After taking a year away from the scene, legendary CS:GO player Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz is finally set to return.
Dev1ce hasn’t been seen in professional CS:GO play since December 2021, back when he was still playing for Ninjas in Pyjamas. Since then, the Danish player has been on a year-long hiatus from the competitive CS:GO scene in order to take care of his mental health.
And while he’s made some career moves since, having signed a multi-year deal to rejoin Astralis back in October 2022, he has yet to play professionally - with Astralis opting not to field him the Elisa Masters Espoo earlier this year.
This prompted speculation that dev1ce, known as one of the best CS:GO players in the world, had gone rusty in his time away from the scene. Astralis’ director of sports Kasper Hvidt was keen to insist that dev1ce was already a central part of the team - but it seems that they were nonetheless keen not to rush him back into professional play before he was ready.
Dev1ce to return to CS:GO professional play
But it seems that dev1ce’s year-long absence is finally over, with Astralis taking to Twitter to announce that the legendary player would be appearing in the playoff stages of CCT North Europe Series 2 - an online tournament that began on November 24 and will run until December 7.
Dev1ce will be joined by his teammates Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander, Benjamin "blameF" Bremer, Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth and academy stand-in Mikkel "MistR" Thomsen.
Despite being gone for so long, his return comes sooner than many had expected. Astralis has been hesitant to commit to when dev1ce might play for the team, with Atralis’ interim head coach Peter “casle'' Ardenskjold having previously floated a 2023 return for the legendary player.
“He will play in 2023,” said casle in an interview with HLTV. “We have to see when. Early 2023, I hope.”
Assuming dev1ce is still on top form, he’ll surely be an enormous boost for his team. The playoffs, which will kick off on December 4, will see Astralis facing off against the likes of GamerLegion, OG and HEET.
With Astralis ultimately ranking fourth back at the Elisa Masters Espoo following their 0-2 loss to Fnatic, they’ll be undoubtedly keen to see how much they can benefit from dev1ce’s long-awaited return.
While Astralis won’t be appearing, the BLAST Premier World Finals will be kicking off from December 14 to December 18. And you’ll be able to follow every game right here on Luckbox - be sure to sign up now to claim your 100% bonus!
