The old Astralis is officially dead.
Astralis has officially parted ways with Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Emil “Magisk” Reif. The pair have been replaced by Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer. Additionally, coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen has left. Former North strategist Alexander “ave” Holdt will assume the role.
This represents a significant changing of the guard for the storied Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad.
Astralis’ roster changes were prompted by a disappointing 14th-place finish at PGL Major Stockholm. The three-time defending major champion walked away with just $17,500 of the $2 million prize pool. Astralis barely survived the Challengers stage and went 1-3 in the Legends phase. The team’s very low seeding gave it an incredibly tough run to the playoffs.Â
blameF and k0nfig most recently played for Complexity Gaming, where the pair helped the team dominate the North American online era. Considering blameF left Complexity less than a week before this announcement, his transfer was probably already arranged behind closed doors. That’s probably the case for k0nfig as well, who left early in October. Although blameF previously captained Complexity, gla1ve will almost certainly retain that position for the new Astralis roster.
Earlier in the season, captain gla1ve stepped down to attend the birth of his child. Xyp9x returned to fill in, but openly stated his intent to leave Astralis by the end of 2021. The same was true for zonic, who agreed to stay until after the Stockholm Major. Bubzkji played for Astralis in the 2021 Regional Major Rankings, which earned a spot in Stockholm.
But right before the tournament, Xyp9x signed a new contract and Bubzkji was benched to make room for gla1ve. In the middle of all this, the team signed rookie AWPer Lucky up to the big leagues. All of those roster troubles are on top of losing star AWPer Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz to Ninjas in Pyjamas in April.
Astralis is one of only a handful of CSGO teams with more than five players. It is possible other roster moves could be made before action restarts.
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