The life and times of device – Part 2

Device mvp — Image credit: Intel Extreme Masters

In Part 1 of our story on CS:GO pro Nicolai “device” Reedtz , we were mostly focused on his personal life and his early days. In this piece, however, you will find out just how good device really is and how many trophies he lifted with Astralis, so do not miss out!

Device’s personal and team achievements

Given the fact that Reedtz is only 24 years old, he racked up a total sum of 15 MVP awards. On top of that, he was able to get into Top 20 players of the year list in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Let’s go over his MVP awards first. Below, you can find a complete list of all Most Valuable trophies device has to his name:

CCS Kick-Off Season Finals
Fragbite Masters Season 4 Finals
FACEIT League 2015 Stage 2 Finals at DreamHack Valencia
PGL Season 1 Finals
ECS Season 2 FInals
ECS Season 5 Finals
ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018
FACEIT Major 2018
BLAST Pro Series Istanbul 2018
IEM Chicago 2018
ECS Season 6 Finals
ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
BLAST Pro Series São Paulo 2019
StarLadder Major Berlin 2019
ECS Season 8 Finals

As you can see from the highlighted events, this Danish AWPer claimed 2 Major MVPs. This means a lot on the CS:GO scene and this information itself ranks device as the G.O.A.T.

To further highlight this point, alongside the 2 Major MVPs, the Danish superstar won a total of 4 Majors and 24 LAN events.

We will touch base on tournaments he won further down in the article, so stay tuned.

Top 20 rankings

We have already mentioned that device found his way on every list of top 20 CS:GO players since 2014 all the way to 2019. We are also positive that the Danish prodigy will once again grab a spot in the 2020 Top 20 players list.

This is how Nicolai’s career looked like:

2014 – 20th best player
2015 – 3rd best player
2016 – 3rd best player
2017 – 5th best player
2018 – 2nd best player
2019 – 3rd best player

As you can see from the rankings, only a handful of players towered over Nicolai. However, he never imagined himself as a star player in a team. From our perspective, he is a perfect fit for the Astralis engine and here is why.

There is no denying that players like Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev or Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut are more mechanically skilled compared to device. However, they are nurturing that loose game style which gets them in trouble a lot.

However, this is not the case with Nicolai. He is as calm as he can possibly be. On top of that, his patience and ability to predict a dangerous situation are excellent. Overall, his discipline is what makes him not only skilled but also reliable.

Tournaments won

Alongside the 4 big Major trophies (ELEAGUE Major 2017, FACEIT Major 2018, IEM Katowice 2019 and StarLadder Major Berlin 2019), device won additional 24 LAN events. However, not all of those tournaments were won under the Astralis banner.

Device CSGO IEM Chicago 2018 trophy — Image credit: Intel Extreme Masters

This is why we will split the list into two sections, events that Nicolai won while representing TSM and the ones won under Astralis.

Device played 13 tournaments for TSM, out of which he won 5:

CCS Kick-off Season Finals
FACEIT League 2015 Stage 1 Finals
Fragbite Masters Season 4 Finals
FACEIT League 2015 Stage 2 Finals at DreamHack Valencia
PGL Season 1 Finals

So far, while representing Astralis, these are the trophies he lifted:

ECS Season 2 Finals
IEM Katowice 2017
DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018
ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals
ECS Season 5 Finals
ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018
BLAST Pro Series Istanbul 2018
IEM Chicago 2018
ECS Season 6 Finals
ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals
BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018
BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019
IEM Beijing 2019
ECS Season 8 Finals
BLAST Pro Series Global Final 2019

All in all, Nicolai “device” Reedtz is definitely going down in books as one of the best CS:GO players that ever touched this game. However, he can establish his legacy even more since he is only 24 years old. The future is bright for the Danish prodigy.

If you somehow missed our series on the famous players across esports, check them out here:

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And make sure to come back next Saturday for another exciting story in the Life and Times of the best and brightest in esports, here, at EarlyGame.