Astralis confirmed the signings of former Heroic stars Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard and Martin “stavn” Lund on Nov. 24. The duo will replace Johannes “b0RUP” Borup and Christian “Buzz” Andersen in the CS2 team.
The move comes just one day after Astralis were sent home from BLAST Premier Fall Final at the hands of Heroic. The negotiation was turbulent from the beginning as Heroic hinted on Oct. 25 that Astralis started to negotiate with jabbi and stavn before informing the org. Jabbi and stavn were moved to the bench but will now return to competing as Astralis players.
Prior to their benching, jabbi and stavn were two of Heroic’s brightest stars. The duo helped the team win the BLAST Premier Fall Final in November 2022 and the BLAST Premier Spring Final in June 2023. They also made deep runs in back-to-back CS:GO Majors.
“They both have the qualities and mindset we are looking for in Astralis, and by bringing in two players of this caliber we take an important step towards our goals short and long term,” Astralis’ CEO Anders Hørsholt said in the announcement. “Both players have made it very clear how much they want to be a part of our organization, which besides raw talent and hard work is key to becoming a success in Astralis.”
B0rup had been a part of Astralis since June 2023 when he joined alongside Victor Staerh, and Buzz had been playing for them since December 2022. They didn’t accomplish anything meaningful in tier-one championships during their stay apart from a top-four place at IEM Cologne in August. They’re now free to explore their options elsewhere.
Jabbi and stavn will play their first officials alongside dev1ce, blameF, and Staehr at the $300,000 BetBoom Dacha tournament, running from Dec. 5 to 10. There’s a chance they face Heroic in the event should both teams qualify for the playoffs.
