The ironic fate of device

Nicolai “device” Reedtz is arguably one of the best 5 CS:GO players of all time. His career so far has been phenomenal. At just 27 years old, he’s already won several Majors, Intel Grand Slam Season 1, and numerous other S-tier tournaments.

But like other great players, he couldn’t stay at the top for more than 5-7 years. In fact, we could say that almost all of his accomplishments were obtained during 2016-2019. These 4 seasons made him who he is today, a widely known and highly respected CS:GO professional who could potentially compete for another 3-5 years at the highest level.

Device’s troubles

Device had his first major career problems in early 2021. Astralis were no longer the greatest team in the world and he wanted to try something new. So he got transferred to Ninjas in Pyjamas, where he played for eight months. Needless to say, his team’s results were not the ones he had hoped for, and that created a lot of pressure.

Combined with some personal problems that he was dealing with at the time, that pressure proved to be too much for him to handle. So he simply quit the game for a year. When he came back, he immediately joined Astralis again.

The irony is that he was the first player to leave Astralis when things were going badly, and now he’s the only player left of that Astralis roster that conquered the world multiple times and won back-to-back Majors.

A lot of changes this post season for us.
Kasper & Lukas are 2 people I will always remember for our incredible journey together. Through ups and downs we managed to create something unique and they were both a big part of that.

— Nicolai Reedtz (@dev1ce) June 22, 2023

The new Astralis

A lot has changed for Astralis in the last three years. This former CS:GO giant hasn’t won an S-tier tournament since December 2020! That was 30 months ago. Early 2021 was the last time when we saw Astralis playing their typical style of CS:GO. But even then, they were a shadow of their former selves.

At the recent IEM Dallas and BLAST Premier: Spring Final, which took place in June, Astralis finished in the top eight. This is a sign that their roster was quite good, all things considered. But the management clearly wanted more.

This week we’ve learned that Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander will be stepping down as the team’s IGL after nearly 7 years in which he guided the team to numerous trophies. His replacement will be Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, who also proved to be a formidable player. But will he be a great IGL? We’ll have to see.

Header: Astralis