|website = HLTV.org|last = Kovanen|first = Tomi}} Among the invited were several of the winners of the previous cups.

The duo of Anders and Semmler signed an exclusivity deal with Twitch in April 2015 as part of a larger acquisition of talent including former NiP player Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson and the current Professional player, Spencer "Hiko" Martin.{{cite web|last1=Mira|first1=Luis|title=Twitch signs CS:GO talent|url=http://www.hltv.org/news/14689-twitch-signs-csgo-talent|website=HLTV.org|access-date=27 November 2015}}

Semmler revealed on his personal Ask.fm page that the North American section of the organization was being run by Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett, a Canadian commentator who rose to prominence in early 2015 when PGL brought him out to Bucharest to commentate their Kickoff season.{{Cite web|title = CCS casters, match-ups revealed|url = http://www.hltv.org/news/14699-ccs-casters-match-ups-revealed|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 11 December 2015|last = Mira|first = Luís|date = 9 April 2015}}

As a method of raising funds and providing a method for the community to support the organization,{{Cite web|url = http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/30/steam-workshop-57-million-dollars/|title = Over $57 Million Paid Out To Steam Workshop Creators|date = 30 January 2015|access-date = 11 December 2015|website = Rock Paper Shotgun|last = O'Conner|first = Alice}} together with artists known as Hanzo and Coyote, they uploaded a variety of in-game weapon skins to the Steam Workshop. Since then, two of these items have been added to the game.

In 2015 they stopped organizing their own online cups. This was caused by the large number of other online leagues and offline events that happened throughout the year. Top teams lacked the time to participate due to commitments to other larger, leagues.

In 2019, after former Fifflaren and other former people associated with NiP spoke out about disagreements with the organisation, Blume publicly supported people with knowledge to speak up.

{{BLP unsourced section|date=April 2021}}

• Dreamhack Summer 2013{{Cite web|title = DH Summer casters announced|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/10795/dh-summer-casters-announced|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 10 July 2022|last = Mira|first = Luís|date = 10 June 2013}}
• Dreamhack Winter 2013
• ESL One Katowice 2014
• ESL One Cologne 2014{{Cite web|title = ESL One Cologne casters revealed|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/12963/esl-one-cologne-casters-revealed|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 10 July 2022|last = Mira|first = Luís|date = 7 August 2014}}
• Dreamhack Winter 2014{{Cite web|title = DH Winter casters revealed|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/13628/dh-winter-casters-revealed|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 10 July 2022|last = Mira|first = Luís|date = 18 November 2014}}
• ESL One Katowice 2015
• Dreamhack Open Tour 2015
• ESL One Cologne 2015
• DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015
• MLG Columbus 2016
• ESL One Cologne 2016{{Cite web|title = ESL announce Cologne talent|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/18156/esl-announce-cologne-talent|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 10 July 2022|last = Švejda|first = Milan|date = 28 June 2016}}
• ELeague Major 2017{{Cite web|title = ELEAGUE Major talent revealed|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/19611/eleague-major-talent-revealed|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 9 July 2022|last = Mira|first = Luís|date = 12 January 2017}}
• PGL Major: Kraków 2017{{Cite web|title = PGL Major Main Qualifier talent unveiled|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/20791/pgl-major-main-qualifier-talent-unveiled|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 9 July 2022|last = Mira|first = Luís|date = 23 June 2017}}
• ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018{{Cite web|title = n0thing joins ELEAGUE Major talent lineup|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/22522/n0thing-joins-eleague-major-talent-lineup|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 9 July 2022|last = Clark|first = Ben|date = 18 January 2018}}
• FACEIT Major: London 2018
• ESL One Cologne 2019
• StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019
• Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice 2020{{Cite web|title = IEM Katowice talent revealed|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/29041/iem-katowice-talent-revealed|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 10 July 2022|author = VoltiX|date = 13 February 2020}}
• BLAST Premier Global Final 2020{{Cite web|title = BLAST Premier Global Final talent announced|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/30979/blast-premier-global-final-talent-announced|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 10 July 2022|last = Švejda|first = Milan|date = 14 January 2021}}
• PGL Major Stockholm 2021{{Cite web|title = Sadokist and ddk among talent revealed for PGL Major Stockholm|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/32495/sadokist-and-ddk-among-talent-revealed-for-pgl-major-stockholm|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 10 July 2022|last = Dempsey|first = Arron|date = 4 October 2021}}
• BLAST Premier Fall Final 2021{{Cite web|title = BLAST Premier Fall Final talent announced|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/32740/blast-premier-fall-final-talent-announced|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 9 July 2022|last = Rizzo|first = Marco|date = 3 November 2021}}
• IEM Cologne 2022{{Cite web|title = IEM Cologne talent lineup announced|url = https://www.hltv.org/news/34148/iem-cologne-talent-lineup-announced|website = HLTV.org|access-date = 9 July 2022|last = Švejda|first = Milan|date = 30 June 2022}}

Blume has been referred to as the voice of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive due to his overwhelming presence as a commentator for the game. Blume has become a figure of interest partially due to his energetic style of casting, in addition to his deliverance of the phrase "Are you kidding me!". So much so that compilations of him saying it have enjoyed mainstream success on YouTube, with as many as over a million views.

Anders picked up the nickname of "The General" after the ESL One Katowice 2015 major due to the large collection of CS:GO related pins he had attached to the blazer he was wearing at the event. People immediately drew similarity between the pins and medals such that a general might have.

In 2015, Blume won the Golden Joystick award for esports icon of the year.{{Cite news|date=30 October 2015|title=Golden Joysticks 2015: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt wins five gaming awards|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-34679591|access-date=20 April 2021}} In 2018, Blume was nominated for Best Esports Host by The Game Awards, losing out to Sjokz.{{Cite news|last=Byers|first=Preston|date=6 December 2018|title=All the esports winners at The Game Awards 2018|work=Dot Esports|url=https://dotesports.com/general/news/all-the-esports-winners-at-the-game-awards-2018|access-date=20 April 2021}}

At the beginning of his career, Blume was the target of criticism from people "for not living up to the high standards set by Counter-Strike stalwarts Joe Miller and Paul Chaloner".{{cite news | last1=Lewis|first1=Richard|title=There's no such thing as too much talent | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222081218/http://www.dailydot.com/esports/too-much-talent-counter-strike-casting/ | url=http://www.dailydot.com/esports/too-much-talent-counter-strike-casting/ | publisher=The Daily Dot | archive-date=December 22, 2015 | access-date=October 3, 2018 | date=May 4, 2015 | url-status=unfit}}

Blume is married and has a son and a daughter.{{cite news |url=https://www.dr.dk/sporten/oevrig/anders-blume-er-danmarks-anonyme-counter-strike-stjerne |title=Anders Blume er Danmarks anonyme Counter-Strike-stjerne |language=da |publisher=DR |date=23 September 2018 |access-date=9 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809151448/https://www.dr.dk/sporten/oevrig/anders-blume-er-danmarks-anonyme-counter-strike-stjerne |archive-date=9 August 2019 |url-status=live |quote=I blandt dem 32-årige Anders Blume, der udadtil har en stille og rolig tilværelse med sin familie. Her er ingen rockstjernenykker, det er villa, vovse og sønnike Walther på tre år. }} He attended the University of Copenhagen to study physics before transferring to biology and then finally English; he eventually dropped out.{{Cite web|title=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYEtKcOR5aU|access-date=2020-06-30|website=www.youtube.com}} During this time he also worked part-time on the development of databases for a local company, but did not further this due to the amount of time required by casting.{{cite web|last1 = Kojadinovic|first1 = Vladimir|title = Anders Blume: "General Anders will no doubt return"|url = http://www.gosugamers.net/counterstrike/features/4252-anders-blume-general-anders-will-no-doubt-return|website = GosuGamers|access-date = 26 November 2015}} Alongside his indecision in regards to his education, he would also constantly switch between a variety of hobbies and other projects.{{cite web|last1=Blume|first1=Anders|title=Blog: Choices|url=http://www.hltv.org/?pageid=135&userid=428235&blogid=6451|website=HLTV.org|access-date=26 November 2015}}

Blume spent his childhood in the small suburb of Farum. His interest in gaming developed at a young age, attending late-night Internet cafes with his friends to play Counter-Strike as a 13-year old. He has since described one train journey home from Copenhagen after one such session in the summer of 1999 to be an especially treasured childhood memory. In his own words, "I think [then] I realized that we really had something with this game."

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Category:Sports commentators

Category:Esports commentators

Category:Living people

Category:1985 births

Category:Place of birth missing (living people)

Category:University of Copenhagen alumni

Category:People from Furesø Municipality

Category:Counter-Strike