Astralis join MOUZ, Fnatic for $200,000 CS:GO tournament

Astralis has been invited to attend Elisa Masters Espoo, a $200,000 CS:GO LAN tournament in Finland that will run from Nov. 16 to 20.

The Danish squad will be competing against ENCE, MOUZ, Fnatic, HEET, and BIG. Elisa Esports still has to reveal who the last three invited teams are, along with three other squads that will qualify through other Elisa Esports events. In addition to the $200,000 prize pool, the winner of Elisa Masters Espoo will also qualify for the play-in stage of IEM Katowice 2023.

Elisa Esports announced Astralis with Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Asger “Farlig” Jensen, and academy player Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen, but it’s unclear whether the Danish organization plans to send this exact lineup for Elisa Masters Espoo after they failed to qualify for IEM Rio Major in the Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR).

Astralis have already begun the rebuilding process in the past few days, having parted ways with Kristian “⁠k0nfig⁠” Wienecke after he admitted that he broke his leg in a fistfight in Malta, which made him miss the RMR. The team also benched head coach Martin “⁠trace⁠” Heldt.

The Danish organization promised more changes and upgrades in the near future after benching trace. Astralis is reportedly in talks to sign its former star Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, who is on Ninjas in Pyjamas’ inactive roster and is reportedly trying to trade Farlig for Sprout’s young Dane star Victor Staehr.

Astralis don’t have any events scheduled for the next weeks due to them missing IEM Rio Major and can solely focus on their preparation for Elisa Masters Espoo.