Astralis will make use of their latest signing, Philip “Lucky” Ewald, who joined the team in the off-season, as they face off against Spirit in their opening ESL Pro League Season 14 match.
The Danes will play with a dedicated AWPer for the first time since losing star player Nicolai “device” Reedtz to NIP back in April, after which sniping duties were passed around and shared among Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, the latter going on to say that he didn’t expect the team to reach the top without an AWPer.
Lucky will be put to the test in ESL Pro League Season 14
Lucky’s addition to the starting lineup comes at a time in which there’s an air of uncertainty surrounding the futures of several of his teammates as dupreeh, Emil “Magisk” Reif and today’s substitute, Xyp9x, have contracts that are set to expire at the end of the year and only gla1ve renewed his deal with Astralis, inking a three-year extension during the player break.
Speculation now surrounds the 25-year-old Xyp9x, who is not only sitting on the sidelines but also tweeted a cryptic message in which he said that he was grateful for being a part of Astralis since its inception and is now looking forward to what the future brings after giving an interview with Dexerto saying he’s exploring his options.
HLTV reached out to Astralis to know if Lucky will start during this match in particular, the rest of the tournament, or as a permanent fixture, since Xyp9x is listed as a substitute in the official roster submitted to ESL, but the Danish organization did not wish to comment.
Considering Valve’s Regional Major Ranking rules, which punish switching players, it is unlikely that the Danes would unnecessarily rotate players and face penalties ahead of the final two RMR events before the Major.
Astralis will face Spirit with the following roster:
Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
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