An almost entirely new roster will be the first to wear the Astralis jersey in LEC when the 2021 Season begins in January. The roster has been built with a different approach compared to last season, with the ambition to create a solid foundation and to constantly progress.
Mid Lane: Erlend 'Nukeduck' Holm (Norway)
Top: Matti 'Whiteknight' Sormunen (Finland)
Jungle: Nikolay 'Zanzarah' Akatov (Russia)
ADC: Jesper 'Jeskla' Strømberg (Sweden)
Support: Hampus 'promisq' Abrahamsson (Sweden)
Earlier this year, Astralis announced Baltat 'AoD' Alin-Ciprian as Head Coach with Bjørn-Vegar 'HANSEN' Hansen as Assistant Coach and Lars Robl as the team's Performance Coach.
This team will be the first to ever compete in League of Legends under the Astralis flag. The ambition as presented by the Director of Sports, is to constantly progress and build a team around the Astralis methods and values, with the long-term ambition to ultimately be a contender for Worlds.
Baltat 'AoD' Alin-Ciprian, Head Coach Astralis League of Legends:
- Hansen and I have been hard at work in getting everything ready for the team and the season. We are planning and strategizing to be as prepared for the 2021 Spring Split as possible, but with a focus on the long-term development of the structure, playstyle and culture, says AoD.
- We pretty much got the players we wanted, that can contribute to a good team environment while also showing strong individual qualities.
- 'Zanzarah' has shown what he can do during his time with AGO Rogue, winning EM 2020 Summer and Ultraliga Season 3 and 4 all within the past year.
- 'promisq' has had similar success with Mousesports winning the Prime League Pro Division 2019 and 2020. In 2020 he did it alongside 'Jeskla'. The known synergy and long-lasting work relationship between our Bot Laners will definitely be a factor and it's the main reason we picked up that duo.
- 'Whiteknight', a highly versatile player who won EM 2019 Summer, will be carrying over his experience as Top Laner from BIG and with 'Nukeduck', who helped Origen reach Top 4 in the 2020 LEC Spring Playoffs, we have the foundation for a solid team. We are well aware that we are not favorites by any means going into the 2021 Season, but we’ll be working tirelessly to surprise some of the already well-established LEC teams.
- Realistically, we will be in the middle of the pack in the first split, but if we are able to implement our way of working and maintain confidence in our abilities, we will be a contender for playoffs this summer. We will focus on the team aspects more than the individual side of things in the beginning, but our aim is to eventually combine the disciplined play with a more aggressive playstyle, which should also be fun to watch, the Head Coach concludes.
Kasper Hvidt, Director of Sports, Astralis:
- With Origen, we failed to build the long-term foundation, and it felt like we had to start over after the splits. In some ways we are now going back to square one to build from the foundation and up. I am extremely pleased with our two new coaches and our Performance Manager, and already now see how we are building a new structure around players who might not all be the biggest names in the game, but who will each be willing to contribute with what is needed, says Kasper Hvidt.
Astralis will have its LEC debut in January, 2021.
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