Due to Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye being ineligible to play for Astralis at ESL One Cologne, Astralis will be using Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander at the major, the team has just announced on their website.

As Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye attended the EU Minor with Dignitas, ESL One Cologne rules state that he cannot attend the major - and the offline qualifier - with any other team.

Upon swapping the youngster and René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg with Dignitas, Astralis mentioned they will be searching for a player who will stand in for the team at the upcoming major.



Karrigan and gla1ve will reunite for the next major

That has now been announced to be CPH Wolves' 20-year-old Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander as one of the few options the number one in Denmark had considering they could only use players outside of the major circuit.

In a statement given to Astralis.gg, in-game leader Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen revealed the team will attend a bootcamp prior to the major to help accomodate the stand-in into their playstyle. He also stated that the goal is to reach the top eight to retain the Legends status.

"It’s an amazing chance for me. I’ve been to several Majors before, but it has been a while since the last time and both Esport and CounterStrike have evolved amazingly since then. I’m like a kid in a candy shop [laughs]." Rossander told Astralis.gg. "I’m really honored to be picked out to play with these guys. I have played with Finn [karrigan] before, but I don’t know the other three guys, so I’m just looking forward to playing with them."

The last time gla1ve attended a major was one-and-a-half years ago, when he participated in DreamHack Winter 2014 with a different Copenhagen Wolves roster, coincidentally including a then-unproven Kjaerbye.

Astralis' roster for ESL One Cologne is following: