Only a week after losing in game leader, gla1ve to a stress-induced leave of absence, Astralis has announced that Xyp9x will also be taking a step back from the team. The team communicated that the clutch-minister is dealing with some of the same symptoms, namely stress and burnout.
To cover for their support-player, Astralis have reportedly been scrambling to find a fifth, as es3tag is still locked by his contract with Heroic until the end of June. At one point they considered Vitality former IGL, ALEX, according to neL. The French team reportedly didn't like that too much, as they're in the same group in the Blast Spring Showdown. Astralis getting denied by Vitality? That doesn't happen often.
Elsewhere question marks have been raised around the timing of the roster change, including the timing of Xyp9x' leave and how it doesn't look very planned despite Astralis' intention to run a 7 man roster. Among those questioning the move is Richard Lewis, who took to Twitter to indicate that it didn't look especially pre-planned.
In a textbook plot-twist, Snappi's addition to Astralis comes just as Mongolian team TIGER backtracked on their original plan to pick up him and smooya. Or maybe Astralis picked him up first? We don't know and our heads hurt.
The Mongolian squad featuring erkaSt, who topped their Asia's Road to Rio event - was supposedly already deeply involved in the deal, but in the end decided against it due to the current team's improvement in results. You know who just can't catch a break? SMOOOOO-nah.
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