Danish esports organization Astralis officially bid farewell Wednesday to long-standing CS:GO team members Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Danny “zonic” Sørensen.
For some time, the trio’s future has been unclear. In early November 2021, Astralis announced the signing of Complexity duo Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer. Alexander “ave” Holdt was also slated to join the roster as a coach. As a result, dupreeh, Magisk and zonic were to make room for their incoming replacements and benched for nearly two months.
Additionally, in November, a report by 1pv.fr teased an overhaul of Vitality’s roster. Reportedly, the French roster was slated to go international by replacing Richard “shox” Papillon, Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van and Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam with the ousted Astralis trio at the end of the year.
Since then, Vitality confirmed the organization was parting ways with shox and XTQZZZ. With shox’s departure, the 29-year-old’s two-year tenure at Vitality came to an end. Shox played a part in many of the team’s biggest moments during that time, including titles at EPICENTER 2019, IEM Beijing 2020 Europe, BLAST Premier Fall 2020 and IEM Winter 2021.
Vitality most recently finished third at the BLAST Premier: World Final 2021, which ran from Dec. 14-19. Likewise, XTQZZZ’s departure was confirmed by Vitality on Twitter. However, reports by 1pv.fr suggest the former Vitality coach plans to join G2 Esports.
In a good-bye tweet, Astralis now confirmed the departure of the CS:GO stars, bringing the last piece of the Vitality moves one step closer to fruition.
“Today, we bid farewell to three Astralis legends,” the organization said on Twitter. “Best of luck, Peter, Emil and Danny. You will forever be a part of the #AstralisFamily. Thank you for everything. We will see you later.”
Today, we bid farewell to three Astralis legends. Best of luck, Peter, Emil and Danny. You will forever be a part of the #AstralisFamily. Thank you for everything. We will see you later. ❤️@dupreeh@MagiskCS@zonic pic.twitter.com/sNe4qcDnLm
— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) December 29, 2021
While there has yet to be an official announcement of the players joining Vitality, it seems as though the move is imminent.
Vitality’s reported 2022 roster is now as follows:
- Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
- Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
- Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier
- Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
- Emil “Magisk” Reif
- Danny “zonic” Sørensen
