Sources: Astralis set to bench HooXi and ruggah after Cologne Major failure

According to a post made earlier today by French insider and GenOne CEO Sébastien "KRL" Perez, Astralis are set to bench IGL and coach duo Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen and Casper "ruggah" Due following the team's 1-3 Stage Two exit from the IEM Cologne Major last week.

The report comes after a fairly ominous interview HooXi conducted with Draft5 following Astralis' elimination where he said it would be come down to a management decision on whether to make changes following the elimination.

The reported change comes after a mixed season from Astralis, with the team showing decent results upon their transition to an international roster while failing to secure any big results in the first six months of the year. The team's best result of this period was a second-place finish at PGL Bucharest 2026 where the team fell in a 1-3 loss to FUT.

With HooXi and ruggah reportedly out of the team it remains to be seen if Astralis will seek to further internationalize the squad or seek to find Danish talents for the role. Should they go with the former option it would leave Victor "Staehr" Staehr and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard as the sole Danish players on the legendary Danish organization's lineup.