Astralis bench Rifler cadiaN, part ways with Sporting Director Straube and former G2 In-Game Leader HooXi to join as stand-in..

Danish Counter Strike 2 (CS2) powerhouse Astralis, announced on Wednesday through its official X (Twitter) account that the club has decided to bench Rifler cadiaN and part ways with Sporting Director Straube.

According to Astralis' official tweet, although cadiaN has shown his attitude as a professional player in the past, he cannot meet the club's expectations of him due to the team's recent poor results.

Now, as Astralis will miss the BLAST Austin Major, the club believes that the decision to part ways with cadiaN and Straube is inevitable.

Despite this, the club is very grateful for the contributions made by cadiaN and Straube to Astralis and wishes them all the best in the future.

In addition, as part of this personnel change, former G2 In-Game Leader HooXi will join the team as a stand-in.

HooXi will play for Astralis on-loan and will join the starting roster as In-Game Leader to compete in PGL Astana with the team.

About cadiaN

The 29-year-old cadiaN was born in Denmark on June 16, 1995. He mainly plays as a Rifler and In-Game Leader.

cadiaN has been a professional CS e-sports player since 2011. In his early years, he played for MOUZ, tRICKED, Rogue and North.

In April 2020, cadiaN joined the Norwegian powerhouse HEROIC.

During his three-year spell with for HEROIC, cadiaN won many A-level and S-level major events such as BLAST Premier, ESL Pro League Season 13, DreamHack Open Atlanta 2019, Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major 2022, and was subsequently selected by HLTV as the 18th best player of 2023.

In December 2023, cadiaN moved to Liquid but his results were not satisfactory.

In September 2024, cadiaN joined Astralis.

However, apart from his good performances in the BLAST World Finals and PGL Cluj-Napoca, he failed to overturn the team's decline.

About HooXi

HooXi, also 29 years old, was born in Denmark on May 21, 1995. He primarily plays as a Rifler, an Entry Fragger and In-Game Leader.

HooXi has previously played for Ambush, CPH Flames and MAD Lions among many other teams. He participated in the PGL Antwerp Major 2022 with the team, but was defeated by ENCE and being eliminated in the quarterfinals.

In August 2022, HooXi joined G2.

During his two-year spell with G2, HooXi won the BLAST World Finals, Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, and Intel Extreme Masters Cologne with the team. However, since August 2023, due to a decline in performance, he was benched by G2 in July 2024 after the PGL Copenhagen Major.