Astralis launch talent development program

The move will see the Danish organisation work with young players who could break into the main squad in the future.

Astralis have announced the launch of Astralis Talent, a player development program that has been designed to "create a recruitment platform and training partner" for the organisation's main teams. Astralis' Counter-Strike squad will be involved in the initiative, with Dennis "⁠vnG⁠" Vang, who competed at DreamHack Winter 2012 under 3DMAX alongside Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen, having been brought in as head coach of the talent roster as well as an assistant to Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen.

The talent squad will be working and playing out of Copenhagen in the same facilities as the main team and will be competing in several regional tournaments. The roster, which will be finalised in early January, will most likely include one or two older, more experienced names during an early stage, but Astralis' plan is to mainly work with young players aged between 14 and 20.

"Ever since we started, we have had discussions around how to implement talent development into our overall strategy without compromising in other areas," said Kasper Hvidt, Astralis' Director of Sports. "We finally feel we have the resources and facilities and we have gained a lot of experience, which we obviously did not have when starting out.

"It is a move for the future, and it will take time for us to implement the full set-up. Initially, we consider these separate rosters from the A-teams and it will not affect the A team roster size in Counter-Strike; however, over time it is a clear ambition to fully integrate Astralis Talent into the overall performance and player development strategy."

According to Astralis CEO Anders Hørsholt, the talent team will also provide an opportunity for members of the main squad to stay in shape when they're not playing. Lucas "⁠Bubzkji⁠" Andersen, who was recruited from MAD Lions in July, has not featured for Astralis for over two months and was overtaken in the pecking order by Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth despite the fact that the 25-year-old is still working to get back into shape after several months out of action.

The move towards building what is essentially an academy squad represents a shift in Astralis' recruitment strategy. The Danish organisation began the process of expanding their Counter-Strike department by signing established players — first Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen, then Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen and Bubzkji. Of the three, only Bubzkji remains with Astralis: es3tag was last month sold to Cloud9, while JUGi was released just two months into his contract.

"Astralis Talent is an investment in the future as a possible recruitment platform for our A teams as well as inhouse training for all players," the Astralis CEO said. " It is a way for us to secure an even better connection to the local ecosystem and over time, we hope to elevate players into our A teams. This will not happen overnight, though, and we are going to work with the set-up and fine tune the processes over the coming months."