Top 20 players of 2023: device (11)

A world-class raw output in an otherwise difficult year for Astralis sees device return to the top 20 players list, powered by 1xBet.

Top 20 players of 2023: Introduction

Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz returns to the top 20 for a record ninth time in his career. Often touted as "Mr. Consistent," the Dane made his first appearance in 2014 and since has only missed the list once, in 2022, when he withdrew from competition to focus on his health after his 2021 move to Sweden and to Ninjas in Pyjamas went awry due to personal circumstances.

device rejoined Astralis, the organization with which he won a plethora of titles including four Majors and earned most of his 19 MVP awards, in late 2022 after his extended break and made a statement with a 2023 year during which he looked as good as ever individually despite a lack of team success.

He now also becomes a member of a growing but still quite exclusive club of players who have made the list past the age of 28, joining Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski, Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg, Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač.

"I think for me, what matters is being able to come back after my sick leave and staying competitive," device said about his return to the list. "It was one of the things that wasn't a guarantee, but something I strived for. Being a part of a club where NEO and f0rest are mentioned is also pretty cool, since they are some of the OGs of CS."

You can read a more in-depth look at device's career in his previous appearances on the top 20 list:

- Top 20 players of 2014: device (20)
- Top 20 players of 2015: device (#3)
- Top 20 players of 2016: device (#3)
- Top 20 players of 2017: device (#5)
- Top 20 players of 2018: device (#2)
- Top 20 players of 2019: device (#3)
- Top 20 players of 2020: device (#3)
- Top 20 players of 2021: device (#11)

device returned to competition in late 2022 already, but it wasn't until the BLAST Premier Spring Groups in January of the following year that he played his first LAN back in the Astralis jersey. The new team, fresh off another signing in Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen, had a shaky start in the first stage, but a week later ended up scraping through the Knockout phase with device in solid form in the close matches against Ninjas in Pyjamas and OG that earned them a place at the Spring Final.

Due to a tough end to 2022 and a failure to qualify for the IEM Rio Major, the Danish squad missed out on a spot at IEM Katowice. This meant they had nothing to play for the next two months other than a CCT event and the closed qualifier for the BLAST.tv Paris Major, winning the former and passing through the latter up against lower-tier teams without much trouble.

The following few months were ones the organization and device would rather forget. It began with a failure in the ESL Pro League Season 17 group stage, where Astralis nearly got eliminated dead-last by complete outsiders, ATK, in a sign of things to come. An unsuccessful run at the Paris Major Europe RMR followed as Astralis went 1-3 in their Swiss group, losing to Vitality, Eternal Fire, and Ninjas in Pyjamas, and the organization missed the Major for the second consecutive time.

This was a massive hit to a team that still counted the core of the four-time Major-winning squad amongst its ranks. "It was really tough because Astralis also missed the Major previously in Rio and we really tried our best to set us up for success in the RMR," device said. "The reaction was a BIG blow to our both confidence and team spirit, so resetting after the RMR was really really tough for us as a team but also mentally."

In the aftermath of the failure, Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth was demoted to the Astralis Talent academy team and in his place came one of the juniors, Alexander "⁠Altekz⁠" Givskov, for the next few months. With no Major to play, Astralis trudged along some online tournaments to get their new player up to speed, and only in late May did they have another chance to show their worth at IEM Dallas, for which they had qualified earlier in the year.

Up to this point device maintained a great level despite the disappointments, making it known that his "Mr. Consistent" nickname isn't just a shadow of the past with 16 out of 20 maps he played at ESL Pro League and the RMR in the green. He also showcased his immense skill in opening up rounds with a 71% win rate in opening duels in 23% attempts — something he turned out to excel in all year long.

But he hit another level at IEM Dallas. Ensuring their first playoffs appearance of the year, device and Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer carried the team to the quarter-finals in an overtime win against Liquid followed by a stomp of Cloud9 where the duo each hit 1.50+ ratings in two maps. blameF then slowed down while device nearly got Astralis to the semi-finals single-handed in likely his best performance of the year against ENCE in the group final, but even his 94-51 score across three maps and 1.51 rating wasn't enough. Another such map from device followed in the quarter-final itself, but he was once again let down by the team in a double-overtime first map loss to MOUZ before he finally ran out of steam.

Date	Matches
IEM Dallas 2023
01/06/2023	ENCE Finished 2:1 Astralis	Match

device's mind-blowing 1.42 average rating, 0.94 KPR, and 1.59 Impact rating across the tournament earned him the first of three Exceptionally Valuable Player awards, and confirmed what everyone likely already knew by this point: the six-time top-five player in the world was truly back.

Down was the only way from such a high for device, who then recorded his only poor showing of the year in the final stop before the break at the BLAST Premier Spring Final the following week. FaZe wiped the floor with Astralis to kick off the event, and the Danes then came up short in a 90-round series against Complexity. The North American side had Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek standing in, and the South African was a nightmare for device in the Overpass decider that eliminated them from the tournament, prompting the Dane to vent his frustrations on Twitter.

"I don't think too much about the tournaments where we play two matches and are out. Stats wise I believe that is always going to look rough, probably, but yeah [the Spring Final] sucked and I remember being peeked by Sonic with the Deagle a lot of times against Complexity, which became a meme in our team for some time (laughs)."

More changes followed after the nightmare of a season during the summer break, and device had to say goodbye to another old teammate of his. Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander was next on the chopping block while Altekz's brief stint in the main team also ended, making way for blameF to take over leadership and for the signings of Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr and Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup. This allowed Astralis to fix role clashes in the team and seemed to do wonders early on.

Their first steps with the new lineup were wobbly, and they once again got off to the BLAST Groups on the wrong foot, but despite two straight losses in the first phase they went on to qualify for the Fall Final with convincing wins over Complexity and the new Liquid roster.

IEM Cologne was next, and device shone bright again in the team's only appearance at an Elite event of the year to earn his second EVP.

Astralis passed through the Play-in unscathed despite Apeks giving them a run for their money, and went on to be placed in Group B to face G2 in the opener. Just like in Dallas it wasn't enough that device was far and away the best player on the server — Astralis passed up an opportunity to beat the eventual champions despite having a lead in the series and being up 12-8 on the second map. This meant they had to go the long way to the playoffs, but they rose to the challenge with the AWPer at the forefront putting up big performances as they beat Ninjas in Pyjamas, MOUZ and Natus Vincere on the way to the quarter-finals.

The Danish derby with HEROIC followed in the first round of the bracket stage, where device's 1.67-rated opening map gave way to a Buzz 30-bomb on the second to ensure their place in the semis. But that's where the road ended for Astralis, as they went up against the red-hot G2 once more and couldn't compete this time around.

When asked about what made the difference in Cologne for an otherwise struggling team, he put it down to extra preparation compared to other teams, many of whom had also made changes, and lack of pressure. "We didn't really have a summer vacation because of those changes and started practice early, that could have had an impact for sure. But also in the beginning we didn't have any expectations for our performance, and that gave us a boost not knowing that we could disappoint in some way," he said.

The deep run seemed to show huge promise of the new lineup, but the success was short-lived. It looked as if Astralis would have another great run at ESL Pro League Season 18 next, as did device for another potential EVP, but it all came undone three weeks after the group ended in the Round of 16 loss to Eternal Fire, where his usual impact was nowhere to be seen.

"I think one of the hardest things being an Astralis player is the natural expectations that is on the performance of the team. We wanted to both replicate and push further than our performance in Cologne, which I think in hindsight was really ambitious and put us all in a situation where we would be disappointed almost at all tournaments. I remember that being really tough on me, going to tournaments and never really feeling like you would get much out of your effort."

Astralis then traveled to China for the medium-sized CS Asia Championships, their first in Counter-Strike 2 after they decided to decline an IEM Sydney invite, and device clinched one more EVP as one of the best players in Astralis' comfortable run to the semi-finals. He was solid every step of the way in the wins against Lynn Vision and the Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha-less ENCE, as well as in the semi-final loss to MOUZ.

It was around that time that it became clear changes were imminent in the Astralis camp again. HEROIC's implosion put one of the Astralis organization's perennial targets, Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund, and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard in their crosshairs, and after long negotiations they reached a deal with their rival team over the duo's transfer.

Read more

Heroic temporarily remove stavn and jabbi amid Astralis interest

Although the move was finalized before the Fall Final, Astralis couldn't use their two new players at their home event, and so they played one last tournament with b0RUP and Buzz in Copenhagen before they made way for the new additions. While some capitalize on situations like that to have one last hurrah, for Astralis the event looked just like something to get over and done with, as they went out in last place following losses to a Complexity team on a hot streak and, what was worse, a HEROIC lineup playing with two stand-ins.

The rumored move then became official, in time for Astralis to try their new stacked lineup at another medium-sized event, BetBoom Dacha. With less than a week of practice and several role changes, there wasn't much to be done despite the improved firepower, though, and the team closed out 2023 with another last-place finish after faltering against Virtus.pro and FURIA.

Thus the year ended for device. It was one with few highlight moments, but full of solid performances from the ever-consistent AWPer, who had so few bad matches that you could count them on one hand. Going into 2024, the 28-year-old hopes the two new additions can bring the added firepower he thinks Astralis needed to become a contender.

"stavn and jabbi are obviously some if not the best players in their role in Denmark and also in the world, so they come with a lot of skill and know-how from their success in Heroic. Being able to compete with the very best in the world individually is a big factor for success in how the game is played currently," device said.

"To be honest, our lineup the previous year wasn't one of the most individually stacked teams. If you compare us experience and skill wise to some of the teams that had a lot of success I wouldn't say we were on the same level. We tried our best throughout the year and had some good moments, but the consistency wasn't there and that hurt us the most."

Why was device the 11th best player of 2023?

device makes an appearance just outside of the top 10 of the list thanks to his superb raw output in 2023, which on its own would have warranted a significantly higher placing.

Few could match the numbers the Dane recorded in 2023 in almost every aspect, from fragging (0.76 KPR, #3), impact (1.23 rating, #3, and 19.3% rounds with a multi-kill, #3), frequent peaks (41.8% maps with a 1.30+ rating, #2), to his play against the best teams (1.16 rating vs. top 5, #5).

One could also argue he was the best player in the world at openings with the highest rating in them (1.24) thanks to 0.14 opening kills per round (#5) and a 66.6% success rate (#2).

"I think when I returned I thought about what I felt like was missing or changed a bit in my year off and I remember thinking that the AWP wasn't being utilized too aggressively and it was something I wanted to rethink a little bit," device said about his approach to the AWP and his success in openings. "I do think that going into CS2, the AWP is going to be a little less relevant in openings, since the mechanics punish the aggressive playstyle of AWPing at the moment."

These numbers however come with an asterisk because of a relatively poor sample, which stems from a lack of appearances at most of the Elite-level events this year — even missing IEM Katowice and the BLAST.tv Paris Major entirely — and deep runs into other big tournaments. All of device's 14 maps at Elite events (the second-fewest in the top 20) and four out of his six maps in Big matches (also second-fewest) come from IEM Cologne alone.

When he and Astralis did make it far device lived up to his legend, with his IEM Cologne, IEM Dallas, and CS Asia Championships EVPs proving he can hit the peaks he always could, but he ultimately needed more of such appearances to place as high as his raw numbers would warrant.

"For me individually the main focus is on the big tournaments and Majors, I think being competitive at those events is what matters the most. I would like to be innovative with the role that I play because of the new game. I have a good gut feeling about the lineup and I'm just excited to start the new year with a great opportunity to put Astralis back on the map again."

Bold prediction by 1xBet

When asked to pinpoint a player he thinks has the potential to reach a top level in the near future, device went with former Sprout and Falcons member Laurențiu "⁠lauNX⁠" Țârlea.

"lauNX has great mechanical skill, just watch his YouTube highlights (laughs). I'm excited to see him compete in CS2," the Dane said about his pick.

lauNX's recent Falcons stint quickly went sideways and he had to make way for the superteam just five months into his tenure, but the 18-year-old has gotten another chance as a member of the new BLEED roster.

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Stay tuned to our Top 20 Players of 2023 ranking and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected.