Team Vitality acquires former Astralis trio as part of USD 56 million investment
Big news is coming from esports French team Vitality as it officially announced three more star players joining its CS:GO roster.
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Emil “magisk” Reif, will be replacing Richard “shox” Papillon, who joined back in 2019, and Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van, who was signed in 2021 after being unbanned by Valve. Meanwhile, Danny “zonic” Sørensen will be taking over as the team’s head coach, filling the position vacated by Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam.
Dupreeh, magisk, and zonic had been benched since November 2021, due to their contracts ending by the end of the year. To fill the vacant spots left by the trio, Astralis has signed Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer from Complexity, and Alexander “ave” Holdt.
Dupreeh and magisk are known for their respective achievements throughout their careers with CS:GO. dupreeh, 28, is one of only five players to have participated in every CS:GO Major. He has bagged multiple titles, such as the ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017, FACEIT London Major 2018, IEM Katowice 2019, and StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019. magisk, 23, was part of Astralis when it won the $1M Intel Grand Slam.
Vitality’s CS:GO roster is now complete with the trio joining Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, and Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier.
ZywOo, misutaaa, and apEX are no less impressive. ZywOo, 21, has been named HLTV.org’s player of the year twice. The youngest of the team, misutaaa, 18, won the Bast Premier Fall 2020 as a rookie. Last but not least, apEX, 28, has served as team captain as well as bagging a 2015 Major title.
“I couldn’t be more excited to have dupreeh, magisk, and zonic join the team,” said ZywOo. “Together they have achieved so much and I know there is a lot both myself and the team can learn from them.”
On its Twitter account, Team Vitality posted a group portrait with the caption “We’re more than ready to compete at the highest level: 2022 here we are. #WatchUsFollowUs”. The line-up is called “one of the strongest line-ups in CS:GO history”.
Future of Vitality
The addition of dupreeh, magisk, and zonic to the team is part of Vitality’s investment of more than USD 56 million that will be spread across their talent for the following three years. The number is considerably huge, but with eSports’ continuously increasing popularity, the investment is possible to grow in years to come.
Apart from the addition to the CS:GO roster, Vitality has also added new players to its League of Legends 2022 roster, world champion finalist Luka “Perkz” Perković and back-to-back European Champion Matyáš “Carzzy” Orság. The two will be joining teammates Barney “Alphari” Morris, Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek, and Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis.
Both rosters are meant to bring the team in a new direction, as they aim to “dominate” the European esports environment. The investment will help Team Vitality to become a powerhouse with high-achieving players, “unparalleled infrastructure, as well as a strong management team.”
Astralis, as a competing team, wrote on Twitter the best of luck to the future team, despite being on a losing streak against Vitality.
