HooXi is back and will lead Astralis, starting at PGL Astana in May.
Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen has received a call up to his first CS2 tournament since last June, with the 29-year-old Danish IGL replacing Casper "cadiaN" Møller at PGL Astana this coming May.
Pundits have been calling for changes at Astralis for some time with the lacklustre team struggling to put results on the table. The squad's failure to qualify for the BLAST Austin Major appears to be the last straw, with cadiaN now teamless after just seven months at the Astralis helm.
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"Interesting times:" HooXi returns after nearly a year as cadiaN makes way
Astralis made the move official on April 22, shifting cadiaN to the bench and also bidding farewell to sports director Kasper Straube. Poor results were to blame, according to Astralis CEO Jakob Hansen, with the MRQ failure last week the killer blow.
"As a consequence of our lackluster results, culminating in the missed Major qualification, we are today parting ways with sports director Kasper Straube and in-game leader cadiaN," Hansen said. "Casper has proven himself to be a true professional, however, in the end, neither he nor the team managed to reach the level of play we had all hoped for. We wish Casper all the best going forward."
CadiaN was rather cryptic about the benching with a very short tweet on the matter after the announcement went live. "Interesting times. Will share more later," was all the player said.
HooXi will join the team this week and prepare the squad ahead of their return to play in Kazakhstan on May 10. He said he couldn't wait to be back on the server, with the former G2 IGL eager to rip in after 10 months without a team.
Astralis have fallen from grace since their glory days in the late 2010's. It's been five years since the Danish organization claimed an offline trophy, with players coming and going every year since.
They currently sit in 15th in the VRS rankings, mainly due to their surprise third-place finish at PGL Cluj-Napoca in February. It wasn't enough to get them a direct spot at the Austin Major, however, with the team forced into the MRQ where they fell at the final hurdle to minnows B8.
The opening round of matches is yet to be drawn for PGL Astana, but you can catch HooXi's Astralis debut on May 10 in the Swiss stage of the tournament.
For more CS2 news stay tuned to esports.gg.
