As Astralis captain gla1ve steps back, new member JUGi stands in

Astralis announced that Jakob “JUGi” Hansen will replace Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander as the Astralis in-game leader spends what the team says will be several months away from competition. The release contains a statement from gla1ve in which the player cites stress surrounding competition and overall burnout as the reasons why he will take the next several months off.

gla1ve goes on to say that he made the decision after consulting with both his own doctor and the Astralis Group’s director of sports, former professional handball goalkeeper Kasper Hvidt. According to gla1ve’s statement, both he and the team have tried a number of things to break Astralis’ famed in-game leader out of his funk, but it was ultimately decided that an extended break from competition was the best way to reignite his passion for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

JUGi to play for Astralis shortly after joining the team

JUGi joined Astralis as the team’s seventh player earlier this month. He was the second new player that the Danish CSGO team had added in its march to creating what amounts to a bench full of ready players. Astralis’ attempt at creating this sort of stable of pro players is what looks like the first real try at something that CSGO teams have only flirted with up to this point. 

Astralis’ Kasper Hvidt spoke to WIN.gg when JUGi was officially announced as a member of Astralis, saying that Astralis was confident that their attempt at creating a bench of substitute players is unlike anything any team has done before.

“I believe that is the biggest difference, and I believe that the Astralis’ performance team, the physical setup, and the way the whole organization works is very different from what was the case with the other teams [who tried it],” Hvidt said. 

Astralis head coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen also was also quoted in the release, admitting that gla1ve’s absence from the team wasn’t a surprise. After expressing excitement over JUGi’s debut with Astralis during DreamHack Masters Summer, zonic said that both he and Astralis are “fully prepared” to play with gla1ve’s new stand-in.

Astralis opens DreamHack Masters play with JUGi’s debut game versus Heroic.