Team Astralis has officially announced the inclusion of a sixth player in its roster. It should be Patrick “es3tag» Hansen, who previously played for FunPlusPhoenix. Kasper Hvidt, sports director of the Danes, noted that he had been thinking about expanding the roster for a long time. He believes this approach will lead to greater efficiency for all players. Astralis coach Danny Sorensen also stated that the health of the players became a priority when making this decision. Having six people on the roster will make their schedule less crowded. In addition, he sees a certain tactical potential here.
Many experts have already shared their opinions on this decision by Astralis, and their assessments are mostly positive. For example, commentator Jason O'Toole believes that such a practice is unlikely to become widespread, but in any case it will have a good impact on the professional scene. At the same time, Evgeny Zolotarev, CEO of the esports organization NAVI, believes that adding a sixth player to the roster will not bring any improvements – Previously, the BIG team already tried to do this, but it failed to improve the results.
It is expected that Patrick Hansen will formally join Astralis after the expiration of his current contract, that is, from July 1, 2020. It is unclear how the Chinese FunPlusPhoenix will react to the transfer. It is possible that she will completely abandon the purchase of Heroic, which was discussed earlier. At the currently ongoing FLASHPOINT team FPP was awarded a technical defeat, but the reasons for it were not reported.
