Astralis and Fnatic have agreed to a transfer, with the Danish organization sending in-game leader Benjamin “blameF” Bremer to Fnatic, effective immediately.
But it appears blameF will not take over the in-game leader role, according to Fnatic’s CS2 roster announcement. Following the transfer, Fnatic said via an update that blameF will join the roster as “one of the riflers.”
“Benjamin is a franchise-level player whose impact goes beyond just his in-game ability,” wrote Fnatic’s esports analysis & strategy manager, Ross Rooney. With blameF joining the roster, Can “Kyuubii” Ali is being moved from a trial spot on the starting roster to the transfer window, while former Team Falcons in-game leader Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro is expected to keep his shot-calling role.
While blameF will likely provide a great deal of secondary and supplementary calling to Fnatic, it will be his first time not being the primary shotcaller after two lengthy stints as an IGL with Complexity and Astralis. For blameF and Fnatic, both parties are looking to end their respective trophy dry streaks. BlameF’s last major first-place victory was the BLAST Spring 2020 European finals with Complexity. Fnatic also won its last major trophy in 2020, at ESL Pro League EU season 11, and has missed out on three of the five Majors since the pandemic break.
With blameF now gone from Astralis, the Danish team continues to move forward with longtime AWPer star Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz as the IGL. Since he took over the shotcalling, Astralis have reached the semifinals at both IEM Chengdu and ESL Pro League season 19, losing narrowly to recent Major-winning roster cores at both events, in FaZe and Vitality respectively.
Both teams have been invited to compete in the CCT season one Global Finals beginning May 16.
