device: "With CS2 we have a golden opportunity to make our own history" (Part 2)

In the second and final part of our interview with Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz, conducted after Astralis' elimination from IEM Dallas, we delve into what drives the 27-year-old star to compete outside of winning more championships, missing the BLAST.tv Paris Major, and more.

In part one, device was candid and talked in detail about how his return to professional play has been so far and how he feels less stressed and more present when competing now. He also touched upon the development of Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen and Alexander "⁠Altekz⁠" Givskov as well as the reported addition of Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr, going so far as to say that the 18-year-old rifler "has the potential to be a top-five player in the world."

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device: "Staehr is one of the best talents we've had in Denmark in five years" (Part 1)

In part two, the discussion turned toward device's feelings after Astralis' failed bid to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major, something which he describes as a "mood killer." The 19-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) award recipient also spoke about Astralis' old style versus how the meta of the game is now, and gave his perspective on the controversy that has surrounded Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen.

If you wish to listen to the audio interview and cannot see the SoundCloud widget above, press here.

Going back a little bit, you missed the Major this year, something that I'm sure you would have wanted after being away for so long. Just tell me a little about that and not making it through the RMR.

Not making it through the RMR was really tough for me, and was also one of the periods up until then where I put the most effort and work into my game, looking at others and seeing what I can do differently and stuff like that. It was really, not depressing, but a mood-killer for the team. It took some days and weeks to gather the motivation to keep pushing through.

Watching the Major and not being a part of it sucks, but if we're not making it to the Major then we wouldn't have been competitive at the Major as well. But even looking at that, right before the Major we beat GamerLegion, we beat Apeks, and we beat some of the teams that went to the top four, right? So seeing that was also a little bit annoying for me but, it is how it is and you can never do anything about the past, it's just about trying to gather motivation and looking at solutions individually and as a team.

A lot in this meta is [about] like, 'how can I be a better player on the server' because it's such an individual game right now that it's kinda what you need to be a top team. When you see the team shifts in power, if that's what you'd say, it's mostly about individuals. You saw it for iM in GamerLegion and stuff like that, it's performances like that, that define tournament runs in my opinion right now. It's a lot of what I tell myself to focus on as well.

Astralis were known as this utility team, this very cohesive unit. Like you said, it's very individual now, does that shift the way that Astralis as a whole are approaching the game now?

We're definitely not playing the same way we did way back. It was also a different core; me, dupreeh, and Xyp9x played together for like six, seven years, so we already had defined how our roles were, even without talking about it.

Right now, we're just trying to follow the meta. When you play on stage, though, you can play a lot more on utility because every stage player knows that when you throw an HE and they watch it explode, action is going to come to your bombsite and stuff like that.

So that's one way how utility still defines high-level play, but for now, I think that especially the IGLs' roles matter less. Of course, you need to have good calls, good defaults, and have a good playstyle, but there are so many micro-decisions that you have to do as a player mid-round, that even though an IGL has a poor performance, you can still win because it's the micro-decisions that manipulate the rounds and stuff.

[Editor's note: I was given five minutes to wrap up the interview from here.]

Obviously winning championships and titles never really gets old, but as a player who has essentially won everything, what was the drive to come back?

It's more or less a feeling of I have more to give, both for the youngsters but also for the organization, Astralis. I felt that my individual level was still good enough for me to come back and compete. That matters a lot for me, I don't want to be dead weight.

First of all, I feel like CS, I've done it ever since I can remember and I've always been good at it and I've always had the thought of 'If I'm not good at it anymore, I don't wanna do it competitively.' That was number one, and as you said, for me winning doesn't get boring but it's also been such a long time, so I don't think about that period of my career that much. I just try to be present and not compare that part of my career with now.

I have a chance to define something new with the team, and especially now with CS2, we have a golden opportunity to make our own history and not every time we go to a tournament, usually what you hear is: 'This is not the old Astralis,' right? I think all of us want to be the new Astralis and make our own history, even though I am proud of the four stars on our shirt, it doesn't really matter too much right now.

Every time people talk about the new Astralis now, the topic of HUNDEN does come up, because there is a lot of controversy that surrounds him after that whole period in Heroic. Not just with the coaching bug, but with also the strat leak that happened as well. I know you weren't around at the time, but do you have any comments on that whole situation?

Honestly, I don't know too much about it. I'd rather be informed then talk about it at one point, maybe. As I said — I think I said it in HLTV Confirmed — but I just treat people the way they treat me and I think that ever since he started working with us, one thing for sure is that he has a lot of CS knowledge and I'm also trying to learn from that. Honestly, I have no idea what happened and what is the truth, and what is the real truth and stuff like that, so I'd rather just not comment on it.

Is there not some responsibility to also know, though? Does that make sense? To know about what has happened.

Maybe? I haven't thought about it that way. I don't think it's our, as players, responsibility to really dive into people's pasts. Even though my past outside of the game has been a really bumpy road, it's not something I tell everyone, right? It's hard to say. It's kinda like, a hard situation. I think we know... what we know is that he just wants to move on as well, and I think for us, as long as he contributes — and he really does, he's a really smart CS person — and we can benefit off that, then why not have him as a part of the team, right?

Lastly, you've obviously won so much in Counter-Strike. So going into Counter-Strike 2, s1mple stole your MVP record, is there a bit of a chip on your shoulder to get that back now?

There are a lot of storylines... the MVP thing, dupreeh has the five Majors and stuff like that. There are a lot of things to chase, It's about how you frame it. Michael Jordan was really good at that: he just found something to focus on and made it his goal. For me I'm not sure what that'll be for CS2, but for me it's always been team-orientated and I think MVPs just come along. So hopefully I can manage to do that but s1mple is also the greatest so who knows? It'll be a fun battle no matter what.