Clutch minister Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth will be returning to the active roster of Astralis after a four-month hiatus.
The 25-year old has already begun practicing to rejoin the competitive scene soon. Xyp9x and team took to Twitter to announce their delight over the comeback of the star player. Despite dusting off is mouse and keyboard, Astralis’ roster for DreamHack Open Fall 2020 has already been registered and Xyp9x will not be competing. The Danes will be battling it out with the same roster featuring Patrick “es3tag” Hansen that won them the ESL Pro League Season 12 trophy.
Instead, Xyp9x will return for BLAST Premiere Fall on October 22.
Welcome back my friend @Xyp9x ❤️
Due to valve rules about the RMR the first tournament with the clutchKING will be at blast in November ????
— Lukas Rossander (@gla1ve_csgo) October 5, 2020
Astralis’ ace rifler left the team in the first half of 2020 to take a break due to stress and burnout. His departure left the team with only three members as in-game leader Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander was already on medical leave for the same reasons.
The sudden departure of two players fueled a discussion over player burnout issues and helped popularize six-man rosters in CSGO, something that Astralis was initially planning to dabble with before the departures of Xyp9x and gla1ve.
Alongside Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Gla1ve and Xyp9x were core players on Astralis’ roster, having won a record four CSGO majors together. Their absence adversely impacted the team’s world ranking and overall performance but es3tag’s strong presence and clutch skills played a crucial role in keeping the team at the top of the CSGO scene.
Astralis is currently working with a seven-man roster, a unique format that no other team is following. Alongside the major-winning roster, Astralis has es3tag and Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen. With Xyp9x’s comeback, it’s unclear which five will be hitting the servers at future events.
That’s partly due to an embarrassment of riches on Astralis’ part. es3tag managed to stick around on Astralis as Jakob “JUGi“ Hansen and Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer’s had short runs with the team as substitutes. He has effectively replaced Xyp9x and proven himself as a stellar talent to the point where it would be difficult to bench him. Xyp9x could also take a different player’s spot and allow them to take a short-term break.
Astralis in-game leader gla1ve has previously stated that they don’t have a bench, as inactive players act as “assistant coaches” ensuring that everyone is involved and active.
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