Astralis make major organizational changes
Kasper Hvidt has been a major part of the Astralis organization since 2017 and oversaw the rise of what is arguably the best CS:GO team ever, however after six years Astralis have announced they have parted ways with their Director of Sports. It has also been announced that the team has terminated the contract of controversial Head Analyst Nicolai 'HUNDEN' Petersen after just six months.
The moves come after a turbulent time in Astralis' history having gone from the dominant number one team to not even qualifying for the final CS:GO Major at BLAST Paris. For Kasper Hvidt it signals an end of an era, the former Handball player has been with Astralis throughout their dominant era, where the team won four Major titles but the failure to address the issues that have plagued the side for the past two years has caused the organization to take action.
CEO Anders Hørsholt said in the official statement "Players, fans and partners must go into every tournament with the feeling that we can win, but this has not been the case for too long and today we take the consequence." It comes just after Astralis finally made it back to a stage playoffs, at IEM Dallas where they lost to MOUZ in the quarter-final. Although this success was short-lived as straight after they bombed out of BLAST Spring Finals in last place losing to Complexity and Danish rivals Heroic.
HUNDEN's period on Astralis was a lot less succesful than Hvidt's six year tenure, bookmarked by Astralis failing to qualify for the BLAST Paris Major despite the team managing to re-sign Nicolai 'device' Reedtz. An incredibly controversial figure in the scene after his involvement in the Coach Bug scandal, HUNDEN was further under scrutiny for his actions after a report from Richard Lewis suggested that Astralis' Head Analyst had been working with the organization before his contract with rivals Heroic expired in May 2022.
