CSGO – Astralis sells ‘es3tag’ to Cloud9

Cloud9 have completed the signing of Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen from Astralis, the North American organisation has announced.

By
Bharat Kotwani
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es3tag

Astralis member Patrick “⁠es3tag⁠” Hansen has completed a move to Cloud9, the danish organisation have announced. Astralis has already confirmed the move of es3tag.

The 24-year-old joins Cloud9 on a permanent basis after winning his debut series at the ESL Pro League S12 Europe at Astralis. This deal is set to be effective once Patrick will have played the DreamHack Open Fall under the Danish Powerhouse’s banner. According to Anders Hørsholt, CEO of Astralis, this deal is and will be considered as an “Historic Transfer on record” In a statement, he delivered :

This is not something we saw coming when we signed Patrick only four months ago, but player transfers will always be a part of the game. We will not be commenting on any specifics around this agreement, but I do believe it is one of the biggest transfers on record and the conditions offered to Patrick are also of a kind, he wanted to pursue.

After spending nearly 4 months at Astralis, he has averaged with a rating of 1.12 from a total of 36 maps.

Further he added, “We have an obligation towards our own business and towards the player and as such we are pleased to have finalized this agreement with Cloud9. As a player and as a professional, Patrick will be missed by everybody here, and I hope one day, he will yet again be a part of Astralis. We wish him the best of luck!”

es3tag joined Astralis on a free transfer from Heroic following the expiry of his contract at his now Danish Counterpart. With this transfer, Cloud9 seem to have completed their roster with their sixth yet to be announced.

This roster is expected to compete in this second half of 2020 where they are scheduled to debut at Nine to Five 5 tournament powered by Betway which starts from October 26th. This will be followed by the second iteration of Flashpoint 2 where Cloud9 prevails as a founding member of the same.

With this addition, Cloud9 now has :

  • Alex “⁠ALEX⁠” McMeekin
  • William “⁠mezii⁠” Merriman
  • Özgür “⁠woxic⁠” Eker
  • Ricky “⁠floppy⁠” Kemery
  • Patrick “⁠es3tag⁠” Hansen
  • Aleksandar “⁠kassad⁠” Trifunović (Head coach)

Anders Hørsholt, CEO of Astralis Group:‍

  • This is not something we saw coming when we signed Patrick only four months ago, but player transfers will always be a part of the game. We will not be commenting on any specifics around this agreement, but I do believe it is one of the biggest transfers on record and the conditions offered to Patrick are also of a kind, he wanted to pursue.
  • We have an obligation towards our own business and towards the player and as such we are pleased to have finalized this agreement with Cloud9. As a player and as a professional, es3tag will be missed by everybody here, and I hope one day, he will yet again be a part of Astralis. We wish him the best of luck!

‍

Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen:

  • Things have gone extremely fast. I am proud to represent Astralis, I love the fans and I never for a second thought, I would be move on to a different team this early. I just won my first big title and I truly enjoy working with all the guys on and around the team. Over the past 6 months, I have grown as a person and a player, and I owe a lot to the organization.
  • That being said, what Cloud9 is offering me is something I needed to consider seriously. I love the ideas behind the project, and I believe it will be a team to consider in the top of CS for the years to come. While I am sad to leave Astralis and all the people here, I look forward to the challenge in Cloud9. Thanks to the fans for the massive support they have shown me, I will always have Astralis and the fans very close to my heart!

‍

Kasper Hvidt, Director of Sports at Astralis Group:

  • Player transfers are a part of the game and I wish Patrick the very best. I have worked with him twice now, and he is a stand-up guy and a rare professional, who understands what it takes and who will always work his hardest for himself and his teammates.
  • The transfer leaves an open spot but having Andreas “Xyp9x” back leaves us with 6 of the best players in the world. Having worked and gained a lot of experience with a 6-man set-up, it is obvious that this is something Danny, our coach, is comfortable with, and we are in no rush to increase the roster short term. Possible future transfers and securing consistency in the overall performance might mean we will have 5 or 7 players in shorter periods, though, but this is not a part of the plans right now.
  • Ultimately, we are working towards a full 2-team roster with 10 players like the way we work in League of Legends. This is something we will present at a later stage, right now I just want to thank es3tag for his time and hard work and wish him the best of luck in the future.
    Astralis and Cloud9 have agreed not to discuss further financial details of the agreement.

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