Gla1ve and Astralis’ seven-year stint officially ended on Nov. 22, as the legendary in-game leader reached an agreement to join a new organization in CS2.
Though Astralis didn’t disclose what organization that is, gla1ve has been rumored to join ENCE alongside Polish head coach Jakub “kuben” Gurczyński, according to Russian insider Alexey “OverDrive” Birukov. The reason why ENCE may be targeting gla1ve is because the Finnish organization is reportedly losing its current IGL Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer to Falcons.
Gla1ve spent the past five months on Astralis’ bench as the organization opted to promote blameF to IGL and sign two new players, Victor Staehr and Johannes “b0RUP” Borup. Even though gla1ve failed to lead Astralis to big titles in the past few years, he’s truly a Counter-Strike legend, having won four CS:GO Majors under the Astralis banner between 2017 and 2019, and the Intel Grand Slam in 2018.
The tactical system that gla1ve built for Astralis alongside zonic during their peak years in 2018 and 2019 changed the way everybody approached CS:GO at a professional level, but gla1ve struggled to deliver results after losing dev1ce to NiP in April 2021 and losing Magisk, dupreeh, and zonic to Vitality in January 2022.
“It’s hard to put into words how grateful I am for the last 7 years I’ve spent with Astralis,” gla1ve wrote on Twitter. “They will always hold a special place in my heart as a team where we were able to reach new heights and create something never seen before.”
Gla1ve also said the last two years taught him “a lot of lessons” and he’ll carry these into his next chapter. Now that he’s officially out of Astralis, his next move should be announced soon.
