jabbi returns to Astralis, key match for Major invite

Astralis has announced that Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard will be in the lineup for the remaining matches of the Stake Ranked Episode 5 tournament. The team's statement did not say which player he is replacing, but sources HLTV contacted confirmed that he will play in place of Nikita "cmtry" Samolotov. This removes the possibility of the Ukrainian player competing for the team in five matches.

In the announcement, the team said jabbi joined at the last minute for the rest of the Barcelona tournament, coming straight from the airport. The statement thanked the player and highlighted the professionalism he showed during this critical period.

The change is a step toward solving Astralis's problems with its Major invite. On October 13, the team had brought in Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek and cmtry in place of Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen and jabbi. However, cmtry continued to appear on the VRS list under the FUT roster, creating a risk of being registered on two different rosters. This could have jeopardized the invites of both Astralis and FUT.

With jabbi's return, that risk has largely been removed. Astralis lost its opening match of the tournament to fnatic and will face magic in the lower bracket on Wednesday. The team has to keep its run in the tournament alive in that match.