Editorial: Ageing and to call upon a falling star, device's journey to IGL

We are passing into a new era with the stars of yesteryear aging and a new guard arising. Can previous stars transition into leadership roles?

In the Iliad, Achilles, half-man, half-God, is the Greek army’s most peerless warrior and a scourge of his enemies. His mighty reputation as a warrior precedes him, and following the war, his legendary deeds outpace him. Many now remember his name.

But Achilles is also described as a leader, chief among the Myrmidons, his devoted company. In one pre-battle marshaling, his men are described as gathering around him "like a pack of ravening wolves filled with indescribable fury, like mountain wolves that have brought down a stag with full antlers." He is with the boys at his absolute apex, and his magnetism can set worlds aflame.

As far as the legends go, they are often described as such, both equal parts exceptional as individuals and yet also exceptional as leaders. Often in the earliest tales, their excellence by itself is justification for leadership; Odysseus was the wiliest of his men, or perhaps like Achilles they are given divine origin stories. What is certainly true though is that back then, to be great was also to use that greatness collectively and elevate one’s tribe.

Can we say the same for our Counter-Strike pros of today? More specifically, can we say the same for those that as a precondition possess individual greatness, and can they take this greatness onwards into great leadership of a 5-stack? Is such a thing possible in our era of hyper-individualism, insular computer screen focus, and neatly and algorithmically curated interests that discourage the self-sacrifice that comes with solid teamwork?

It's an IGL’s world… and we all frag in it

Leadership in CS is hard, whether IGLing or mid-round calling. In the lifespan of CS until now, some players simply appeared born for this role. While they showcased days of blistering youthful firepower early on, we now remember a Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo, a Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander, or a Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen as being molded for leadership.

On the inverse, other players appear to have never had that special ingredient that it took to become a leader of men, or perhaps they never desired to. Some never tried: a Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg or an Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev. Others levied it upon themselves such as Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač during his FaZe days, only to quickly collapse under internal and external pressure when the blame games began.

One of the key sticking points about IGLing is its sacrificial cast. To some degree, the extra mental taxation of having to cram reams of strats into one’s brain, and then be aware of those strats in the hectic mishmash of a live match, is a heavily taxing activity. And then the IGL is still expected to pick up frags here and there. It’s no wonder that IGLs are usually then the weakest player from a statistical impact perspective and from pure fragging, and this is reflected in their HLTV ratings being usually the lowest of the team. No — their impact is far more hidden and intangible in the server.

There are of course dozens upon dozens of examples of this. A very recent one is Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis, who took a brief foray into IGL land, and emerged quite shaken to his core in the fragging department. But we need look no further than what happened to Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov (who has recently been quite the focus of attention) upon his unsuccessful escapade from the IGL role and heading back to rifling. As seen in his rating over the past year, electroNic shot back up nearly .2 in Rating after giving up IGLing, going from averaging around a 0.9 to averaging around 1.1 starting at IEM Sydney 2023 and beyond.

In our interview with electroNic at IEM Sydney he made an interesting comment about this shift out of IGLing and back to his old ways.

As hinted at somewhat earlier in this article, there is a common understanding that being a star player and an IGL are incompatible. And this quote by electroNic reinforces that concept and even turns it into a bit of a logical premise if one takes into account the Rating difference between IGLs and star players. Either you are a star player, or you are an IGL, there is no in-between. But how true is this? Luckily for us, there is a currently ongoing storyline where we have been able to gather more data on the star player to IGL pipeline, and assess its impacts on actual fragging power and statistical performance, as well as analyze how detrimental it may be to returning to a future form.

A device-ive decision

Our subject of analysis is none other than Tom Cruise doppelganger Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz. Astute readers will know that, following Astralis’s absolute stinker of an RMR campaign and then bombing out in the Last Chance Qualifier, the team quickly benched their IGL Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer. As a side note, blameF was an interesting IGL choice in general. The 26-year-old buff behemoth is certainly younger than more seasoned IGLs, and bucked the trend of the perceived "boomerification" of the in-game leader. He did not even see a characteristic dip in form when he took over leading duties in the summer of 2023, as seen here (aside from a small dip in form in August).

And while his form did dip more severely in the back half of 2023, this could perhaps be written off as the CS2 curse, that same pesky contagion that has affected the Kovacs cousins and several other players — it is hard to say due to that coincidental overlap. On the other hand, blameF has also been perceived as putting himself in advantageous positions that benefit his scoreline at the expense of his teammates’ success, so his solution to the IGL fragging problem could be that is ultimately ruinous.

Never ones to delay, and run with the professional neuroticism of a 35-year-old MBA at a hedge fund giving an all-nighter PowerPoint presentation to leadership, the Astralis organization quickly bounced back from this and signed Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro, as well as announcing that device would become IGL.

This was new territory for a player who had for five years consistently featured in the Top 20 Players of the Year list, and threatened to portend the characteristic drop in form seen in most IGLs.

Speaking on his new career trajectory, the 28-year-old device chose to frame his career shift as a longevity-focused one:

Such a statement comes seasoned with a dash of maturity that every late 20s male will recognize, when their raging hormones suddenly start to decline, the ability to grind all day and all night suddenly vanishes, and the Norwood specter comes knocking. And yet this statement also suspiciously sizzles with the polish of a PR cleanup, as evinced by device’s much more raw and personal Tweet following the RMR blowout.

As with most things in life, there is likely a bit of half-truth in everything. The Danish madfragger couldn’t have been happy about his dip in form in recent months, nor in Astralis' woeful performance at the beginning of 2024. So we won’t deny that he may have seen IGLing on such a packed-out team of Denmark’s best as a last call for him to stay relevant. Cloaked in the language of PR and Kasper Straube, this is of course transmuted into having wanted to lead forever:

device could also simply be trying to find his new bearings at this point in his career, and with the added challenge of CS2’s differences, something that has happened to many pros in these past months. This is hinted at in his above Tweet which touches on burnout and that feeling of no longer wanting to play CS day-in, day-out. IGLing is a way to add responsibility to one’s shoulders (a natural process for any ambitious man), while also switching the constant routine of just trying to frag and challenge oneself with the more cerebral parts of the game.

None can stay hot forever. And, barring the eldritch horror that is Aleksandr "⁠glowiing⁠" Matsievich’s incredibly strong form and performances at 30 years old, many players begin to consider a transformation towards the tail end of their 20s. This can take the form of a continual big-arena clutcher à la Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard, or pivoting towards IGL, or even the coaching or analyst roles: the one thing these all have in common is the strain of leadership and having to work with other humans (predominantly men) in the competitive arena.

No longer can an older player have that hotshot mentality of playing for oneself, dry-peeking, and egoistic fragging; and this balanced trade-off in cooperation may also be one of the reasons that players suffer performance-wise in later years (among many other reasons, both intrinsic and extrinsic to the game).

Device-iveness: Results roll in

But to return to the present, how has device’s IGL journey started? Astralis missed the Major in Copenhagen and then saw action at IEM Chengdu. Their first match was an utter derby against the even more geriatric Steel Helmet (in itself a hilarious coincidence considering the scope of this article), with the Danes winning 13-2 and device going 21-4 to drop a 2.0 Rating: an excellent welcoming party for his new IGL crown. Then against FaZe, the Danes rolled through the world’s number one team, a masterful statement of both device’s IGLing and of the return of Astralis to winning ways. And with device sitting at a 32-20 performance and a 1.42 rating in the series, it was a big win in the fragging-IGL basket.

Finally, Astralis dismantled the by-then wilting Virtus.pro in the upper bracket final, which was yet again a symbolic victory of IGL prowess over the cerebral Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali. And yet again device shone solid with a 25-15 performance.

All things considered, this was a promising honeymoon voyage of device navigating the newly fraught seas of his IGL journey. And with both Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund putting up good performances, including an EVP for the latter, there were even larger signs for the org that their investment to get the Stabbi twins was truly worth it. There were those who even began to make predictions of a potential repeat of the 2018 Astralis dominance, noting parallels between the Chengdu run and Astralis’ roster changes that year and their subsequent form.

device himself seemed extremely upbeat and re-energized in our lengthy interview with him at Chengdu, appearing chipper both about his prospects as an IGL and AWPer as well as the overall chemistry. And most importantly, the 28-year-old appeared ready to give it his all going forward, no longer speaking of burnout or not enjoying the game.

But among the murky waters of device’s departure from IGL harbor, soon dangerous shoals emerged from the depths. The semifinal promised a rematch vs. Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen’s troops in FaZe, and this time the Elder Dane had prepared versus his former teammate. All of the unbeatable hype, and formidable defense that Astralis had built until then by not allowing double-digit scores from their opponents, crumbled on the first map of Nuke off the back of a vintage Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants performance. And although Astralis trounced FaZe on Ancient, they were manhandled on the decider map of Inferno and went out in 3rd-4th place.

In this series, we saw a much more typical IGL’s scoreline for device, with a bottom-of-the-scoreboard 0.87 rating. And while this was by no means abysmal, with many IGLs in tense and toxic series certainly faring worse, we did see some more alarming signs of internal fractures within device himself as a leader. For example, he was seen in his favorite pressure-release activity of monitor punching, a recognizable classic for device. And although this punch was very likely due to a game crash, and the frustration of being handed a cruel hand of fate by a poorly optimized game, device did release a subsequent Tweet that at least reframed this loss of cool as an issue that he would again choose to work on controlling.

These had been seen before during the Ye Olde Astralis days, but a resurgence of the habit for device is a worrying sign. All things considered though, we need time to gather more data on device’s transition and with EPL Season 19 around the corner and Astralis traveling to Malta, we will soon get it.

Device-doldrums: Becalmed waters, stormy horizons

French philosopher Michel de Montaigne once wrote on how the various responsibilities of life meant one should not tarry but try and achieve all their goals as early as possible. Ever the witticist, Montaigne is also inversely famous for couching his recommendations with his saying Que sais-je?, or "what do I know?"

Although we have lots of data on IGL’s worsened performances compared to their youthful heydays, as well as on overall worsening performance with age, we similarly cannot definitely plot out this new era of our favorite star players becoming IGLs and leaders. Ageing is not a fair opponent in the world of competition, and only the true best are able to pivot multiple times and entrench a career that spans decades across various facets of their sport.

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Why more and more IGLs are taking up the 'supportive rotator' role

We certainly walk that fine balance in life between the pressure to explode, as it were, and come into our fullest and most potent flowering (like second phase Melania in Elden Ring), and the equal pressure to achieve longevity and enjoy as many moments as can be counted in our hourglass as possible.

And other players of course will soon be facing the exact same chasm that has yawned before device and caused all of his recent soul-searching across interviews and frustrations on-stage. NiKo’s G2 seem utterly decrepit at the moment and surely vast psychological and leadership changes will be afoot there shortly if they are unable to hoist trophies. NiKo himself may be forced to make a decision that pushes him back into a role that he was supposedly once done with, as hotshots are scooped up and given his previously advantageous positions. And s1mple, while currently in some sort of Warsaw-living cryofreeze, is also slowly draining hours in his value bank by sitting out his days on the sidelines. IGLing may become his only option eventually if he waits too long.

One piece of good news, as noted by device himself in our Chengdu interview, is that AWPing in CS2 seems to lend itself to better IGL performance, especially on T-side. This newly developing role allows the IGL to act as a sort of sentry over the battlefield early on in the round, setting himself up for helpful picks and then falling back to get a big picture perspective.

This sort of change could benefit the likes of s1mple. And further down the line, it may benefit a certain Frenchman, 23-year-old hotshot and 2023 Player of the Year Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, who has also lately been thinking a lot and counting coup on his already illustrious career. With his contract extension came revelations that ZywOo is slowly being molded for that IGL role down the line, likely giving his career extreme longevity and promise.

There is only one unknown in this equation, and one that should give us all pause: the next few years. device seems to have found his groove on Astralis, and showed some strong performances as IGL at Chengdu. But fractures were seen, and device himself was unable to maintain a cool head among his four younger teammates, as Astralis unraveled in the semifinal. Similar to when Patroclus pretended to be Achilles by wearing his armor and then falling to Hector in the Iliad, when the captain is lost, then the battle is lost.

The superstar-turned-IGL player of the future will have to chart a course through waning fragging power, and then find that he has a head for leading a foursome of unruly, squabbling youngsters to higher highs and keeping them on track. This commitment will include long nights reading over journals full of strategies, and lots of intellectual investment to stay current in the metagame. It is not for the faint of heart, and the conclusion of this article suddenly makes the long careers of players like karrigan seem all the more impressive and Herculean.

Perhaps then, one should not seek to be a warband hero the likes of Achilles, who goes down in a burst of glory, but attempt to be someone more like Odysseus: a crafty, tireless wanderer who weathers numerous misfortunes only to achieve everlasting glory through their struggles.