Cover-Credits:
- As per reports, Danish rifler es3tag might be leaving Astralis to join Cloud9.
- The Dane is reportedly already in talks with Cloud9 to join them as their fifth and final player.
- es3tag joined Astralis just three months back after his contract with Heroic came to an end.
Danish rifler Patrick "es3tag" Hansen who is currently a part of Astralis is reportedly in talks with Cloud9 to join them as the fifth and final player of their upcoming CS:GO roster, according to a report by TV2.dk. The upcoming DreamHack Open Fall 2020 which is acting as the Fall Major qualifier for the European region might be his last tournament with Astralis.
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Es3tag Reportedly In Talks With Cloud9
The 24-year-old who is currently part of the best team in the world as per HLTV rankings might be in talks with the North American esports organization Cloud9 as their fifth and final player. The Dane was acquired by Astralis just three months back from Heroic to bolster their lineup in the absence of some of their senior players like Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth.
In his time with Astralis so far es3tag managed to participate in just two tournaments ESL One Cologne 2020 and ESL Pro League Season 12, winning the latter in a dominating manner with es3tag stepping up big time to help the team in multiple situations especially on Train.
Despite Astralis having six-players to chose from es3tag was part of the active roster almost all the time except for a few games where Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen replaced him on the lineup. In the 36 maps that he has played for Astralis till date es3tag managed to attain an average rating of 1.16 with total K-D difference of +71.
If the reports come true es3tag will be playing under a lineup that will be competing in the second season of Flashpoint. He will still be competing in the European region but the team will be a mix of players some of which are experienced and skilled, while others are new and underrated.
Astralis had acquired es3tag from Heroic for free after his contract with them came to an end, though Heroic went on to become the best team in the world after he left. The Dane along with his new team pulled them down to the second place to themselves take the throne once again.
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It will be interesting to see how much Cloud9 are willing to cough up in order to secure the services of the Dane whose value has increased multiple folds ever since becoming a part of Astralis. Es3tag’s departure also comes at a very convenient time as Xyp9x just joined the team a few weeks back and it might have gotten a bit out of hand for Astralis to handle such a big lineup.
Cloud9 will still be looking out for another player even after singing es3tag as Henry "HenryG" Greer had stated that they will be fielding a six-man roster. This is how the Cloud9 lineup would look if the reports come true,
- Alex "ALEX" McMeekin
- William "mezii" Merriman
- Ozgur "woxic" Eker
- Ricky "floppy" Kemery
- Patrick "es3tag" Hansen [Speculated]
- Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunovic [Coach]
