Astralis promotes Trace to CSGO head coach ahead of Antwerp Major

Astralis has announced that academy coach Martin “Trace” Heldt will lead the main team ahead of PGL Major Antwerp.

The 31-year-old will serve as Astralis’ head coach in upcoming tournaments, starting with ESL Pro League 15 which starts on March 9th.

He will fill in for Alexander ‘ave’ Holdt, who is unable to train during this Major cycle, which includes the upcoming Regional Major Ranking (RMR) event in Bucharest. Ave is still banned from Valve competitions for using the spectator bug while coaching North in 2018, despite already serving his six-month Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) ban.

Unable to train at the Major, Ave will lead the Academy team and support Trace for the coming months

Ave, who joined Astralis on November 4th and succeeded Danny ‘⁠zonic⁠’ Sørensen, will return to his role after completing PGL Major Antwerp. Until then, he will support Trace while also working with Astralis Talent, the organization’s academy team.

.@mtwtrace will act as the official coach of the main team in the upcoming tournaments with the support of the regular head coach @avecsgo.

Read: pic.twitter.com/piwF2bGqXQ

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) March 4, 2022

A successful competitor

Trace was one of the best Counter-Strike players of the last few years of 1.6 and was an important part of the legendary mTw roster alongside players like Zonic and Ave. He represented Fnatic in both 1.6 and CS:GO between 2012 and 2013 and made two unsuccessful comeback attempts as a player in 2015 and 2017.

After ending his playing days, Trace embarked on a coaching career in 2021. He coached Team Singularity, Lyngby Vikings and ECSTATIC before being hired in January to oversee Astralis’ academy team.

Astralis was placed in Group D of ESL Pro League 15 alongside NAVI, Heroic, Complexity, Evil Geniuses and AGO. The event marks Asger ‘Farlig’ Jensen’s Astralis debut after he has been signed as the team’s new AWPer, replacing Philip ‘Lucky’ Ewald.