Device hasn’t played at a Major in four years. His long-awaited return with Astralis turned into disappointment.

Device and Astralis finally made it back to a Major after a long absence. Nicolai Reedtz last appeared at PGL Major Stockholm 2021 with NIP, while the Astralis tag has been missing from Majors since PGL Major Antwerp 2022. Their comeback, however, ended in failure.

The last Astralis lineup to reach a Major featured gla1ve, Xyp9x, k0nfig, blameF and Farlig. Three of them have already ended their careers, and Farlig hasn’t played for two years. RMR events have been a long-term problem for Astralis. At the last three RMRs in Austin, Shanghai and Copenhagen, the team was one match away from qualifying each time, but always lost. At the RMRs for Rio and Paris, they were eliminated 1-3.

Device has been away from Majors for four years. After Stockholm he stepped back due to personal issues and missed the entire following year. Even after returning to Astralis in 2023, he wasn’t consistently with the team. He skipped the Shanghai Major qualifiers last year due to health issues, and this year he missed the playoff-decider at PGL Bucharest for the same reason.

Because of these breaks, fans started to believe that Device might soon retire. He admitted himself that he is exhausted: “This season has been one of the hardest. We traveled from one tournament straight to the next, and this format doesn’t suit me. Last year I even had to skip the Major qualifier because of it.”

The last time Device played a Major with Astralis was six years ago at the StarLadder Berlin Major, where the legendary five defeated AVANGAR in the final. Astralis haven’t won a LAN event since late 2019. After Berlin they won three more tournaments, and in 2020 stayed near the top. Device again finished among the top three players in the world. After that began a long decline for both the AWPer and the most successful Danish club.

Astralis qualified for this Major only because RMR events were cancelled. The team collected enough points during the last six months thanks to second places at PGL Astana and FISSURE Playground 1, a playoff run at IEM Chengdu and a decent result at PGL Masters Bucharest. Device said he was highly motivated before the event: “I realized I wasn’t putting in enough effort before. This time I spent much more time preparing to become what I call Device 3.0.”

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The team collapsed in Budapest. Astralis received an invite to the second stage but opened the tournament terribly. On the first day they suffered two losses to NIP and M80. Both matches were close at 10-13 and 11-13, but Astralis failed in the key rounds, losing man-advantages and dropping crucial clutches including a 1v2 and a 1v3.

Staehr became the unexpected leader with a 1.33 rating across both matches. Ironically, he said before the event that teams from the opening stage wouldn’t be a problem. They sent Astralis straight to 0-2.

Device struggled the most. Despite talking about a renewed version of himself, he delivered one of the worst Major starts of his entire career with ratings of 0.78 and 0.82. If Astralis don’t advance, Budapest will be his worst Major both statistically and by placement. Across 16 previous Majors he failed to reach playoffs only once, back in Boston where Astralis finished 12-14th.

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In two matches Device produced only one highlight, a 1v2 clutch in the opening game. That’s far from what fans expected from one of the greatest snipers in CS history making his grand return to the Major stage.