Astralis to sign JUGi
According to recent reports, Jakob "JUGi" Hansen will be joining the four-time Major champions Astralis, as the Danish CS:GO juggernauts look to expand their roster to seven members.
The news comes only a week after Astralis unveiled they're looking to add one more member to their roster, following the acquisition of Patrick "es3tag" Hansen, with a possibility they will be looking to expand with one more member sometime in future, thus fielding an eight-man CS:GO roster.
Es3tag is set to join Astralis in the summer, once his contract with Heroic runs out, meaning JUGi could be joining the Danish esports organisation first, seeing how the 23-year-old AWPer has been a free agent since April 26, when his contract with North expired.
JUGi began his CS:GO career in February 2015, when he played for madjicK Gaming. In March, the entire roster left for Reason Gaming, where JUGi remained for the entirety of the year, before moving to Revival Gaming, Alpha Gaming and in June 2016 he teamed up with tRICKED eSport. With Tricked, JUGi saw a fair amount of success in the competitive CS:GO scene, winning Dust2.dk eOddset Kinguin Cup, Dust2.dk eOddset Cup #4, Dust2.dk Masters #5 while also securing silver medals at Stream.me Gauntlet EU, eSportsArcadeTV Cup and CS:GO Champions League Season 5. The Danish AWPer played an important role in his team's success, averaging an impressive 1.23 rating and 56.5% map win rate across eight months, before he got signed by Heroic in February 2017.
With Heroic, JUGi made a breakthrough in his CS:GO career, finishing top-four at Intel Extreme Masters XI – World Championship, DreamHack Open Austin 2017 and DreamHack Open Valencia 2017, while also securing silver medals at DreamHack Open Atlanta 2017 and LOOT.BET Cup #2. In March 2018, Heroic benched JUGi, who was moved to the inactive roster due to personal reasons and in April decided to move to OpTic Gaming.
With OpTic, JUGi added a few more accolades to his trophy cabinet, including a top-eight finish at ESL Pro League Season 7 – Finals, silver medal from DreamHack Open Summer 2018, Europe Minor Championship – London 2018, StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6 and cs_summit 3. In September, OpTic also made an appearance at FACEIT Major: London 2018, but failed to make much noise and finished 17th-19th.
On May 2, 2019, JUGi left OpTic to join North, where he failed to see the same success as he did in his previous endeavours. Although he averaged a solid 1.02 rating during his eight-month stay at North, his best result with North came in June, when North finished top-four at Esports Championship Series Season 7 – Finals and in December, when North won DreamHack Open Sevilla 2019.
JUGi's last appearance under North came in January when he helped his team finish top-four at Intel Extreme Masters XIV – World Championship: European Open Qualifier #2. The Dane was benched from the team on January 17, 2020, when North re-signed their former IGL Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen.
JUGi will now continue his career at one of the strongest Counter-Strike teams in history, where he will hone his skill and solidify himself as one of the most promising Danish CS:GO players.
Astralis CS:GO roster:
Nicolai "device" Reedtz
Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen
Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth
Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander
Emil "Magisk" Reif
Patrick "es3tag" Hansen – backup
Jakob "JUGi" Hansen – backup
Danny "zonic" Sørensen – coach
