One of the most successful partnerships in modern-day Counter-Strike continues. 

Astralis announced the contract extension of the four-time Major winner Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, who returned to Astralis last year after a stint at Ninjas in Pyjamas. The new contract will last until the end of 2026.

- I've said it before, but Astralis is my team, and I will do everything to get us back to where I feel we belong. There's a lot going on in the CS world right now, but for me it's about us thinking long-term and continuing what we've started. That is why I am extra happy about the extension, which shows how much both parties really want this, device says in a press statement.

- I'm really happy to be here and truly enjoy being part of it all. You feel a new optimism all around the organization, and although we still have a long way to go, I am completely calm about our future prospects and the possibilities of achieving our goals. We don't set dates and number of titles, but Astralis must be where it is the most fun to play, and that is on top. I am positive we will get there, says "dev1ce".

Since the Danish AWPer returned to Astralis, there have been both ups and downs in terms of results. For Sports Director Kasper Straube the extension of device's contract has been essential.

- Nicolai is in many ways synonymous with Astralis and the positive winning culture we work with every day. He is an extremely important part of the team and the development we are currently undertaking. He is rarely the loudest in the room, but you are never in any doubt about his commitment, and in every way possible, he is a role model for his fellow players. Both on and off the server, he is a natural focal point and his achievements speak for themselves, Straube says and continues.

- It has been important for us to show Nicolai that he is extremely valued and an important part of Astralis, and that we are very pleased with the great work he puts into the team and the organisation. I am personally incredibly happy about the joint commitment that lies in this agreement and to continue working with the development of the team, the culture, and the long-term objectives of Astralis. We are in a good place and must continue the positive development, so that we once again will position ourselves at the very top of the Counter-Strike world, Straube comments.

The next tournament for Astralis will be the Roobet Cup starting October 25th.

device

Astralis

Order seems to have been restored at the top of CS:GO. After the upset-galore Major in Paris, it is the big and established teams that are dominating IEM Cologne 2023.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"astralis-cloud9-complete-playoffs-bracket-iem-cologne-2023","isNewTab":true}]

Alongside them, it is also prolific players such as device, ZywOo, and m0NESY, that are among the best-performing players at the event. Most notable is Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz. The Astralis AWP'er features on almost all of the important leaderboards after the group stage. You can see them here below.

KAST (Percentage of rounds in which the player either had a kill, assist, survived or was traded):

IEM Cologne will continue on Friday with the Quarter-Finals of the event.

m0NESY

ZywOo

First of. Most players could only dream of having a year like Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev’s 2023. With a 1.19 rating, NAVI’s superstar is ranked 5th among all players in the elite level of Counter-Strike (vs top 30 teams) after the first half of the season is done and dusted. A season that ended without NAVI making it to one of the Grand Finals, which given the track record for NAVI and s1mple is almost unheard of.

The internal struggles on NAVI combined with the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war have been a dangerous cocktail for the 2021 world beaters.

With inhuman ratings during the last couple of years, 2023 has been somewhat of a downfall for the s1mple. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev’s HLTV rating (vs top 30 teams) since 2016:

2016: 1.17 rating (Average of teammates: 1.01)

2017: 1.23 rating (Average of teammates: 1.00)

2018: 1.34 rating (Average of teammates: 1.04)

2019: 1.28 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)

2020: 1.28 rating (Average of teammates: 1.02)

2021: 1.35 rating (Average of teammates: 1.06)

2022: 1.26 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)

2023: 1.19 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)

The second part of 2023 is waiting after the summer break, but the question remains what kind of NAVI we will get to see? Rumors have speculated in a new rebuild of the roster with an international focus leaving out Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy, and Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi. With this tweet, s1mple fueled the rumors even more about an upcoming change.

s1mple

sh1ro

frozen

Natus Vincere

Who has been the best AWPer so far during the 2023 season? (Updated 5/6)

Let’s take a look at the numbers and statistics of all the players carrying around the “big green” at the very top of the game. Down below you’ll find a list of the most important AWP stats.

We at Pley.gg have made out own leaderboard giving the players points for their placements, in the end, you'll find the overall score to see who ends on top. The leaderboard works as follows: 1st place = 5 points / 2nd = 4 points / 3rd = 3 points / 4th = 2 points / 5th = 1 point

Rating (Against top 30 teams - min. 25 maps)

{cflag:FR} 1. ZywOo (Vitality) | 1.36 (62 maps)

{cflag:RU} 2. sh1ro (Cloud9) | 1.25 (84 maps)

{cflag:DK} 3. device (Astralis) | 1.24 (67 maps)

{cflag:UA} 4. s1mple (NAVI) | 1.19 (62 maps)

{cflag:RU} 5. m0NESY (G2) | 1.18 (55 maps)

{cflag:ES} 2. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 0.43

{cflag:ES} 1. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 67.7%

{cflag:ES} 4. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 9

{cflag:RO} 11. regali (Copenhagen Flames) | 2

MartinezSa

IEM Dallas ended triumphantly for ENCE, who secured their first big title in four years. As always the MVP of the tournament was given to one of the finalists. Here ENCE's Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia stood out with a stellar performance in the Grand Final and overall in the tournament. This was the first MVP medal won by SunPayus. 

Statistically, the Spanish AWP'er was only the second-best player in the tournament though. Astralis' Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz played eight maps with an average rating of 1.42! This marks one of device's best tournaments in history, which is even more impressive given the fact, that Astralis actually lost four of the eight maps that they played in Dallas.

1. {cflag:DK} device (Astralis) - 1.42 rating

KAST (Percentage of rounds in which the player either had a kill, assist, survived, or was traded):

1. {cflag:DK} device (Astralis) - 1.59 rating

The next tier-1 tournament in the tournament calendar is BLAST Spring Finals in Washington, which starts on Wednesday.

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SunPayus

ENCE

We are less than one week away from the start of the last ever Major in CS:GO history. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all 18 Majors. Today we have reached MLG Columbus 2016.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"countdown-major-9-days-go-team-envyus-path-major-glory","isNewTab":true}]

 Luminosity Gaming (coldzera, fer, FalleN, fnx, TACO)

 Cache, Cobblestone, Dust2, Inferno, Mirage, Train, Overpass

For the first time in history, a Major took place in North America. It was also the first time, that a Counter-Strike tournament had a $1,000,000 prize pool. 

16 teams were again ready to fight for the Major and the $500.000 in first prize. Fnatic entered the tournament as the number 1 ranked team in the world and was considered tournament favorites to win their fourth Major title. Defending champions from Team EnVyUs had not been on top of their game since the win at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015. Instead, NAVI, Luminosity Gaming, and the newly formed Danish roster from Astralis were potential candidates for the Grand Final.

All four favorites made it out of the group stage with only Fnatic losing a match along the way. The Swedish favorites immediately crashed out of the playoffs after Astralis dominated them hard. For the first time in history, there would be a non-European team in the Grand Final. Team Liquid and the Brazilians from Luminosity Gaming were paired in one of the Semi-Finals. Here the Brazilians got the better of s1mple and Team Liquid after two maps with overtime, where Team Liquid missed out on 15 match points before Coldzera finished the NA team off in Luminosity's first match point. 

Over in the other side of the bracket, it was Natus Vincere who qualified for their second consecutive Grand Final with a clear 2-0 win against Astralis.

The battle for the title stood between two rosters, who had started to form a rivalry. The two teams had faced each other in several Grand Finals or late stages at tournaments in the previous year. It was NAVI who went into the match as favorites. Luminosity chose Mirage as their map pick, while NAVI leaned on Overpass. The Brazilians got off to a difficult start trailing the CIS team 6-0 before fighting their way back. Natus Vincere had not lost a single map in the tournament, but on Mirage they were finally defeated after overtime.

Now the fight was moved to Overpass which quickly turned into a catastrophe for NAVI. On their own map pick, NAVI lost 16-2 to a well playing Brazilian side, who managed to become the first team outside of Europe to win a major title. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"https:/youtu.be/7nWxZin959o","isNewTab":true}]

Highest rated players at MLG Columbus 2016:

1. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/coldzera","isNewTab":true,"text":"Marcelo 'coldzera' David"}] (Luminosity Gaming) - 1.32 rating

2. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/niko","isNewTab":true,"text":"Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač"}] (MOUZ) - 1.30 rating

3. Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev (NAVI) - 1.28

4. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/flamie","isNewTab":true,"text":"Egor 'flamie' Vasilev"}] (NAVI) - 1.25

5. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/s1mple","isNewTab":true,"text":"Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev"}] - 1.24

6. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/device","isNewTab":true,"text":"Nicolai 'dev1ce' Reedtz"}] (Astralis) 1.22

7. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/shara","isNewTab":true,"text":"Oleksandr 'Shara' Hordieiev"}] (FlipSid3) 1.21

8. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/dupreeh","isNewTab":true,"text":"Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen"}] (Astralis) -  1.20

9. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/rain","isNewTab":true,"text":"Håvard 'rain' Nygaard"}] (FaZe) - 1.19

10. [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/bondik","isNewTab":true,"text":"Vlаdуslаv 'bondik' Nеchуроrchuk"}] (FlipSid3) - 1.19

coldzera

NiKo

flamie

dupreeh

Team Liquid

Fnatic

2023 has started promising for Astralis. The former powerhouse of CS:GO managed to secure a spot at the BLAST Spring Finals early on, and today they followed up by booking a ticket to IEM Dallas as well.

The Danes won the upper final at the closed qualifier against Cloud9 and ended the CIS teams' seven-match streak.

Astralis had to fight off a phenomenal playing sh1ro, who kept Cloud9 in the match despite some lackluster performances from his teammates. The Russian AWP’er was 65-25 in K-D after the first two maps of Ancient and Mirage. Astralis won Ancient 19-16, while Cloud9 took Mirage comfortably 16-7.

Overpass was left as the decider. This time Astralis managed to keep sh1ro quiet, which left Cloud9 in shambles. A 10-5 lead at the break saw the Danes take a fine lead into their T-side. Here Astralis found themselves in several good afterplant situations, but multiple times Cloud9 found a way back into the match. 

Astralis had five matchpoints at 15-11 and closed off the match at 16-13 after winning a semi-eco round. device finished off the match with his 34th kill on Overpass. A monumental victory for the Danes, who at certain maps look like a dangerous team on the server.

Astralis - Cloud9 2-1 | IEM Dallas Closed Qualifier

Cloud9

Astralis came extremely close to being knocked out of ESL Pro League as the first team in Group D. The Danes had to go through overtime on Inferno to secure the win against ATK.

The match started with Danish dominance on Overpass, but quickly the match turned sour for Astralis. On Mirage the T-side of the Danes failed to impress and gave ATK easy conditions to take down the map 16-8. On Inferno, it was again the T-side for Astralis that caused them problems. Only four rounds on the T-side left the Danes with a mountain to climb. 

In a hectic ending to the match, Astralis managed to equalize the score at 15-15 after winning a 3vs5 situation in the last round. In overtime, the Danes smashed ATK, who had lost all momentum.

Astralis will continue their journey in the Last Chance Stage tomorrow against either Team Spirit or NAVI.

MVP: {cflag:DK} Nicolai 'device' Reedtz - 1.57 rating / 41-17 K-D / 94.1 ADR

It does not look like CS:GO will lack great and powerful AWPers in the future with the arrival of numerous top talents throughout the last couple of years. Something the legendary and four-time Major winner Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz also has noted.

As the guest in the most recent [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsdE3aetwFU&t","isNewTab":true,"text":"episode "}]of HLTV Confirmed, dev1ce praises the new generation of AWPers, where he also pin-points what they are doing so good these days and what aspects he’s yet to master himself.

- I think m0NESY is going to be one of the greatest that’s ever touched Counter-Strike. His mechanical skills are absurd and a bit cleaner than what you see with s1mple, where s1mple just has more flair, dev1ce stated. 

- s1mple does impossible things, m0NESY does that as well, but it’s kind of different with the mouse movement because of the difference in mouse sensitivity… but m0NESY is for me the next big, big, big player.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/m0NESY_G2_uilqxo","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

m0NESY, G2's new talisman, gets a lot of honouring words from dev1ce

dev1ce then continues to highlight a young trio of snipers as well.

- degster still has something to learn but he’s also really, really good. Like there are so many CIS AWPers that is good – you can just go through the list of deko and so on, who supposedly is not a very friendly player to play with.

- broky and sh1ro as well. They fit perfectly into their teams and these two are specially very good at trade fragging with the AWP when you execute. That’s something that’s really hard for me, like quick zoom and trade fragging, and is something that I’m working on which is quite new.

When asked Zvonimir “Professeur” Burazin about what makes these new top-tier AWPer stand out, the Astralis superstar quickly points towards one specific aspect; Clutching.

- One common thing is the clutch factor. I think that’s something you’ve seen more and more with AWPers - It has been there with FalleN and others previously - But now you’re thrown into clutches a lot more as an AWPer because you set your team up for executes. 

- Especially broky, m0NESY, and degster. You can just see the highlight reel when you say their name in the clutch situations, dev1ce said. 

You can watch the entire HLTV Confirmed episode down below.

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degster

broky

Ever since Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz made his comeback to competitive play in December last year for Astralis, a new superstar duo in Counter-Strike saw the light of day.

Together with his new teammate and hard-hitting rifler Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, dev1ce has managed to shape up an extremely strong partnership. 

- I like devve [dev1ce] a lot, blameF said to us and continued to explain their relationship on the server:

- He takes a lot of initiative on the server and brings a lot of ideas on how we should do certain things. I think me and him are a good match when it comes to finding a balance and giving each other space - now that we are holding a lot of positions together. Obviously, we as a team have to play around him a lot to make sure he's set up as the star player who makes a difference, and ensure that he's feeling comfortable with the most important gun in the game. 

Top 5 highest-rated duos since dev1ce’s comeback

1. {cflag:BA} NiKo and {cflag:RU} m0NESY (G2) | 1.23 rating / 1.19 rating

2. {cflag:DK} blameF and {cflag:DK} dev1ce (Astralis) | 1.25 rating / 1.16 rating

3. {cflag:TR} XANTARES and {cflag:TR} Calyx (Eternal Fire) | 1.24 rating / 1.15 rating

4. {cflag:CA} Twistzz and {cflag:LV} broky (FaZe) | 1.22 rating / 1.14 rating

5. {cflag:RU} Jame and {cflag:RU} fame (Outsiders) | 1.18 rating / 1.10 rating

We spoke with dev1ce earlier this year about this new superstar duo, where the AWPer stated that the two of them will achieve ‘really great things together’. Something blameF is ready to agree on.  

-Yeah, I hope I can achieve great things with devve. He’s a great guy both in and out of the server and I do believe he will become one of the best AWPers in the game again in the near future. So, if I can keep up my form as a rifler we have a good chance of winning some tournaments together eventually, blameF stated. 

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Question: Are you surprised that dev1ce has played so good and that he's managed to keep up with the best since his coming back?

blameF: - Not really. From the first day he came into the team he has been very hard working, always putting in extra time after our official practice, and he has been very good at progressing every day in his spots. 

What is something you have learned from dev1ce ever since he joined the team? Could be both off and on the server.

- He values the social aspect of the team a lot, and I think he’s been great at building friendships with all the players from the team including the ones he didn't play with before. He is an awesome team player, knows everybody here, and has been a vital part of the good chemistry from the beginning.

Can you try to put some words on your role in this Astralis system? 

- I am more aggressive now in my new roles on T-sides. Usually, I'm one of the guys running in first on set strats - in defaults I'm the one taking map control, so in those rounds, I'm usually also one of the guys creating space for my teammates. On the CT sides not much have changed besides a couple of roles, but nothing major.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"teams/astralis/Astralis_yxc111","originalWidth":1305,"originalHeight":734,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Astralis"}]

Astralis anno. 2023 - Image credit: Astralis

blameF

Eternal Fire, 1WIN, and Astralis all secured qualification to the Paris EU RMR tournament from Group A at the closed online EU RMR tournament today.

Astralis was the most prominent team among the remaining teams in the group after G2 secured qualification yesterday.

The Danes had to work their way through SAW who took Astralis out on all three maps to settle the score. On the last map of Inferno, the match was all even, but luckily for Astralis their new young player Christian 'Buzz' Andersen went above and beyond what could have been expected from the youngster. Buzz went 29-17 on the map that went all 30 rounds before Astralis could celebrate winning 16-14.

MVP: {cflag:DK} Nicolai 'device' Reedtz - 1.35 rating / 77-54 K-D / 87.5 ADR

Eternal Fire took a quick 2-0 victory against the British team Into the Breach. On both Nuke and Vertigo, it was Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş leading the pack, closely followed by Ömer 'imoRR' Karataş who had a good game with the AWP.

MVP: {cflag:TR} Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş - 1.50 rating / 49-37 K-D / 98.3 ADR

The revitalized 1WIN roster was also celebrating after winning 16-9, 16-9 against the Danes from Tricked. Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov and the rest of 1WIN won all four halves in a comfortable win. 

MVP: {cflag:RU} Aleksandr 'TRAVIS' Timkiv - 1.33 rating / 42-24 K-D / 73.9 ADR

Into the Breach, Tricked, and SAW has another chance to qualify. The three teams plays right now against Vipero, HAVU, and B8.

XANTARES

TRAVIS

1WIN

Eternal Fire

Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz has been back in competitive Counter-Strike for nearly two months now having shown a fantastic individual level so far after coming back from his break in December last year. But how does he see the current meta? and what has changed during his 12-month break?

[slugORMA:{"slug":"dev1ce-before-astralis-comeback-are-far-away-from-top-cs-go","isNewTab":true}]

That was something he addressed when he joined Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy and Danny "⁠mahone⁠" Hsieh for an [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oyjlXXhq_U","isNewTab":true,"text":"interview "}]at BLAST Overtime following Astralis’ important victory over OG at BLAST Spring Groups yesterday.

During their talk, dev1ce was asked if there were anything he had learned from his time in NIP which he had carried with him, where the Danish superstar pointed towards how he sees current AWP meta.

- The AWP right now is in a meta where you throw a lot of flashbangs and grenades, I did that in NIP as well, dev1ce said. You need to have moves on every certain maps, on the T side as well, otherwise you are just a dedicated flash-thrower - and the weapon is too expensive for that. So that’s one thing I learned, looking more at me like what I need to do as an AWPer to get openings. That’s the most important aspect, I do think.

Towards the end of the show, dev1ce was said to mention something that he’s noticed has changed ever since he came back from his break.

- The meta has changed a lot, dev1ced explained and continued. Almost all teams try to do the same thing and I don’t think the styles are too different right now, and the only team I can really say is different is Outsiders. They like try to counter the style that is.

- That’s one thing but other than that people are just getting way better individually and that’s also why I feel I’m getting better and better mechanically - but everyone else is also just raising the ceiling. I don’t think that some of the people who look worse now haven’t gotten worse, I just think it’s because people train 10-12 hours a day. 

You can watch the entire Overtime episode with dev1ce down below. 

Ninjas in Pyjamas

For the first time since his move from NIP to Astralis, Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz will face his former team on the server in a competitive match. With the many recent changes for NIP, the only teammate that dev1ce has actually played with is going to be Fredrik "REZ" Sterner.

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The two teams will fight each other for an opportunity to face OG tomorrow for a spot in the Spring Finals in Washington, D.C. later this year.

An early treat was given to the Danish fans of Counter-Strike, as Astralis and Heroic went head to head at BLAST Spring Groups.

Both teams had lost their opening match at the event. Heroic's shocking defeat to Evil Geniuses gave way to an unexpected Danish derby in Group A.

The match started out on Inferno, where it was a one-man show from Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz that saw Astralis win their own map pick 16-10. But from here on it was all Heroic. In the next two maps, Astralis only managed to win eight rounds in total.

Heroic won 16-4, 16-4 on Mirage and Vertigo to seal the win and drop Astralis down to the knockout stage, where they will fight for their chance to qualify for the BLAST Spring Finals in a single elimination bracket. Heroic still has the chance to win Group A but will need to win against EG on Tuesday and then beat Team Vitality in the Group Final on Wednesday.

Earlier today Group C was kicked off with victories for G2 and Natus Vincere against BIG and Ninjas in Pyjamas.

MVP: {cflag:BA} Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač - 1.26 rating

Natus Vincere - Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 (16-9, 17-19, 16-8)

MVP: {cflag:UA} Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi - 1.26 rating

Heroic - Astralis 2-1 (10-16, 16-4, 16-4)

MVP: {cflag:DK} René "TeSeS" Madsen - 1.36 rating

BLAST Spring Groups will continue tomorrow with matches in Group B.

TeSeS

B1tGOD

Heroic

G2 Esports

Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz is back in Astralis after leaving the very same organization back in April 2021. But it wasn’t the same, old and familiar faces who welcomed the superstar AWPer when he arrived back on the ship three months ago.

One of two new teammates is the hard-hitting Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, who seems to be a guy dev1ce have created a strong bond with already both on and off the server.

- It’s always like when you join a new team and there’s a guy who’s really good and with a big personality, you wonder how much space does he take on the map. But I think we have found a really, really good rhythm in a really fast way, which I didn’t expect to go this fast, dev1ce said about blameF and continued.

- We work a lot together also outside of the server and we play a lot of spots together. We have a lot of fun as well and that’s really important – it’s a big pleasure for me to play with him and I think we can achieve really great things together.

Astralis players and their stats since dev1ce joined in October:

[slugORMA:{"slug":"i-have-no-uncertainty-buzz-suffering-same-fate-bubzkji-lucky-farlig","isNewTab":true}]

We asked dev1ce if he felt any similar vibes with blameF as he did when playing with his long-lasting teammate Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, who’s now playing for Team Vitality.

- I mean like me and dupreeh had a different relationship, we knew each other for so long and played together for almost a decade. It’s not like the same whereas I think our ceiling is higher – but I also think the friendship and the memories have to grow, so I wouldn’t compare them really.

- It’s a little bit comparable in game. blameF plays a little bit differently than dupreeh, but as I said our ceiling is actually higher with blameF, dev1ce said to us.

You can find the entire interview with dev1ce in the video below. Here the former NIP profile also touches on his own individual level going into the new season, gla1ve's development and much more. 

Perched atop the HLTV rankings, the Major runners-up and current BLAST Fall holders come into the new season ready and raring to go after an exuberant end to 2022. With Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard now fully integrated within the team, Heroic will look to continue their momentum and cling on to the number one spot as their biggest competitors continue to build back stronger. Casper 'cadiaN' Møller’s crew have accrued significant respect on their name and now must deal with the weight of expectation befitting the world's best. Can they survive under the pressure?

With their roster uncertainty continuing, no one will expect much to come from EG but the potential double header of and in-form Timothy 'autimatic' Ta and Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte certainly whets the appetite and if EG come out swinging with a solid AWP signing, we really could be cooking with gas. Their showing at the Major wasn’t awful and Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov is definitely one to watch with his combined fragging output and IGL talent. The only way is up for this ailing team, so with nothing to lose, let’s hope they can restore the pride of NA and give us some entertaining matches.

I don’t think I’m alone in the opinion that more needs to be shown from Vitality, the sum of their parts are far less than one would expect from the names on the roster and while their ESL Pro League 16 victory was impressive, something tells me it is only delaying the inevitable. I mustn't go much further without name dropping Mr Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut, his talent is immeasurable, but I believe it’s Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen who holds the key to sustained success and Vitality needs him to maintain consistent performances to go far.

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The return of the king, and a fresh face in Christian 'Buzz' Andersen, but will it be enough to haul the fraying remnants of a dynasty to new heights. This will be the much anticipated first look at the new Astralis, should we place them as underdogs or as a team that should cruise through due to the overall calibre of player they possess? It seems Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer will finally be getting some help and I am excited to see what they can cultivate as they begin their new era.

Expect a tight three-way battle to avoid the showdown, but can the underdogs from across the pond spoil the party for one of the favourites?

Group A kicks off on the 19th of January with Heroic taking on Evil Geniuses.

stavn

neaLaN

Spinx

Evil Geniuses

Team Vitality

Astralis´s Device and BlameF take on Anubis in MM. 

The two superstars showcase how you should play Anubis in MatchMaking. Despite Device and BlameF trolling the two Astralis players won the game 16-4. 

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device

Player stats

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