Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz is interested in returning to Astralis less than a year after he left to join Ninjas in Pyjamas, according to a joint report by French website 1pv.fr and Dexerto.
His transfer to NiP came as one of the biggest deals in CS:GO esports, not only because of its high value (reportedly $1 million), but also because dev1ce was the star and face of Astralis. He had helped the org win four CS:GO Majors and a plethora of S-tier championships.
Dev1ce was expecting to elevate NiP, a team that has struggled to win championships in the past years, to the next level, but it didn’t go as he planned. The 26-year-old joined the Swedish squad in April 2021 and only managed to win one tournament, the IEM Fall European Regional Major Ranking (RMR) in October. NiP didn’t come anywhere close to winning bigger events—such as PGL Stockholm Major, ESL Pro League season 13, IEM Cologne, BLAST Premier Fall Finals, and BLAST Premier World Final.
Astralis have struggled since dev1ce’s departure, and the recent additions of star players Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke weren’t enough to help the team in the last tournaments of the season. They’re still missing a great dedicated AWPer and saw the in-game leader Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander unsuccessfully fill the role in the last weeks.
Even though dev1ce would be a perfect fit for Astralis’ current lineup, the negotiations may be difficult. He signed a three-year contract with NiP, and the organization would likely not allow him to walk away for cheap.
