Although dev1ce returned to Astralis’ CS:GO team in October and fans are hoping to see him back in action, it’s unclear when that will happen, according to interim head coach Peter “casle” Ardenskjold.
Astralis isn’t fielding dev1ce at Elisa Masters Espoo—a $200,000 LAN tournament in Finland—because the team wants to create the best version of the superstar AWPer, the organization’s director of sports Kasper Hvidt said prior to the start of the tournament. Instead, academy sniper Kristoffer “Kristou” Aamand is playing for Astralis. For now, there’s no clear date for dev1ce’s return.
“We have already said we have got to take our time until the right moment, right now we are practicing with him and it’s going good,” casle said in an interview with HLTV at Elisa Masters Espoo. “I think he will be ready for maybe the next tournament or in the new year. We will do it at the right time. He will play in 2023 (laughs), we have to see when. Early 2023, I hope.”
The community has been anxious to see dev1ce back in action for quite some time. The Danish AWPer played his last official match in December 2021 when he was still part of Ninjas in Pyjamas and stayed on the sidelines for the entirety of 2022 to take care of his health. This led to NiP selling him back to Astralis in October.
Elisa Masters Espoo is Astralis’ last CS:GO event this year, meaning dev1ce might only play in February if the team make it to IEM Katowice, the first S-tier tournament of 2023.
Published: Nov 18, 2022 09:31 am