Xyp9x to return to Astralis active roster for BLAST Premier Fall Series-farmskins

The 25-year-old will be back in official action later in October after over a four-month-long hiatus from competition, Astralis have announced.

Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth has already begun practicing with the rest of the team but won't participate with them in the upcoming DreamHack Open Fall Regional Major Ranking tournament, in which Astralis will play with the same lineup that just won the twelfth season of ESL Pro League featuring Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen.

The Danish side hasn't specified what the rest of the lineup will look like in BLAST Premier Fall Series, only that the 25-year-old was selected by coach Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen to play in the event taking place on October 29-November 4.

The "Clutch Minister" is back in time for BLAST

Xyp9x will be back in action for the first time in close to five months at BLAST, having taken extended leave at the end of May alongside Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander as a result of feeling symptoms of stress and burnout.

Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer initially stood in for the 25-year-old while Astralis were in process of creating a seven-man roster. The organization first introduced Jakob "⁠JUGi⁠" Hansen into the lineup and es3tag soon followed suit, but the former addition only lasted until the end of the first part of the 2020 season as he was replaced by Lucas "⁠Bubzkji⁠" Andersen at the end of July.

At the time, each move Astralis made was met with a mixed response from the community and pundits, with some praising the Danes for the forward thinking and others expressing doubts over whether the new additions would ever get a chance to play in the main roster in the long term.

So far, Bubzkji has played in four matches before effectively getting replaced by es3tag in the active lineup after the team's opening ESL Pro League Season 12 loss to Complexity. With the 24-year-old getting the chance to step up to the plate, Astralis went on to go undefeated in the league's group stage and clinched the trophy in the playoffs, after coming back from a tough loss to HEROIC with an impressive run through the lower bracket and a reverse-sweep victory over Natus Vincere in the grand final.