Ninjas in Pyjamas is actively trying to sell its currently inactive CS:GO star Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz and has already begun talking to dev1ce’s former organization Astralis, according to a report by Jaxon.
Dev1ce has expressed his desire to return to Astralis, according to Jaxon. The star AWPer played for Astralis between January 2016 and April 2021. He helped them become the best CS:GO team in the world between 2018 and 2019 and played an integral part in all of the four Major tournaments Astralis won.
Jaxon reports that Astralis has “apparently” bid for dev1ce, but NiP has not accepted the offer yet. Dev1ce is still locked into an over 2.5-year contract with the Swedish organization, according to Jaxon. NiP is not settling to receive much less than what it paid for dev1ce back in 2021, a transfer that reportedly cost around $1 million.
One source told Jaxon that NiP is looking for a “fair market price, which isn’t much above what NiP bought him for.” Dev1ce has been on the sidelines since December 2021 due to health issues and hasn’t played a professional CS:GO match since then.
It was reported in August that dev1ce was exploring options outside of NiP to make his return and had preliminary talks with several teams. A return to NiP’s active roster is looking unlikely at this point, despite NiP currently missing a primary sniper. The organization removed the rifler Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora last week and brought former G2 captain Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen in to take over the reins of the squad ahead of the IEM Rio Major Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR) event in October.
The rosters for the RMR are currently locked, so dev1ce is out of the IEM Rio Major cycle and will potentially return only after the Major concludes on Nov. 13.