Astralis benches HooXi and jabbi

Danish esports organization Astralis has announced changes to its Counter-Strike 2 roster. Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard have left the starting five, with the organization moving both players to the bench. The official statement reads:

As part of this move in a new direction, we have mutually decided that the Astralis journey from today onwards will continue without HooXi and jabbi, as their contracts expire at the end of the year. I want to express my sincere gratitude for their hard work and dedication to being part of the Astralis story, most recently helping secure our first LAN win since 2019.

Note that HooXi had been competing with the squad since June 2025, while jabbi had been an Astralis player for nearly three years – since November 2023. Rumors suggest that the vacant roster spots will be filled by Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek and Nikita "cmtry" Samolotov; the latter is set to join Astralis as a rifler.

Astralis currently holds 10th place in Valve's official world ranking of Counter-Strike 2 teams. The squad recently won the Stake Ranked Episode 4 LAN tournament. Their next event will be Stake Pulse Beat III, which kicks off on October 12.

Еврозона, Europe, EU Astralis are now:

Дания, Denmark, DK Viktor "Staehr" Staehr
Литва, Lithuania, LT Gytis "ryu" Glušauskas
Швеция, Sweden, SE Love "phzy" Smidebrant

Польша, Poland, PL Filip "NEO" Kubski (coach)

Origin: x.com