Dev1ce is back with Astralis

The CS:GO community is celebrating a great day today, as it has been confirmed that dev1ce has rejoined Astralis. The official announcement follows weeks of rumors and speculations about the Ninjas in Pyjamas star AWPer returning to his former team, following nine months of inactivity. 

The four-time Major winner Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz will return to the Danish team with whom he once enjoyed his glory days. 

Cryptic messages

Dev1ce left Astralis for NiP in April 2021 but hasn’t played in any official games since December 2021 due to burnout and mental health issues. Eventually, NiP replaced his position with Ludvig “Brollan” Brollin, however, no updates regarding his health were made public either by the player or the team. 

This naturally led to a surge of rumors and speculations throughout the year regarding the player’s future in CS:GO and his possible comeback, with reports from early October suggesting a €600,000 deal between NiP and Astralis.

This Tuesday, the reports were followed by a cryptic Tweet posted by the Astralis CEO Anders Horsholt, indicating that something “great” was going to happen this week. And today, the hopes of fans finally came to fruition.

 

Dev1ce’s time with NiP 

As the superstar AWPer arrived in NiP in April 2021, he helped the Swedish team to secure victories at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2021 and IEM XVI Fall: Europe, and a second-place finish at Flashpoint Season 3 and at IEM XVI: Winter. 

Following the team’s grand final loss at IEM in Stockholm against Team Vitality, the Danish AWPer announced that he would be taking a break from the pro play, citing mental health issues. 

Problems back home

Meanwhile, Astralis were facing their own series of problems. Although it is difficult to pinpoint what brought forth the first crack of Astralis’s dominance, it could be dev1ce leaving Astralis, or perhaps it was the departure of Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen.

Since the start of 2021, Astralis seem to be on the decline, as the team didn’t manage to secure a single win in two years. 

New hope

Fans hope that dev1ce’s return could help the team gain back their former glory, as he will be playing again alongside his former teammates Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth. However, Astralis’ inability to qualify for IEM Rio Major and for BLAST Premier Fall Final suggests they might still have a long way to go. 

Due to the fact that organizations aren’t allowed to switch rosters between RMR tournaments and the Major, it is expected that dev1ce will likely join the team after the IEM Rio concludes. His debut for Astralis will be at the upcoming Elisa Masters Espoo 2022, set to take place between November 16-20. 

Here’s the current Astralis line-up:

•  Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
•  Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth
•  Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz
•  Benjamin “blameF” Bremer

With either Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen as a stand-in or Asger “Farlig” Jensen returning to the active squad.

Header: Astralis