Astralis has announced that the team will play out the remainder of its matches at Stake Ranked Episode 5 with Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard as a stand-in.
Although the organization's announcement did not clarify who jabbi would replace, HLTV confirmed with Astralis that he will replace Nikita "cmtry" Samolotov, avoiding the possibility of the Ukrainian playing five matches for the team.
"jabbi is back in the lineup tomorrow for the rest of our Stake Ranked run in Barcelona, coming straight from the airport at very little notice," Astralis' statement reads.
"There is never a dull moment in esports, and jabbi stepping up to help at this pivotal moment shows exactly the kind of professional he is. Nothing but respect."
The swap comes as a solution to Astralis' Major plight after the team opted to replace Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen and jabbi with Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek and cmtry on October 13.
The latter player remains listed on FUT's VRS roster as the team only played three matches with Álvaro "SunPayus" García in a 3-0 run at PGL Masters Bucharest, which could have led to him being listed on both Astralis and FUT's rosters if FUT go on to lose their quarter-final and cmtry played one more match for Astralis.
That situation would have put Astralis' Major invite in jeopardy, and possibly FUT's as well, as it remains unclear what team would receive an invite if a player is on two eligible rosters.
jabbi's last-minute return to the lineup gives Astralis an insurance policy should FUT lose their quarter-final match by avoiding the double roster-listing of cmtry.
Astralis lost their opener at Stake Ranked to fnatic, and will fight for their tournament lives in the lower bracket against magic on Wednesday.
Astralis will field the following roster for the rest of their run in Barcelona:
Love "phzy" Smidebrant
Victor "Staehr" Staehr
Gytis "ryu" Glušauskas
Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek
Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard (stand-in)
Filip "NEO" Kubski (coach)
Victor 'Staehr' StaehrPast 3 months
Rasmus 'HooXi' NielsenPast 3 months
Gytis 'ryu' GlušauskasPast 3 months
Nikita 'cmtry' SamolotovPast 3 months
Kamil 'siuhy' SzkaradekPast 3 months
Jakob 'jabbi' NygaardPast 3 months
Filip 'NEO' Kubski
Love 'phzy' SmidebrantPast 3 months
fnatic
Rodion 'fEAR' Smyk
Dmytro 'jambo' Semera
Nikita 'jackasmo' Skyba
Artem 'cairne' Mushynskyi
Volodymyr 'mazay' Iorhachov
Miks 'Independent' Siliņš
Álvaro 'SunPayus' GarcíaPast 3 months
FUT
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García
Yasin 'xfl0ud' Koç
Dmytro 'dem0n' Myroshnychenko
Aulon 'Krabeni' Fazlija
Džiugas 'dziugss' Steponavičius
András 'coolio' Fercsák
Astralis
Love 'phzy' Smidebrant
Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek
Victor 'Staehr' Staehr
Gytis 'ryu' Glušauskas
Nikita 'cmtry' Samolotov
Filip 'NEO' Kubski
magic
Svyatoslav 'MaSvAl' Masko
Vladislav 'lattykk' Vydrin
Vitaliy 'sFade8' Marushka
Andrey 'AW' Anisimov
Nikita 'tenzy' Kochenyuk
Danila 'eksiver' Yurkov