Astralis Declines to Attend EPICENTER

Astralis will opt out of attending the EPICENTER Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament in order to recuperate, the organization announced Tuesday.

This has been a very tough decision as we have always loved to play in front of all the fans at Epicenter, who have always shown us much love and a warm welcome. We are sorry about this situation and truly hope we can participate in the 2019 edition.
All the best, Astralis ✨

— Astralis (@astralisgg) 2 октября 2018 г.

"The CS:GO calendar can sometimes be a challenge and on the back of a very tough period with a massive traveling schedule, we are forced to give the players time to recover," the team wrote.

Astralis, the widely considered No. 1 team in the world, beat Natus Vincere to become the FACEIT Major: London champions two weeks ago and won the BLAST Pro Series Istanbul last week. Astralis came into the competition with a strong momentum and was successful in asserting its dominance in the scene.

EPICENTER will run from Oct. 23-28 in Moscow. FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, and Team Liquid were invited to compete.