Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) player Jacky ‘Stewie2K‘ Yip is joining North American organisation Wildcard for the upcoming PGL Astana qualifiers as a stand-in.
The announcement, which was made on X yesterday, marks the first time Stewie2K has competed in the scene since winning IEM Dallas 2024 with G2 Esports.
“I’ll be playing as a stand-in for Wildcard in the upcoming Astana Qualifiers,” he said. “Let’s compete, have some fun, and see how the tournament pans out!
“Thanks for the word of support and appreciation shown through my streams so far!”
Wildcard has yet to announce which player Stewie2K will replace for the Closed Qualifiers.
The PGL Astana 2025 North American closed qualifiers will run from March 27th to April 1st.. The qualifiers will see four double elimination groups of eight teams in a best-of-three series.
First-place winners will then proceed to compete in PGL Astana 2025, one of the biggest esports events this year, which has a total prize pool of $625,000 (roughly £480,500).
Stewie2K’s Second Stand-In Could See History Repeat Itself
Stewie2k has enjoyed an impressive career as a Counter-Strike esports player ever since he joined Cloud9 back in 2016. After his team came first in multiple tournaments like iBUYPOWER Invitational, and ESEA Rank S, he joined Team Liquid’s line-up in 2018.
One of his most recent achievements was as a stand-in for G2 Esports, where he helped the team reach first place at the Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024. Some fans reacted to the news, anticipating a repeat for Wildcard, calling it the “stand-in buff.”
Johnny ‘Trottah’, CS content creator and commentator, said on social media: ‘A Stewie stand-in, I like this for NA and hope it works out. Would love to truly see you back on a line-up.”
