Heroic has temporarily benched Martin “stavn” Lund and Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard—arguably the two best players on their CS2 roster—on Oct. 25 as a result of the players’ wishes to move to Astralis, their main Danish rivals.
This comes, according to Heroic, after jabbi and stavn made the organization choose between them or longtime in-game leader cadiaN. Heroic sided with the duo and to everybody’s surprise, benched cadiaN earlier this month as soon as ESL Pro League season 18 concluded. The organization thought that by doing that, stavn and jabbi would keep their word and renew their contracts, but it now appears that they favor a move to Astralis.
“The same day stavn and jabbi were presented with their new contracts they communicated having made future plans with Astralis,” Heroic said in the statement. “Their Heroic contracts had almost 10 months until expiration. While handling the short-term uncertainty and planning for a long-term solution, Heroic’s ambition is to bring stavn and jabbi back.”
Heroic concludes the statement by throwing a clear jab at Astralis, saying it’s open to discussing transfers with organizations who have “a professional approach and an understanding of our players’ market value.”
Nobody knew what to expect of Heroic after the benching of cadiaN as not only he was the IGL but also the face of the team. Now, should the organization also lose stavn and jabbi, Heroic will be left empty-handed at the beginning of the CS2 cycle.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Heroic, as reports suggest that cadiaN is on his way to Team Liquid. If true, the organization can’t even bring him back to the starting roster and negotiate stavn and jabbi’s exit instead.
This drama comes just one day after Heroic secured the services of five-time Major champion dupreeh until the end of the year, expecting him to play alongside jabbi and stavn. It’s now highly unlikely that the plan will come to fruition.
Heroic debuts in CS2 today, Oct. 25, against Aurora at the Roobet Cup 2023. They’re playing with MOUZ’s academy players Christoffer “Chr1zN” Storgaard and William “sirah” Kjærsgaard instead of stavn and jabbi.
Dot Esports has reached out to Astralis for comment.
