LEC team Origen – which has UK player Barney ‘Alphari’ Morris playing in the top-lane – is rebranding to Astralis.
As a part of a complete rebrand of all teams and activities in the Astralis Group, LEC team Origen will fly the Astralis banner for the 2021 LEC season onwards.
Origen had a dissapointing LEC Summer 2020 Season overall, finishing bottom of the table after a string of losses in the second half of the season.
But Astralis co-founder Jakob Lund Kristensen says the org has big plans and changes ahead.
“Everything we have built in esports has been based on the challenges, learnings, and successes of Astralis and our organisation around it,” Jakob said.
“It’s among one of the most advanced brands in esports globally, and it’ll bring a lot more than just a change of shirt to the league.”
“Like everyone else, we started our relationship with Origen as fans. We were very humbled by the opportunity to bring the brand back.”
Astralis acquired Origen in late 2018. Origen was originally set up by former Fnatic mid-laner Enrique ‘xPeke’ Cedeño Martínez back in late 2014, and he will still be around as a shareholder.
“We have learned a lot over these last two years, and Enrique has been a vital part of that process for us,” Jakob added. “We’re really pleased to have Enrique still being a shareholder in Astralis.”
Alphari, meanwhile, bid farewell to the Origen brand on Twitter:
According to Riot’s Global Contract Database, Alphari’s contract is currently due to expire on November 16th 2020. Expect Astralis to make further announcements around the roster over the coming months.
What the news means for Origen’s academy team plans remains to be seen.
Jakob did say that fans will see ‘a massive upgrade’ in terms of Astralis content, merchandise and fan interaction.
He also hinted about some of the changes coming for Astralis’ LEC team and mistakes they may have made in the past.
“Looking back, we never really took the needed steps to fully implement our performance model which has been so successful on our Counter-Strike team,” he commented.
“We have always prided ourselves on being willing to make the tough choices to ensure long-term success, and with Origen we simply made too many short-term fixes.”
On future ambitions, he said: “The criteria for success is not winning Worlds next year. We’d much rather end sixth in spring and third in summer, than first in spring and then end sixth in summer because we’ve rushed things.
“It is no secret though that our ambition is to be a contender for the Worlds title at some point. Just like with our CSGO team, we do have patience as long as we see progress. And I am sure we will.”
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
