Danish CS:GO star Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz is officially out of Ninjas in Pyjamas’ lineup for this week’s BLAST Premier World Final, the last tier-one event of the year, the organization announced today.
The 26-year-old has been dealing with health issues since last week and didn’t play in IEM Winter’s semifinals and grand finals this weekend. Per doctor’s recommendation, he’ll sit out of the BLAST Premier World Final as well to recover. His substitute will once again be the sniper from NiP’s academy team, Love “phzy” Smidebrant.
Phzy has been a part of Young Ninjas since January and did OK at IEM Winter, despite the baptism by fire. He averaged a 0.98 rating after the semifinal and grand finals, according to HLTV’s statistics, which isn’t ideal for an AWPer but isn’t awful considering the circumstances and lack of practice with the first team.
With dev1ce out, NiP’s odds of succeeding at the BLAST Premier World Final significantly decrease. The star player joined the organization in April and has been their best fragger throughout the whole year. With him onboard, NiP became a solid contender but were only able to win one tournament, IEM Fall Europe in September.
On top of dev1ce’s announcement, NiP also said its current CCO, Jonas Gundersen, will be the team’s head coach at the BLAST Premier World Final. The Swedes’ former coach, Björn “THREAT” Pers, has transitioned to another role following IEM Winter, becoming the organization’s Counter-Strike technical director.
The BLAST Premier World Final will run from Dec. 14 to 19. NiP will face G2 in the opening round on Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 6:30am CT.
