Astralis CEO confirms org will seek international coach for first time in Astralis' history

Astralis will employ a foreign coach for the first time since the organization's inception, according to CEO Jonas Gundersen in an interview with Pley.gg. The team moved on from Dane Casper "ruggah" Due after Astralis were knocked out of the IEM Cologne 2026 Major in Stage Two.

Since Astralis was founded in 2016, they have only had Danish coaches. Most notably, their first coach, Danny "zonic" Sørensen, won four Majors in CS:GO with the org.

Since zonic left for Vitality in late 2022, Astralis have fielded four other coaches, including ruggah, and won no Majors. zonic, on the other hand, won the final Major of CS:GO with Vitality at BLAST.tv Paris and the most recent IEM Cologne CS2 Major with Falcons and former Astralis IGL Finn "karrigan" Andersen.

At the beginning of 2026, Astralis signed its first non-Danish players in the org's history in Swede and former Wildcard AWPer Love "phzy" Smidebrant and Lithuanian talent Gytis "ryu" Glušauskas, who previously played for Monte. This was a sign of the times, as there are hardly any top teams that feature just one nationality anymore.

Astralis feel that the pool of Danish coaches will no longer suffice, and they will look elsewhere for the next man to stand behind their team.

It isn't yet known where Astralis may look for their new head coach, but Gundersen says, "We’re going international."

Here is Astralis' current roster after ruggah's removal:

• Victor "Staehr" Staehr
• Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard
• Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen
• Love "phzy" Smidebrant
• Gytis "ryu" Glušauskas
• Max "MiGHTYMAX" Heath (Assistant Coach)