Zanzarah Leaves Astralis

League of Legends European Championship (LEC) team, Astralis, announced the departure of Nikolay “Zanzarah” Akatov. The news surfaced on Thursday, April 28, while also hinting at big changes for LEC 2022 Summer.

Astralis have officially parted ways with jungler Zanzarah, who leaves the European esports organization after one year and five months with the team. The news got announced on Thursday, shortly after Astralis had waved goodbye to two members of its LoL roster.

Zanzarah started his esports career in November 2014 with Team Just, and has since competed in several CIS squads. That includes Carpe Diem, Vega Squadron, and RoX, before he moved to KIYF eSports Club in Europe in September 2018.

The 25-year-old has remained in the European LoL scene ever since, having joined Origen BCN in January 2019 and Origen’s main lineup as a substitute in September that year. Unfortunately, his stint with Origen was short-lived, as he moved out of the team after just two and a half months.

After taking a short break, Zazarah found his new home at AGO ROGUE. He joined the team in January 2020 and has remained with the team for over ten months.

Over that stretch, Zanzarah has helped AGO win Ultraliga Season 4 regular season and claim silver from the playoffs. Most notably, Zanzarah was a member of AGO ROGUE’s lineup that won the European Masters 2022 Summer.

Following a successful run in the lower division, Zanzarah got a chance to return to LEC with Astralis for the 2021 season. But unfortunately, success was hard to come by for the Russian LoL pro player.

Astralis made its LEC debut in 2021, but despite the organization’s renown as one of the most successful in the esports world, the team did not achieve much.

In the debut LEC split, Astralis placed ninth with a 9-12 record, thus missing the LEC Playoffs. However, having done well enough for a team that just appeared in the league, Astralis decided to run it back with the same lineup for the LEC 2021 Summer.

But unfortunately, that did not earn Astralis the results they were after. Astralis have shown some improvement in the Summer Split, placing seventh-eighth with a 7-11 record, but it again wasn’t enough to book a spot in the playoffs.

Ahead of the 2022 season, Astralis made further changes to its roster, adding two new faces. Most notably, Astralis signed ADC Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup and mid laner Oliver “Dajor” Ryppa.

But even with a new lineup, success was hard to come by. Astralis ended the LEC 2022 Spring in last place with a humiliating 3-11 record. With that, the Danish esports organization came six wins short of a spot in the playoffs.

Having produced the worst season in the team’s history, Astralis decided to make some drastic changes ahead of the LEC 2022 Summer.

The 2022 offseason kicked off with the departure of top laner Matti “WhiteKnight” Sormunen and support Hampus Mikael “promisq” Abrahamsson, who left the team on March 10. Just two weeks later, Astralis also parted ways with coach Mikkel “Donby” Donby.

And now, a month later, Astralis also announced the departure of jungler Zanzarah, who is the fourth member to leave Astralis ahead of the LEC 2022 Summer.

With that, Astralis have kept only two players in mid laner Dajor and ADC Kobbe, suggesting the team is set to go through a major overhaul ahead of the next split. Most notably, with a new top laner, jungler, support player, and a coach.

Still, since the LEC 2022 Summer won’t start until June, Astralis have plenty of time to find replacements. Who that might be, remains to be seen, but we can be sure that the Astralis LoL team will look much different comes the summer split.