Astralis benches cadiaN ahead of Counter-Strike PGL Astana

Astralis has decided to bench Counter-Strike in-game leader (IGL) Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller ahead of PGL Astana in May.

The European esports organisation has replaced cadiaN with stand-in Rasmus ‘HooXi’ Nielsen, who had been inactive since being benched by G2 Esports in July last year.

Astralis’ decision was made public in a post on X (formerly Twitter) earlier today. According to the organisation’s CEO, Jakob Hansen, the current Counter-Strike 2 roster had not performed as anticipated.

“Casper has proven himself to be a true professional. However, in the end, neither he nor the team managed to reach the level of play we had all hoped for. We wish Casper all the best going forward,” explained the CEO.

CadiaN has been with Astralis for only seven months after being acquired from Team Liquid in September last year. As a veteran in the Counter-Strike scene, the Danish player secured some of his biggest competitive achievements as part of Heroic, winning the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Rio Major in 2022 and the BLAST Premier: Spring Final in 2023.

Despite promising results at last year’s BLAST Premier: World Final and PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, cadiaN and Astralis failed to qualify for the upcoming Austin Major. The team was defeated by Ukrainian squad B8 during the event qualifier, marking the Astralis’ fifth consecutive missed Major.

Following Astralis’ announcement, the IGL shared an ominous post on his personal X account: “Interesting times. Will share more later.”

Starting tomorrow, cadiaN’s replacement HooXi will be training with the remaining roster to represent Astralis as a stand-in during the upcoming PGL Astana. The fellow Dane has won several international trophies with his former organisation, G2 Esports, including IEM Katowice and Cologne 2023.

Together with today’s roster moves, Astralis also announced the departure of its Sports Director Kasper Straube, who had been with the organisation since 2023.

“As a consequence of our lackluster results, culminating in the missed Major qualification, we are today parting ways with Sports Director Kasper Straube and In-Game Leader Casper “cadiaN” Møller,” shared Hansen.

“He has been dedicated, professional, and loyal to Astralis throughout his time here. I want to thank Kasper for his hard work with the team and the organization, and I wish him the very best for the future.”