Danish player Nicolai Hvilshøj Reedtz, better known as dev1ce, has been absent from the CS:GO competitive scene since 2021 - prompting speculation about when he might return.
The last time we saw dev1ce was in December 2021, during his time with Ninjas in Pyjamas. Although he signed a multi-year deal to rejoin Astralis back in October 2022, the team opted not to field him in Elisa Masters Espoo, raising questions about if the legendary player is still at the top of his game.
The Danish player has been absent from the CS:GO scene for some time now, after taking some time away to take care of his mental health. Given that he has been away on medical leave for so long now, fans are concerned that he’ll be unable to keep up the incredible performance he’s shown throughout his career, with many regarding him as one of the best players of all time.
Astralis’ director of sports Kasper Hvidt has tried to snuff out this speculation, insisting that dev1ce had “immediately become a central part of the team, contributing with everything we hoped for.”
“His game sense, skills, and pure personality have been very obvious from day one, but even though we’re all eager for him to play his first tournament, we have time to do things right without forcing anything. It is all about creating room for the best version of dev1ce we have seen.”
Astralis’ CS:GO team captain backed up that assessment, saying that dev1ce was “playing really well,” and implied that he needed a slow return to the scene having been away for so long, especially given that he left due to mental health concerns.
As such, it’s not yet clear when we’ll see dev1ce playing again. Astralis has been somewhat hesitant to put an exact date on his return, though there are signs indicating that we might be seeing him play sometime in 2023.
That’s according to Atralis’ interim head coach Peter “casle” Ardenskjold, in an interview with HLTV, who said that dev1ce is “eager to play.”
“We have already said we have got to take our time until the right moment, right now we are practicing with him and it's going good,” said casle. “I think he will be ready for maybe the next tournament or in the new year.”
Elsewhere in that interview, casle stressed that he was confident about dev1ce’s return in 2023, potentially even early in the year. This means Astralis could field him for IEM Katowice, taking place in February 2023 - assuming the team can secure a spot, anyway.
With or without dev1ce, we won’t be seeing Astralis for the rest of 2022 anyway, with the Elisa Masters Espoo now behind us. The team hasn’t got any more events on the schedule until 2023, meaning that we could see dev1ce playing for Astralis at their next tournament.
And while Astralis won’t be in attendance, there’s still some CS:GO action to be had in 2022. The BLAST Premier Fall Finals are due to start on November 23 - here’s everything you need to know about this week’s tournament.
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