k0nfig details his Astralis and Complexity salaries

On the Bootcamp podcast published on January 30, Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke revealed some details about the salaries he earned during his playing Counter-Strike career, before retiring from professional competition on October 15, 2025. During the discussion, he looked back on his time with Astralis, where he explained that he was earning 175,000 Danish kroner per month, roughly $28,000, as well as on his stint with Complexity Gaming. With the North American organization, where he stayed for almost two years, he spoke openly about tense salary negotiations and how he ultimately ended up signing for around $30,000 per month.

Having started his competitive career in 2015, the Danish player was involved in many projects, split between his home country, one of the most established scenes in Counter-Strike, and North America. Over the years, he played for teams such as North, Copenhagen Wolves, Dignitas, OpTic Gaming and SK Gaming. At the end of 2019, following a spell with OpTic, k0nfig joined Complexity Gaming, alongside Bulgarian AWPer Valentin “poizon” Vasilev and his longtime teammate Benjamin “blameF” Bremer. At the time, French journalist Guillaume “neL” Rathier had already reported that blameF was earning more than $25,000 per month.

That figure was later confirmed by k0nfig, who even added another $5,000, explaining that his teammate’s salary was actually close to $30,000 per month. When k0nfig arrived, Complexity had just been acquired by John Goff, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, a National Football League (NFL) franchise. This takeover brought a significant influx of money into the organization.

With this new financial backing, CEO Jason Lake, the club’s original founder, initially offered k0nfig a salary of $15,000 per month. While substantial, it was not enough to convince him. “I was fine with that,” he explained on the podcast, before adding, “Then I talked to Benjamin and asked, ‘What are you making?’ He was on 30.” This difference in treatment did not sit well with the Danish player, who admitted he felt he had negotiated poorly. “I was like, ‘Fuck me, I made a bad deal,’ and he had already sent me the contract.”

He then tried to renegotiate. “So I call Jason and say, ‘I’m not going to sign that one. Unless you give me 30, then I’ll sign.’” Unsurprisingly, the request did not please the CEO at first, but after two days of stress and panic, Jason Lake eventually gave in and sent the revised contract, this time with the desired $30,000 monthly salary. k0nfig would go on to spend nearly two years with Complexity, although the team did not win much during that period, aside from the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 European Finals.

In the same podcast, the player also reflected on his one-year stint with Astralis, the legendary Counter-Strike organization. As he put it, the experience ended on a rather sour note. “Towards the end I didn’t enjoy it, but we were on a great salary.” He then specified that Astralis paid him 175,000 Danish kroner per month, only slightly less than what Complexity had offered him just before, as he moved directly from one organization to the other. As he summed it up himself, “I was on a great salary, even though I thought it was awful to sit there and play.”

In an interview with HLTV.org, given around the time of his retirement last October, he also reflected on that period of his career, explaining that “I was coming late and missing days because I was feeling bad and not enjoying it, and I didn’t sleep well because I knew that after practice I would have to go film for a full day.” In that conversation, he was extremely critical of the gap between his expectations when joining Astralis and the reality he experienced, to the point where “It made me feel like I had fucked my career up.” He added, “I signed a contract and now I’m screwed,” even saying that “I tried to put so much distance between the reality and my expectations because it just wasn’t healthy to think about it.”

Having become an agent, as he also announced in the same HLTV interview, he explained that he “[doesn't] want to see anyone else go through what I’ve gone through because it breaks you.” He believes he made many mistakes throughout his career and now wants to give back by sharing his experience, as he “[doesn't] want younger players to make the same mistakes.” He concluded by saying, “All of these feelings I went through, playing on the biggest stages and online tournaments, I want to be a pipeline to the player and explain what I went through.”