Astralis reportedly eyeing Jeskla, promisq, and Zanzarah for LEC

With Astralis set to phase out the Origen brand in the coming weeks, the organization is set to make some big changes to its LEC roster ahead of the 2021 season. 

According to Esportmaniacos, Astralis is looking to pick up mousesports’ Jesper “Jeskla” Strömberg and Hampus “promisq” Abrahamsson, while AGO ROGUE jungler Nikolay “Zanzarah” Akatov will get his LEC debut and replace Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir. 

The new bot lane would replace Elias “Upset” Lipp and Jakob “Jactroll” Skurzyński, who didn’t live up to expectations in the 2020 LEC Summer Split.

Upset joined the team to great fanfare after performing well on FC Schalke 04. Even though Upset is a very skilled bot laner, he never found momentum on Origen. Upset will be a very coveted free agent this offseason and is likely to find another team if he doesn’t re-sign with Astralis. 

Furthermore, the rumors state that Astralis will keep mid laner Erlend “Nukeduck” Holm, which means that only the top lane position remains unknown. Former top laner Barney “Alphari” Morris seems to be heading to Team Liquid in the LCS.  

Astralis previously hinted big changes were coming for the upcoming season. Former general manager Martin “Deficio” Lynge stepped down and a new coaching staff was announced. The next step seems to be remaking its LEC roster, after a disappointing 10th-place finish in the summer. 

Fans skeptical of Astralis before LEC 2021 season

While all three rumored players have had great success in the European national leagues throughout 2020, fans are not excited over this new Astralis roster. The general feedback is that Astralis is making a downgrade in terms of individual players, even though the former rosters’ results were not great. Fans expect that Astralis would end up as the 10th-place team again if the rumored roster changes become a reality. 

Jeskla and promisq have done well in the German Prime League, winning the summer playoffs and reaching the semifinals at the 2020 European Masters Summer event. 

Zanzarah has been a key player on AGO ROGUE this year, winning European Masters Summer and reaching the final in both of the Polish Ultraliga splits. Zanzarah will have to fill the shoes of Xerxe, which won’t be an easy task, but the Polish jungler is without a doubt a big talent that deserves a shot on the big stage. 

Time will tell if the rumors are true and if Astralis can evolve the team into a LEC contender. The official player free agency window begins on November 16.