device: "I thought it was going to be a rough year, it turned out to be the best one of my life"

Astralis have been crowned champions at the FACEIT Major with a dominant win against Natus Vincere in the grand final, with the HLTV & Betway MVP medal going to none other than Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz, whom we interviewed after the triumph.

device talked about Astralis' convincing run at the FACEIT Major, which they finished off with a 2-0 victory over Natus Vincere, the second-best team in the world, in the grand final.

He also shared his feelings about becoming a Major MVP for the first time and discussed Astralis' run with this lineup over the course of the last half a year, during which they secured five titles and two runners-up finishes.

We asked the AWPer to address his team's playstyle being called boring, a sentiment that has been repeated within the community over the course of the last few months:

You have been called the best team in the world for a while now, but after securing a Major with this lineup, as well, are you the best team ever?

I definitely think we are the best at a lot of things. We're very innovative, I wouldn't call us the best team ever, it's not up to us to decide that, but I think we're up there, for sure.

What else do you need to add to become that?

I don't know, really. I feel like the way we work together as a team and what we have achieved throughout the last six months, we've just done almost everything. Honestly, we feel like we could do even more, which is scary.

Tell me about this grand final overall - it was just so convincing, at no point did Na`Vi even have a chance, how did you manage that?

Without going into too much detail on the strategies and so on on Nuke, I think that we just had a really good game plan, we are really good on the T side, we feel like we can grind out rounds, we don't need the best economy, we have tactics for everything, and everyone just made sick entries everywhere.

I think it maybe put Na`Vi a little bit on tilt going into the second map, they're usually a really good Overpass team, and you could feel they were a little bit out of it, not to take anything away from the win or anything, but it felt like they could at least play better, and I think that they feel the same, as well. All in all, we had a really good game plan and that's basically how we work, it was the same against Liquid. When we get a good game plan and a good idea of how to play, we play as a unit, usually it goes really well for us.

You've received quite a few MVPs over your career, but this is your first Major MVP medal, what does that mean to you?

Oh, man, I don't know what to say. Honestly, it's really surreal, it obviously means a lot to win a Major, it did the last time, it did this time. I didn't even realize when I walked out to you guys and you were standing there, waiting for me, I got so shocked.

I'm really honored to get this award. It's like one of the career goals that has just been achieved, I'm just mind-blown in some way, I feel like. I'm playing at my best and I thought it was going to be such a rough year with all of the absence due to sickness and so on, and it's turned out to be the best year of my life.

We've been hearing a lot of people call your playstyle boring, what do you say to that?

I think it's normal to take a little bit away from a dominating team. It was the same with Barcelona when they were really, really good, people said they played really boring football and so on, but they won all their games almost. I think it's the same because of course, we play I would say a little bit boring, we don't do a lot of rushes and so on, it's not that flashy, we don't send one guy out to win the round.

We play on the best odds we can get throughout all rounds and we play with the brain every time, every time we get out of that sync, we play really badly, so that's the reason why we do it. It's not because we want the viewers to be bored (laughs), but, actually, because we really want to win. I think that there are flashier and more fun, more entertaining ways to play, but that's not coming from us, at least.

This is the best way, right?

Yeah, this is the best way, for sure.

Looking back at these last six months, what do you think has allowed this whole run that you've had with all of these titles and a Major one at the end?

I've got to give a lot of credit to zonic and how he's managed us in the beginning, how he got Magisk into the team, first of all. He was really good at adapting and we were really good at adapting. We've constructed a way to prepare for the matches that I don't think any other team is doing.

I think that's what's giving us this much of an edge going to the game, we know everything that is coming, honestly, and that's mainly because of zonic and gla1ve, also. Everyone in the team is putting in the work and watching and so on, and that's just been the main adaption we've made and we have just built upon that. We've done more things that I don't want to go into details that much, worked on the utility and such, and we're touching on all of the different areas of the game, and I think that's why we can play on all terms. I think that's what makes us really good.