Danish team Astralis has confirmed the list of players who will participate in ESL One Cologne. Among them, Patrick «es3tag» Hansen and Lucas «Bubzkji» Andersen, who joined the roster most recently, will play for her for the first time. Their first game for Astralis will be a match against fnatic. Emil «Magisk» Wraith remains the team captain.
Es3tag joined the team over a month ago, after his contact with Heroic expired. The upcoming match at ESL One will be his first meaningful appearance in five months, as he was often a backup player towards the end of his involvement with Heroic. Later, in mid-July, Bubzkji, who previously played for MAD Lions, signed a contract with Astralis.
This roster was somewhat of a surprise for Astralis fans, as many of them were expecting the return of one of the team members, who had taken a break in the last few months due to burnout.
Matches in the European division of ESL One Cologne will be held from August 18 to 30. Teams will draw a prize pool of $325,000. In addition to fnatic, Vitality, Heretics, FaZe, Heroic, G2 and MBR were in the same group as Astralis. The tournament will be played in a double elimination format, and the playoff stage will begin on August 27.