VPesports had the opportunity to speak with Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz following Astralis’ 2-0 sweep of Natus Vincere at the FACEIT Major in London. The Danish star discusses the teams performance, preparation, current level of play, and more. The team headed straight to Istanbul where they will be competing in the BLAST Pro Series event.

VPesports: All right, so getting right into this past match or really the event as a whole, I mean, you guys have been dominant. Coming in from DreamHack Stockholm, people were like, “Oh, they’re coming out of that player break. What can we expect of them?” You started off the event with a win over complexity which is kind of expected but then there was a little bit of rust that seemed to need to get shaken off. What changed that made you guys peak, it seems like, right here at the end of the event?

dev1ce: Honestly, we didn’t feel that great at Stockholm and after the tournament we were like, “We have a lot of things to work on.” We quickly looked into the details and worked on them instantly. We gained a lot of experience from that and a lot of important knowledge going into this Major, of things that worked against us that is kind of like a new meta that we didn’t really know from North as well. We took away a lot from them, the games we lost against them.

Other than that I’d say that we just knew how to build us into the tournament so to say. We knew that we’re not supposed to be at our best right when we arrive at a tournament. Meaning that when we arrive at a tournament we would practice a bit more. Like, burn out a little bit more, and then throughout the tournament we would start playing less and less and less so that we have more energy throughout the day. We have more time for preparation and so on.

VPesports: Do you know if other teams do the same thing? Do you know if other teams prepare the same way?

dev1ce: I definitely know that no teams prepare for the games the same way as us but I don’t know if they schedule the same way as well. It’s really hard to say, but yeah.

VPesports: When you’re getting into these last two matchups, Liquid and Navi, I mean, everybody expected so much more. Everybody said that on paper, you and Liquid are so similar, you guys were supposed to be the match of the major. Even Dupreeh said, “This is like the biggest match.” Then you guys kind of blew them out and then you go up against Na’Vi and everybody’s like, “Oh, it’s the number one team in the world and the number two team in the world.” They have sqmple, and then you guys blew them out. Is this the best Astralis we’ve ever seen? Or do you think that the scene, in general, is a little bit weaker?

dev1ce: It’s definitely the best Astralis ever for sure. We are really good and we are a level above the teams in the consistency. I think that’s really important like keynote, because we can lose to other teams, like the great teams and also some of the lesser teams. It’s not impossible for sure. I think that our consistency with the results is just one of the reasons why we keep ending at the top of almost every tournament. I don’t think the scene is weaker. I think that’s kind of a weird argument to do. Just like it’s hard to, how do you like, the era, the times of where teams were good or not. It’s really hard to know. It’s not really up to me to say that but yeah, I think that definitely the best Astralis ever.

VPesports: So the best Astralis ever, is it the best team ever in Counter-Strike: Global Offense. You had some big runs from NiP in the beginning, and then you’ve seen Luminosity, SK gaming, but again kind of comparing eras, do you think that you guys are on a run that is going to be the best run in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?

dev1ce: It’s always hard to predict the future and it’s not really up to me to say if we’re the best team ever or not. Honestly it’s not high priority for us. We just want to keep like the consistency. Keep winning these tournaments and proving that we’re the best at the moment. I’m just so proud to be in the same server and the same, like traveling with these guys, it’s always a pleasure. We’re just enjoying it and yeah it’s going great for us and yeah I’d say we’re dominating the scene right now, but who knows how long it would last and so on. We’re just appreciating the moment, staying in front on how we develop our game, how we develop our individual game, and also how we prepare for the matches, how we can build into that and get even better at that, because that’s one of the key points of our game.

VPesports: Another thing that I saw was everybody was saying was “we want to do this for Magisk.” What is it about him that made you guys want him to succeed. I mean, yeah, you guys want to win, but it just seemed like you guys were really like, “No, he needs to lift the trophy.” What is it about Magis that makes you feel that way?

dev1ce: First of all, it was his first Major win. The first Major semifinal, the first Major final. We’d already won before, not that we didn’t want to win it again, but there’s just something special about winning your first Major. We want to put a big fat mark under like the fact that we’re dominating right now, we’re the best team right now, and we’re, as I said, we’re like a family and it means a lot for us to give him this experience. It’s something he’ll never forget, something we’ll never forget, and that’s why we were really happy for him as well.

VPesports: All right, well what’s next for you guys? You’ve won the Major, is there a vacation? You guys just came off of one, so are you just going straight to the next event?

dev1ce: Honestly, man, we have two days off and then we go to Istanbul. After that we’re having not a vacation. We’re having online matches and it’s just a grind. I think the next vacation is in December. We’re not in a rush for vacations. We just had the summer break and we’re just going to keep grinding.