Astralis Submit a Seventh Player for IEM Katowice 2021

The Danish CS:GO team Astralis has submitted a 7-man roster for IEM Katowice 2021. Besides the usual six players, the line-up includes Mads "vester" Vestergaard – a 18-years-old member of the organization’s academy team Astralis Talent.

Despite adding vester to the line-up, the organization’s Director of Sports Kasper Hvidt believes that the player is unlikely to actually participate in any matches at the event as he still does not have enough experience to compete with top teams. The management sees this more as a signal for the members of the talent team that they have an opportunity to join the main squad.

Without vester, the roster of Astralis still includes six players – earlier the team’s sixth player Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen denied rumors of him wanting to leave the squad. Since joining the team last July, the player participated in less than a dozen matches.

Astralis were one of the first organizations to experiment with an extended roster. At some point, the organization’s management stated that their long-term goal was to have a “full 2-team roster with 10 players”.

VALVE, however, have a different idea of how a CS:GO team should look – recently they changed rules for RMR events to limit starting line-ups to five players and penalize for use of substitutes. However, currently none of third-party tournament organizers followed the suit, with BLAST deciding against introducing similar measures, and stating that they might reconsider it for future events.

Astralis are one of the eight teams who were directly invited to the group stage of IEM Katowice 2021. They have been seeded into Group A alongside Evil Geniuses, G2 Esports, Heroic, mousesports, Gambit, Spirit and BIG. Their first match, where they will face mousesports, is scheduled for February 18th, 2:30 PM UK time.

Astralis at IEM Katowice 2021:

• Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz
• Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen
• Emil "Magisk" Reif
• Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth
• Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander
• Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen
• Mads vester Vestergaard
• Danny "zonic" Sørensen (coach)