Official: Aurora rifler XANTARES returns to the active lineup after two months

Turkish CS2 professional team Aurora announced on Tuesday that Ismailhan Dortkardaş (ID: XANTARES) will return to the active roster after a two-month hiatus. He is expected to start again starting with the 2025 BLAST Bounty Tournament Season 2 and compete in all subsequent events.

XANTARES, 29, began his professional career in 2014, playing as a rifler for various Counter-Strike teams, including Space Soldiers, BIG, and EF. He reached his peak with BIG, contributing significantly to the team's victories at DreamHack Open Spring 2020 Europe, cs_summit 6 Europe, DreamHack Open Summer 2020 Europe, and Funspark ULTI 2020 Europe.

In April of this year, XANTARES joined Aurora along with the entire EF team. To date, he has played a total of 52 maps and 1,141 rounds with Aurora, earning 850 kills with a 59.1% headshot rate and an average rating of 1.17.

However, XANTARES has been absent from the team for a long time since June due to "family reasons" and was unable to join the team at IEM Cologne. Aurora had to use xfl0ud as a temporary replacement, but the overall performance was less than ideal.

With the return of XANTARES, Aurora's current roster is as follows:

Commander/Rifleman: Enjin Kupeli (ID: MAJ3R)

Rifleman: Ismailhan Dortkardash (ID: XANTARES)

Sniper: Özgür Eker (ID: woxic)

Rifleman: Ali Haidar Yalchin (ID: Wicadia)

Rifleman: Samet Coklu (ID: jottAAA)

Coach: Sezkin Karaigi (ID: Fabre)