Magisk has taken over the reins as Astralis’ in-game leader while gla1ve is on paternity leave and won’t be attending upcoming tournaments, the team’s rifler Bubzkji said in an interview with HLTV.
This won’t be his first time in the captain role, though. Magisk spent some time in-game leading Astralis after gla1ve left the active lineup due to symptoms of stress and burnout in May 2020 and remained the IGL for a brief period after gla1ve’s return.
“Yeah, Magisk is going to call again, I don’t think it is going to affect us too much,” Bubzkji said. “I think Magisk is a very solid IGL, actually, so I’m very happy, and it changes some roles for everyone so I think it fits a little bit better now, but let’s see. Xyp9x is a very easy guy to plug in because he can play almost every spot and do well, so it is very nice to have him back.”
Xyp9x, who’s exploring his options and missed the action at ESL Pro League season 14 while the team opted to use new AWPer Philip “Lucky” Ewald, will return to the lineup to fill in for gla1ve. Astralis’ first tournament without their official shot caller will be the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, where they’re placed in Group A alongside Vitality, Team Liquid, and Evil Geniuses.
Bubzkji struggled in ESL Pro League season 14, averaging a 0.91 rating after 11 maps, according to HLTV’s statistics. The Danes failed to advance to the playoffs, finishing fourth in Group A with two wins and three losses. But there’s hope for Astralis’ fans since Bubzkji has performed better when playing alongside Xyp9x in the past.
“I think it is going to help me perform better, but I don’t know because I haven’t tried it in any officials yet,” Bubzkji said. “But it has been going great in practice so far, and yeah, it opens up a little bit of space for me since I and gla1ve like a lot of the same roles. Now that he is out for this tournament I’ll fill in his spots and play what I normally did back in the days.”
The 23-year-old has never really flourished on Astralis and it’s been over a year since he joined them from MAD Lions, where he was a star player. He’s spent most of his time on Astralis so far as a backup, but acknowledged during the interview that he needs to learn other skills and roles in CS:GO so he’s not a “one-trick pony” like he once was on MAD Lions.
Astralis will play against EG tomorrow at 9:30am CT in the opening round of BLAST Premier Fall Group A.
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