North makes a major coup in signing Markus Kjaerbye from rivals Astralis.
Friday 2 February 2018 14:10, UK
Markus Kjaerbye has announced his move between Danish arch-rivals Astralis and North.
The unexpected transfer between the two Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive giants was announced on Friday and has been met with mixed reactions.
The move, for an undisclosed sum, will see Kjaerbe step in as a rifler for North.
North has also recently benched René "cajunb" Borg and there is speculation they will also bench Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke to make space for the signing of Kjaerbye.
North is the official esports affiliate of FC Copenhagen and Nordisk Film, but has had somewhat disappointing results for a team with such investment behind them.
At the recent ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, North could only achieve a 15-16th spot - losing dismally to BIG Clan in the process.
Prior to that, disappointing performances at ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals and BLAST Pro Series all left question marks over the teams future.
Astralis as a team has had substantially more success. The team started 2017 in the best possible fashion by winning a Major and then moving on to victory at the Intel Extreme Masters in March.
Throughout the year Astralis were the best Danish team around although their performance tailed off towards the back end of the year, with injury to AWPer Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz forcing them to play with stand-ins and not playing to the best of their ability.
The roster move has not got down without comment.
Astralis captain Lukas "Gla1ve" Rossander tweeted that he was "speechless" and was now "more motivated than ever".
Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz said: "I've had a lot of great moments with Markus and I will always enjoy his company, whether it's out on the server or out shopping. I hope you will find happiness at North! Much love even though the circumstances from me."
As of yet, Astralis has not made any move to sign a replacement but rumours are hinting that Borg will return having last played with the likes of dev1ce, xyp9x and dupreeh back in May 2016.
