UPDATE 3/17: Following its 9th place finish in the 2021 League of Legends European Championship Spring Split, Astralis has decided to continue playing with MagiFelix and has extended his contract throughout the rest of 2021. This also marks the departure of nukeduck, who first joined the organization to play for Origen in the 2019 LEC Spring Split.

Original story:

Astralis is making a change to its roster after the first three weeks of the 2021 League of Legends European Championship Spring Split. The organization announced that mid laner Erlend "nukeduck" Våtevik Holm will be going on leave due to personal reasons, and Felix "MagiFelix" Boström has been signed to take his place.

MagiFelix, who has spent most of his career in the Fnatic organization, most recently competed as FNC's required substitute for its 2020 World Championship roster. As expected, MagiFelix did not start a game at Worlds, but he maintained a high rank on the Chinese super server throughout.

Last offseason, Astralis retired the Origen brand from its League of Legends team after a summer collapse followed a strong spring in both 2019 and 2020, with the plan being to rebuild around a single veteran in nukeduck with younger, less-established European talent. 

The specifics around nukeduck's personal leave are currently unknown, but it's not impossible to imagine that the veteran mid laner could be burned out and/or discouraged following Astralis' start to the LEC Spring Split. AST's only win is against Team Vitality, and after seven games of play, both teams are tied for 9th place at a 1-6 record.

Astralis ended its announcement by confirming that MagiFelix's contract was effective through March 31, 2021, and that while nukeduck's return timeline is currently unknown, the organization hopes that the veteran mid laner will be returning to active play on the starting lineup soon. 

Of the five members on Astralis' starting lineup, nukeduck was far and away the most established, and MagiFelix coming into the starting roster has completely separated 2021 AST from Origen rosters of past seasons. MagiFelix's first game with Astralis will be against FC Schalke 04 Esports on Friday, February 12 at 9:00am PT. 

All photos by: Astralis

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