Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz placed second in the Top 20 players of 2018 list, powered by EGB.com, after a record-breaking year in which he won seven MVP awards.

device took to Counter-Strike at a very young age, playing Danish LANs in Source in his early teen years. He was good enough in the old version of the game to get a shot at playing with notable players from his country such as Henrik "⁠FeTiSh⁠" Christensen and Bo "⁠wantz⁠" Vestergaard, representing Copenhagen Wolves, but his breakout would only come after making the switch to CS:GO. After a spell in a team with Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer and Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger, device was reunited with FeTiSh in Copenhagen Wolves at the start of 2013, a team that also featured Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen and, for the second part of the year, Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth as well.

device briefly left that team, though, in March 2013 due to "motivation issues". Three months away from the squad, during which device played under mix-team moniker heroic, was enough to set his mind straight and see him return FeTiSh's fold. In the end, device managed to finish the year on an impressive LAN 1.14 rating, but he didn't play that many events and never made it past the quarterfinals, and therefore wasn't in contention for a top 20 player of the 2013 ranking—the only CS:GO year he didn't make it on the list.

device represented Copenhagen Wolves in Source and Global Offensive

In 2014, device faced a new issue. Now representing dignitas, the Danish squad became a stable top team, but no matter what they tried, they simply couldn't make a deep tournament run. The scale of the event, the map, the opponent or the lead they had didn't make a difference, they just couldn't win the games to make it past the semi-finals, which saw the term "dignitas semi-final curse" being coined. And device was a big part of why they couldn't make it over the hump, as the young Dane flourished in group stages but struggled to perform in the big matches, shutting down under the pressure.

He would still end the year with his first entrance into the top players of the year list, with his 1.10 LAN rating securing him the 20th spot, and the poor playoff performances being the main thing holding him back. In 2015 came the first in-game leader change of this core as FeTiSh was replaced by Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen. Apparently, that was what was needed to unlock the potential of the device - dupreeh combo and, after a few warmup events, the change came to bear fruit. Now under the TSM organization, the Danes won three back-to-back events, CCS Kick-off Season Finals, FACEIT League Stage 1 Finals and Fragbite Masters Season 4 Finals, with device being the MVP at two of them, as he finally got over his struggles in big matches.

Getting over the "choker" tag wasn't an easy task

Even though fnatic would go down as the dominant team of the year, TSM's five titles and numerous podium finishes in 2015 were a vast improvement on previous years. Individually, device also stepped up significantly, slowly shaking off the infamous "choker" tag that had followed him in previous years, and finished third in the top 20 player of the year list, behind Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer and Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács, both of whom had enjoyed an exceptional year.

"I feel like back then, it was just about playing, feeling confident, there were no routines, or what we call now the RFRSH model, it wasn't really in place and the only thing you could really do was play more or play less, create some new strategies and hope for the best, right? And sometimes you won and sometimes you lost."

device's evolution from a boy with motivation issues, someone who cracked under pressure, to an elite player, capable of outclassing some of the best players that have touched the game, prompted Michal "stich" Malachowski to write the following about the Dane in his top 20 article of that year: "The story of device in 2015 is a bit like a Hollywood movie with a happy ending. The player exemplified maturation and development in his playstyle and overall skill and grew into being a star player who could control pacing and game outcomes singlehandedly on the server."

But there is more than meets the eye, though, device says, with his career path not being as glamorous as people might think:

"I don’t think you will ever be able to look at the full story until you’re done or get some distance to what you've done. I can see Michal's point, but the grind is not as glorious or fancy as it might seem. It is hard work, obstacles and challenges all the way. If you’re number 200, your challenge is to become better than number 199, and your struggle is always what is right in front of you. So far the story has been full of ups and downs, but what is most important is that I have stayed true to myself on the way to where I am. I don’t try to prove people wrong, but simply to prove to myself I can be better. That does not mean it does not feel awesome to win, though. It does!"

After a few underwhelming events in 2016, such as the StarSeries XIV Finals, cajunb was cut and device took on the AWP

A key part in device's development as a player would happen in 2016, after René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg departed what was then Astralis, leaving a vacancy in the main AWP role. Prior to that, device had never been a full-time AWPer, playing a rifling-lurking role instead, but was adding more and more sniping to his game every year (4.14% of total kills with AWP in 2013, 14.74% in 2014, 22.69% in 2015). With the help of Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen, device made the switch and quickly adapted to the "Big Green", finishing all 20 events his team played in the year with above-average ratings, despite Astralis not having much success for the biggest part.

"It is impossible to say [if I would be better if I had taken on AWPing earlier in my career]. The experiences I've gotten from my career as a rifler and playing in some of the other roles definitely helped me understand the game better, understand what my teammates need in game and how I can make them better players. It definitely helped me get a better perspective on how to understand the roles. It would be impossible to really know if I would be a better player previously, I think I was a really good rifler as well, had some good years."

As Astralis grew as an organization, the players had to develop in out-of-game aspects as well, with paying attention to physical fitness being one of them. However, unlike most players at the time, device was someone that had always paid attention to such things, making the adaptation to the "RFRSH model" a bit easier for him.

"I've always been very active in my life, I've enjoyed fitness, it has been a part of my life since I was a kid, eating healthy and so on, it has always been a priority for me. I remember having conversations with my dad back when I was starting to play, way way back, and he said fitness was going to be a big thing because he saw it developing in golf and motorsports, where it was also previously regarded as a non-important factor.

"So, definitely, some of it was already in my veins, so to say, but we've learned so much more regarding blood sugar, regarding sleep patterns, regarding dealing with jetlag, the psychology part of it is a big reason as well, I feel at least, of why we've gotten so far as well. The RFRSH team has taught me a lot of things that go beyond what was already in my philosophy and I think some of those points are why we are still ahead of other teams. It feels like other teams are starting to do fitness and so as well, but there are so many more layers on top. RFRSH have given us the structure and the right people to work with."

After successfully transitioning to an AWPer role, device had a repeat performance in the Top 20 players ranking, finishing third in 2016. He won just one MVP award, though, from the only tournament Astralis won in the year—the ECS S2 Finals at the end of 2016, after they had replaced karrigan with Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander. However, Astralis carried on their strong late-year form into 2017 and swooped the ELEAGUE Atlanta Major, adding another big tournament trophy shortly afterward by winning IEM Katowice.

device had to part ways with karrigan to start winning tournaments again

Just when everything was looking rosy, another obstacle in device's career would arise. He was diagnosed with hiatus hernia, an illness with troubling symptoms that get worse with stress, causing severe reflux, and require lifestyle changes to keep in check. And while the illness didn't seem to impact the numbers device was putting up for the biggest part of the year, Astralis started falling off as 2017 went on, firstly missing out on an great opportunity to win back-to-back Majors in Krakow and later failing to even contest for titles as SK and FaZe took center stage.

"It is really hard to speak about it [dealing with my illness]. It is really tough because you feel like you not only let yourself down, you also let others down. You know in yourself that it is not how it is, but the feelings you get are so mixed. I was lucky to have my girlfriend and my family support me a lot, the team was there throughout the whole year as well. In the end it all culminated with me being ill at Oakland, that was a really dark time for me. How do you say it? You try your best to sacrifice a lot of things, there were so many things I couldn't do, and having tried all of that and still not having success at dealing with the illness was really tough."

Dealing with his illness was a constant struggle

With the schedule getting busier toward end the of the year, device's health deteriorated, and it came to a low point at IEM Oakland in November when he had to be rushed to the hospital. It quickly became apparent that he wouldn't return to the server soon, and ended up being sidelined for two months. During that time, not only did he miss out on the two biggest CS:GO events in his home country yet—BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen and ESL Pro League S6 Finals—but with Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman in his place, Astralis had one of their best showings in a while, which saw some fans push for the move to be a permanent one.

"[During my break] I only really focused on feeling better, and that period was a period where there were two Danish events in a row and there had never been any big Danish events before. And seeing the guys play BLAST Pro Series with so many fans and doing really great was kind of a mixed feeling, right? You are feeling, in some way, that you could get replaced because they played really great where we haven't been delivering that much previously. And in some way you also feel very happy for them because it is great to have success in your own country. Getting all of those emotions, I would've loved that.

"But not being at events gave me a lot of time to focus on what was important, finding a sustainable solution with my illness and getting some of the tests done that I have neglected throughout the year. Basically, RFRSH were very helpful and we did it all very fast. I felt like I was feeling better and better over time, sadly enough I wasn't ready for the last event of the year, in Mexico, but I felt really great going into the Major.

"Regarding quitting, I never really thought about quitting at all. I know it could be a possibility if I didn't find a sustainable solution, but I didn't think about at that time, I really wanted to give it a try in 2018 and see how it goes, I would've taken it from there. But yeah, now I'm standing here and I feel stronger than ever."

device device 2018 LAN tournament stats Tournament Event Team (place) Rating 2.0 (in team) ADR KPR DPR Impact KAST Award (12-14th) 0.91 (2nd, +1% ) 72.5 0.62 0.72 0.76 67.0% (5-8th) 1.13 (2nd, +2% ) 72.8 0.72 0.59 1.21 66.6% (3-4th) 1.21 (1st, +10% ) 78.0 0.80 0.63 1.24 73.3% EVP (1st) 1.38 (1st, +7% ) 86.1 0.84 0.51 1.39 80.1% EVP (2nd) 1.23 (2nd, +3% ) 80.5 0.80 0.59 1.16 76.8% EVP (1st) 1.33 (1st, +6% ) 86.3 0.83 0.57 1.43 74.5% EVP (1st) 1.30 (1st, +14% ) 85.6 0.82 0.60 1.57 69.1% MVP (3-4th) 1.27 (1st, +6% ) 81.9 0.77 0.54 1.30 75.1% EVP (1st) 1.44 (1st, +22% ) 90.1 0.91 0.55 1.68 75.0% MVP (2nd) 1.24 (1st, +7% ) 78.9 0.75 0.57 1.23 76.2% EVP (1st) 1.26 (1st, +4% ) 79.5 0.78 0.55 1.24 75.8% MVP (1st) 1.39 (1st, +11% ) 88.4 0.87 0.54 1.57 72.0% MVP (3rd) 1.11 (2nd, +5% ) 75.2 0.72 0.64 1.18 70.3% (1st) 1.15 (2nd, +3% ) 76.8 0.73 0.61 1.16 71.7% MVP (1st) 1.19 (1st, +6% ) 78.5 0.79 0.62 1.28 70.8% MVP (1st) 1.26 (1st, +10% ) 84.6 0.79 0.61 1.37 72.5% MVP (1st) 1.14 (3rd, -4% ) 78.7 0.70 0.59 1.07 75.1% 5%+ above average 5%+ above average 5%+ below average 5%+ below average Closer than 5% to average Closer than 5% to average

Even though he missed out on the last couple of events of 2017, device placed fifth in the top players of 2017 ranking, continuing his streak of top 5 finishes. While he was determined to push it even further in 2018, the year didn't start well. Upon device's return to the active lineup, Astralis bombed out of the ELEAGUE Major in the group stage after suffering defeats to mousesports, fnatic and Cloud9.

What made that event special was that device didn't return to the AWP for it, playing the lurk role instead, while dupreeh acted as the main sniper, as he had in device's absence. But after what would be device's only below-average rated tournament of the year, he did the only sensible thing and went back to his trusted 'Big Green'.

"There are actually two reasons [why I didn't AWP at the Major], I remember having a meeting in December with Danny (zonic) and speaking with Peter (dupreeh) about it as well. At that time, we hadn't delivered a good result for quite some time, at least not satisfying our own expectations. And dupreeh was doing really great before the break with the AWP and, mainly, he didn't want to play the lurk role. Kjaerbye was the entry fragger back then so there was a role clash that we had spoken so much about previously. So to get dupreeh in his comfort zone and get Kjaerbye in his comfort zone we compromised in the sense that we were going to try to play with me in the rifle-lurk role, because I had not been playing for a while as well.

"So practicing going up to the Major we were really good, almost better than we've been with this lineup. In practice we were smashing everyone, so we were thinking it was a really good decision, but, yeah, the tournament didn't go as planned. dupreeh and I were sharing a room at that tournament, we looked at each other after we lost in the groups and just said: "We're switching back". Basically, that is where the decision was made that we are going back to the old roles—and then the whole thing with Kjaerbye happened."

Astralis were sent packing from the Major early

device started hitting his stride at the two following events, StarSeries i-League S4 and IEM Katowice 2018, the team's first outings with new signing, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif. The Danes were on an upward trend there, finishing 5th-8th in Ukraine and 3rd-4th in Poland, and the AWPer was already putting in star numbers, finishing with a 1.13 rating at the former and a 1.21 rating—and an EVP mention—at the latter. With the first couple of events out of the way, Astralis had some time off to prepare for the next big event, DreamHack Masters Marseille in April.

"We had StarSeries and Katowice leading up to Marseille, those were two events we didn't have that much time to prepare for, but we still saw improvement with placings at the events, quarter-finals at StarLadder and semi-finals at Katowice. We felt like we were improving, but we had a month between those two events and DreamHack Masters Marseille and we grinded really hard, worked really hard, improving all aspects of the game. Danny (zonic) had the whole idea with the [double and triple] grenades, and we did a lot of new things. We got the whole system with dupreeh entryfragging, Magisk taking over the rifle-lurk role, me being the AWPer but not playing the AWP that much, especially on T sides, and everything really clicked. We played one of the best tournaments we played this year, as you said, the whole team was on point and when that is happening, you are not really beating us. So yeah, that was great."

Astralis' run at DreamHack Masters Marseille is now immortalized, as it was the first tournament the Danes won in their dominant 2018. As device put it, "everything clicked", all five players were contributing, and they claimed the trophy by giving away just one map—to Liquid in the group stage. Individually, device had three below-average rated maps (out of 10 played), but he stood out with a huge 1.45 rating averaged in wins and a 1.42 rating averaged in playoff matches, finishing third in the race for the medal.

He continued his strong form at the following tournament, IEM Sydney, where he was exceptional until the grand final, but faltered in the BO5 against FaZe. That resulted in the title slipping away from Astralis, as well as his potential MVP, as he finished fourth in the MVP race.

"I think I found a good way of learning from the worst memories, but off the top of my head, losing the grand final in Sydney [was one of the worst ones], I was feeling very bad in Sydney because the jetlag you get when you are going to Australia really affected my body with illness and I was feeling under the weather for the whole tournament. And I also feel like I let my teammates down in the grand final."

Letting down his teammates in the grand final of IEM Sydney is one of device's worst memories of 2018

The squad was back to winning ways at the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, where device had another standout performance. The AWPer was the highest-rated player for his team and recorded only one below-average rated map as Astralis ran up the finals and defeated Liquid for the title; however, it was dupreeh who would claim the MVP ahead of him. device wouldn't have to wait long to receive the highest individual accolade, though, as he received an MVP award after outclassing his opposition at the ECS Season 5 Finals. At the event that took place in London at the start of June, he recorded one of his highest impact ratings of the year, 1.57, coupled with an impressive 0.82 kills per round and 85.6 ADR.

As they claimed three out of four Big events, it seemed winning was to easy for Astralis

Winning three out of the four Big events saw Astralis establish themselves as the best team in the world, but they weren't able to continue their winning streak at ESL One Cologne. device had another great outing at the $300,000 tournament in Germany, earning an EVP for a 1.27 average rating, but his side exited earlier than expected, losing to Natus Vincere in the semi-final.

As the player break was closing in, device hit his peak form. ELEAGUE Premier 2018 was the last event of the first half of the year, and its long, one-BO3-per-day format seemingly suited the Astralis star, who put up some of his best numbers of the year. Even though the squad is usually pretty balanced in terms of fragging output, device stood out significantly at this tournament, with his year-high event rating of 1.44 being 22% higher than Astralis' average. He also recorded his highest ADR (90.1), impact rating (1.68) and entry kills per round (0.21) of 2018 in Atlanta, all while having his joint-lowest deaths per round of the year (0.54)—to claim his second MVP of the year.

"Looking at individual numbers is not something we do that much, but I remember the tournament [ELEAGUE Premier] and I remember feeling very comfortable. It was a long tournament, we were in Atlanta for two weeks and we've been there a lot with ELEAGUE, so it really feels like the American home we have. Yeah, if I had to guess, I was just in my comfort zone and was having a good time. It was also leading up to the break and, usually, when I play a lot leading up to the event and not that much at the event is when I perform the best, then I have some more time to collect my thoughts and prepare for games. And I feel like everything was important in that regard. I didn't feel like I dropped off in any game.

"I feel like I've had the equal amount of impact in other tournaments, it is a team game and sometimes it doesn't show in statistics when you make your team play better by communication, preparation or just setting your teammates up in a certain way. With how we prepare for games you get different roles for which team you are playing, so it is hard to go in specifics if I had a bigger impact at other tournaments, but I definitely had the same amount of impact and the team has had the same amount of impact, even though the K-D difference might not really show that."

Following some time off during the summer player break, Astralis attended DreamHack Masters Stockholm as a warmup for the following FACEIT London Major. It was a shaky tournament for the whole team, as they lost a BO3 to North in the group stage and a map to TYLOO, but they still recovered and device posted some great numbers in the middle part of the tournament, in the playoff wins over MIBR and NiP. He had a rough final, though, recording only single-digit numbers of kills on Dust2 and Overpass as their Danish rivals North overcame them for the second time.

Despite the grand final struggle, with a 1.24 rating, he was still an EVP of the event, continuing his streak of eight events at which he was one of the best performers. And he would push that even further at the FACEIT London Major, where his team made it up for their loss in Sweden. device was outstanding at the event, spearheading the 16-0 beatdown of MIBR in the group stage and standing out in key wins in the playoffs on the way to his second Major win—adding a Major MVP award to his name as well.

"I have a few best memories, I have to say DreamHack Masters Marseille is one of them, winning the first title with a lineup is always really special. Then, obviously, I am going to go for the Major—which was really great—, winning the Grand Slam, and also playing in Copenhagen because one of the things I didn't do last year is play at BLAST Pro Series. That feeling is different and is just one of the things that move us forward. When we lost that tournament we really wanted to end the year on a high note. But it was also, definitely, one of the best memories in the sense it was the first time I could share my passion with my whole family, everyone that is close to me."

Next in line were device's first BLAST Pro Series events, stops in Istanbul and Copenhagen. At the former, Astralis swept the group stage and overcame MIBR in a tightly contested final, with device adding another MVP to his collection thanks to another great showing that saw him stand out in terms of ADR (88.4) and impact (1.57). Disappointment followed on home soil in Copenhagen, as the Danes didn't manage to challenge for the title due to BO1 losses to NiP and Natus Vincere in the group stage.

"Losing to North in Stockholm, that was a rough one, but it ultimately led us to become a better team, the same with BLAST Pro in Copenhagen, it was the worst experience in the sense that we had all this build up and momentum coming from all the tournaments, and then everything just fell to the ground. But we rose from the ashes again and proved ourselves. That is one of the key points from the team, we don't have any back-to-back disappointments, the way we worked with these defeats, learning how to better ourselves as players and also as a team has just been amazing to be a part of.

Astralis had a few slip-ups in the second half of the year, most notably losing to North at DHM Stockholm

The end of the year was nearing, with just a couple events left before the winter break. In November, at IEM Chicago, Astralis was strongly tested. In the group stage, they suffered a 2-0 defeat to FaZe—their first 2-0 loss since March—but still made it to the playoffs, where they shook off a strong upset attempt by fnatic, edging out the last map in overtime. Even though device wasn't playing on his consistent-high level at this event, finishing with "just" a 1.15 rating, he was the most impactful player in their win and earned his fifth MVP.

Next in the line was ECS S6, and that tournament followed a similar pattern, but this time it was MIBR who were causing Astralis problems. However, it was "close, but no cigar", as the Danish side edged them out in the group stage and the grand final to continue their dominant streak. device's team-high 1.19 rating (1.29 in map wins) was again a bit below his form from earlier in the year, but enough for another MVP award.

Astralis' unprecedented dominance saw opponents shake up their style

At that point, Astralis were starting to get a lot of praise for their results and approach to the game, with even rival teams referring to them as someone who were hardly beatable. device touched on how it was playing against teams after having such status, the positive and negative sides of it:

"First of all, I think it is very important that players respect each other outside of the server and, as everyone knows, us snipers, we are close rivals. I have some personal rivalry with s1mple, FalleN, etc. In the server, I'd do anything to beat them, but outside of the server I respect them a lot and I really want that to be out there.

"It certainly does affect opponents that they are playing against someone with the status we got throughout the year, and you could feel that in game, but it also works both ways. When you are playing the best team, you really want to beat them, and it can give you a lot of motivation to try to play your best game of the tournament. Because they know that if they are not at their 100% they are not going to beat us, right? The change in play is something we felt in the last part of the year, a lot of teams would play really randomly because they couldn't really find a solution, but it could also make some teams play too hesitant, or too aggressive... We learned a lot about that and something we are definitely going to bring into the new year is the adaptation, something that was forced on us at the end of the year. Because teams just started to play a bit more random.

"When teams started to play—it is hard to say random, they definitely have a game plan—but differently than what we would see looking at their games, I think it is just to throw us off, everyone knew that we like to prepare really well for matches, and have a good game plan. If they could throw us off, like Liquid kind of did at ESL Pro League Finals in Odense on Train, then they would feel like they had the upper hand. But as I said, we were really good at adapting and when we could feel like teams have changed a lot, then we would just swap into practice mode where we play as we do in practice, and that worked out really well for us."

The decisive and ruthless machine that Astralis had been earlier in the year was showing some signs of wear leading up to ESL Pro League Finals Season 8, and this was the tournament Astralis needed to be victorious at to claim the Intel Grand Slam title. On home soil, in Odense, a contested group-stage BO3 against HellRaisers was a worrying sign, but things would stabilize for them as they took down Liquid and mousesports convincingly to reach the grand final—once again facing Liquid in it. The North American side threw a curveball in the veto by removing Nuke instead of Train, putting Astralis outside of their comfort zone. That seemingly rattled device, who was completely out of it on the first two maps, reminiscent of his 2014 self who couldn't perform under pressure. However, after his teammates stepped up to carry the load and secured Mirage, device got back into the game and shone on Dust2: closing out the series, grabbing the title, the Intel Grand Slam, and his seventh MVP of the year.

"I definitely remember that final, it was probably the toughest game for me throughout 2018. At least it is the one that stands out the strongest in my mind, as of right now. I feel like whether you work at being a professional gamer or whatever field you work in, there is always hard days at the job, and that felt like nothing was going right for me. I was not in the flow, I was hitting bad timings and also not hitting my shots. Ultimately, it can lead you to a bad spiral where you are doubting yourself and doubting your playstyle, and that definitely happened in the first few maps, at least on Train. And we weren't playing that great as a team, as well.

"I don't think it gave flashbacks to the [old defeats], but it definitely made me a bit worried going forward to the other maps. I really tried my best not to carry it on into the next maps and I feel like sometimes all you need is a good round or a good play. We have this philosophy that if you can help in other areas other than fragging, you are doing that. So whether that be that when you are dead you are communicating, helping your team, setting up the executes or setups as CT, or just reading your opponents and how they are going to play from round to round. That gives you a perspective and a focus that you are working on a round-to-round basis, so you are not really thinking about the previous maps or the consequences if you lose. That just gets you in the groove, the same groove you are in when you practice"

"Those are some of the tools I use to get through that, and, as I said, I also feel like sometimes you just have a bad day. Unfortunately, that was one of the bad days, in the first maps, that shouldn't have happened, but we won in the end and I gained some experience from that, for sure."

To cap off the year and go up to a round number of 10 titles secured in 2018, Astralis were triumphant at BLAST Pro Series Lisbon, the last Big event of the year. Overall, device finished 2018 with six EVPs, while his seven MVPs won in a single year broke the record had Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund set in NiP's prime, back in 2013.

"In some way, creating a legacy is always really important for big athletes and making my mark on the community and the game as one of the legends has been a big part of my career. Getting seven MVPs is really surreal, if anybody told me that when I got back from the break, after I've been ill for few months and we lost at the group stage at the ELEAGUE Major, I would probably just laugh it off. It is surreal to have gone through that, all the hardships I've had throughout the year.

"With that said, it also means the world to me that we actually won this many titles, it definitely makes the apple sweeter, or how you say it. The individual achievements happened together with the team achievements and I could share it with all these great teammates and the whole organization. So yeah, it has been really motivating and it is going to be hard to outdo that, but it is also something I will never forget. I learned to appreciate these moments more than I have done previously."

While at the start of 2018, device admitted that his goal was the top spot, he is content with his fourth consecutive top-five finish, and is aiming to claim the title of the best in one of the years to come:

"I'm really proud of placing top 5 four years in a row, I feel like it is the consistency part that has always been a big part of the person I am inside and outside of the game. Regarding s1mple getting the top spot, I have to be honest, I feel like he definitely was a better individual than me and I respect him so much. I'm really happy that he won, and I'm not just saying this to do the PR, but I feel like he really deserved it, he had a crazy year and he was the best in my eyes, as well.

"But yeah, of course it is annoying [to not win], but it has also been my best year so far, I still feel like I can do better and that is obviously the goal, to try and get the top spot, whether it be 2019 or 2020, I definitely feel like I have it in me. And regarding what I want to accomplish, what is on my mind is back-to-back Majors, is doing something that hasn't been done before, maybe three Majors back-to-back, it is always the team achievements that drive me and the individual awards that are kind of a bonus. I'm just extremely honored to be improving on the top 5, being the second best in the world at something is a feeling you can't really describe, it is an honor to be amongst the top."

Why was device the 2nd best player of 2018?

device was the best CT side player of the year (1.34 rating), and stood out immensely with his individual numbers at Big events: ranking third for kills per round (0.78), second for deaths per round (0.59), and second for success and frequency of opening kills (0.14 per round, 62.2% win rate), which combined for the third highest Big Event rating of 2018, 1.24.

Propelling him further towards the top were his performances in playoffs, where he ranked second with a 1.22 rating, and that helped him to seven MVPs—the most ever received in a year. device also had great peaks at ELEAGUE Premier and DreamHack Masters Marseille—where he wasn't the MVP—, which were higher than those of almost everyone ranked below him.

device was amazing in 2018, but still got overshadowed by s1mple

From 17 events attended in the year, device collected 13 individual accolades (7 MVP and, 6 EVPs), a showcase of him being consistently great in 2018. With his surge late in the year, with five MVPs from seven events, he began to challenge for the title of the best performer in 2018. However, his amazing year, which would be worthy of the No.1 spot in any of the 2014-2017 rankings, simply wasn't enough in 2018.

"Personal goals are definitely team-related and related to winning some tournaments. I think we can definitely stay on the top. Replicating what we did last year is going to be really hard, but now we also know what it takes to do it. Historically it has been really hard to be dominating for multiple years in a row, but we are obviously going to do our best.

"As long as we can look each other in the eyes and say to each other that we've put in our best effort, that we have done all we can, then we are going to be satisfied, for sure."

Bold prediction

device had a tough time deciding which player to pick for his Bold prediction, but in the end swerved away from Danish talent and opted for ENCE's star Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo:

"He is really good an I feel like ENCE have a lot of good things going on for them. They are improving and they have a really good organization behind them, they are doing great things. So I hope he can shine too this year."

This was our Top 20 players of 2018 ranking, powered by EGB.com. Take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were picked.