Is Xyp9x a robot?

If you tried to describe someone you know with three words and come up with “nice,” “funny,” and “smart” you either don’t know well or have simply have no facility with language. Yet, when it comes to Andreas “Xyp9x” Højslethl, I don’t think the general public or I can do much better. In fact, perhaps it’s this exact quality that standouts most about him, that nothing about him stands out.

And it’s not that he’s not good enough to elicit attention. While at times he’s been underwhelming, even reportedly almost getting cut in the summer of 2015, he has been solid and occasionally stunning in recent years, even earning MVP honors at IEM Katowice 2017, the last full-event Astralis won.

But no matter the level of exposure, almost no clear image of him ever seems to rise to the surface. A man stand stiffly with an expression that only transitions between blank and equal parts smile and grimace. Questions are answered reasonably, but almost without any inflection personality.

Recently, I’ve begun to wonder if he’s even human.

Don’t get me wrong, he certainly doesn’t look like a robot. His plainness protrudes, but he’s a good number of steps beyond the uncanny valley. What drags him back in is how he plays the game.

Ironically enough, it’s not his mechanical skill that impresses. Watching his POV never produces the sensation that a Nikola “NiKo” Kovač or a Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev or Kenny “kennyS” Schrub can: the feeling that the speed and accuracy of what this guy did is just beyond what you thought was possible a moment before.

No, Xp9x’s raw skill is characteristically unremarkable. But what captures the mind’s imagination is how he approaches combat beyond movement and aim. It’s his decision making. He maximizes his chances with each and every move. Standing in the right corner, hiding in the perfect spot, holding his ground here, retreating there. He makes tough site defenses and 1vX situations look simple, responding in perfect exactitude to new information in real-time.

At IEM Katowice, Xyp9x won 13 1vX situations, the most the game has ever seen in a single tournament.

Watching him has the air of watching a chess Grandmaster pound out blitz matches. The game is still slow enough where you can vaguely follow along, but the speed and quality of each move painfully demonstrates the enormous trench between your brain and his.

I’ve always wonder what playing against him must feel like. Does the apparently perfect move made under pressure in the moment just look widely impressive to his opponent, or does his caliber play so far exceed the norm that it actually garners an element of artificiality? When they look at him do they see Kasparov or Deep Blue? Magnus Carlsen or Houdini 6.02?

But putting that question aside, what’s perhaps equally alien, equally unnerving, is his position within his team despite this specific genius.

Xyp9x has always been described as Astralis’s (or some previous version of Astralis) “support player.” Now, the term “support player” itself has increasingly felt vaguely artificial in its application recently as opponents such as Jason “Moses” O’Toole have fervently argued it doesn’t actually exist. Yet on perhaps Xyp9x alone, the term rests comfortably.

Astralis uses Xyp9x as an assistant or a helper rather than a carry or star. On the CT-side, Xyp9x is almost always functions as a small site defender and occasionally even a solo-small site defender. His job isn’t to spray down multiple opponents in high traffic entryways, but to look after the less popular site or entryway without dying, and wait for backup if it falls. And you can see this spirit of self-sacrifice even within how he plays of these positions.

And it’s more of the same of the T-side. Xyp9x will hold flanks, lurk, lob grenades for his entrying teammates, and occasionally be the first man in during difficult attacks. He’ll do whatever dirty work needs to be done.

It’s almost like he’s simultaneous trying to put his teammates into the best position to succeeded as well.

So while, yes, the support role suits him and his skill set extraordinarily well especially on the CT side, I can’t help but think it’s somehow beneath him. Peter “dupreeh” Rothmann and Kjaerbye can both overshadow the possible million-dollar-man when they hit their stride with their more impressive raw talents, but overall he almost certainly has been the second most productive individual on Astralis this year, only behind Dev1ce.

Stars and supports are supposed to be on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of both talent and output, not just talent. His extreme effectiveness at his role jumbles the paradigm.

It’s like if a professional painter employed a housekeeper, but both sides came to realize that the exactness of the lines created by the housekeeper’s vacuum were more beautiful than anything the painter has ever produced. Even if the housekeeper didn’t have any traditional artistic talents, surely only a Roomba would choose to keep on cleaning carpets.

But perhaps I’m not giving Astralis or Xyp9x enough credit. Maybe they don’t see him as hired help and he doesn’t seem himself that way. I don’t know if he’s a robot or android or what, but it’s possible that all the Danes know that his presence is pivotal to their continued success, that he’s a prodigy of positioning, an unparalleled specialty artist, and the best support player in the world.

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