stavn and jabbi share their side of Heroic-Astralis transfer drama in new statement

stavn and jabbi's side of the story goes against much of what Heroic said nearly two months ago.

Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard have put out a joint statement that clashes directly with what HEROIC said on October 25 regarding the two players' futures at the time.

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Heroic temporarily remove stavn and jabbi amid Astralis interest

At the time of the HEROIC statement the two players had just refused to extend their contracts after a push to remove Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller from the team was made, a move that the organization said had been initiated by the now-Astralis players. In their version of events, it was all of the players and coaches who wanted to remove cadiaN.

"We did not initiate a push to replace cadiaN, nor did we stand alone when these discussions were initiated in the team," one of the subheaders reads, going in direct opposition to what HEROIC had once stated.

The now-Astralis players' statement says that on September 13, at a time in which HEROIC players were "unhappy with the dynamics regarding the leading of the team" and cadiaN was spread thin trying to take on more responsibilities than before, stavn proposed he himself step down "to deal with the situation."

Then, in a meeting on September 14, all players expressed that they felt the same way as stavn regarding morale and leadership and four days later a decision was made among all players and coaches to remove cadiaN from the team and bring on a new fifth.

In a second section titled "No prior knowledge of Astralis plans and no signed future plans," the duo go on to say that they were planning on staying in HEROIC, but when they learned that the organization was perhaps planning a team around cadiaN, it caused trust issues and new possibilities were thought of, without any conclusions.

The duo then mention that they had not agreed to sign new contracts if cadiaN was removed from the team, and only initial negotiations were underway. They also say they did not have any agreements with Astralis. "We signed with Astralis right before BLAST Fall Final," the statement reads, "when Astralis and Heroic finalized a transfer agreement. We had not made any agreement with Astralis ahead of that date."

The timeline then goes to September 29, when the duo say they were approached by Astralis under the subheader, "A new exciting project." In this section, they speak of having the opportunity of being part of a big organization like Astralis and the opportunity to reunite with Kasper Straube, their former Performance Coach in HEROIC.

On September 30, the duo informed HEROIC of their intentions and asked to be transferred to Astralis, after which the Danish organization approached their counterparts to make an offer for the two players. The duo claim to not know how the negotiations went.

In the final section, titled "Moving on," platitudes go out towards their former team with the main takeaway being that they never "planned or conspired with anyone to push cadiaN out of Heroic or to hurt Heroic, cadiaN or anyone else," that the project just fell apart and they followed their heart.