Dev1ce was Astralis’ star AWPer for over five years, from January 2016 to April 2021, and was an essential part of the team’s climb to become a top CS:GO franchise between 2018 and 2019.

The player led a destructive run in 2018 and played a massive part in the four Major tournament wins the team clinched that year. These include the 2018 ELEAGUE Premier, IEM Chicago, the FACEIT London Major, and the ESL Pro League Finals. They also won the coveted Intel Grand Slam that year.

While the player recently revealed his intention to play on the team once again, he is currently locked in a contract with Ninjas in Pyjamas with over 2.5 years left. The team added him to the lineup with a three-year contract in April 2021.

According to reports, the transfer conversation between NiP and Astralis is in its early stages, and no decision has been made yet. Both teams are reportedly trying to agree on the transfer fee, with Astralis already placing a bid for dev1ce. NiP have apparently not accepted the offer and have no intention of getting paid significantly less than the amount they bought dev1ce for.

When Ninjas in Pyjamas added dev1ce to their lineup, the team reportedly had to pay an astonishing $1 million (6.5 million Danish krone) to take the player before the end of his contract with Astralis.

At the moment, NiP are reportedly searching for a “fair market price, which isn’t much above what NiP bought him for.” The player’s last game with the team was in December 2021, after which he moved himself to the team’s inactive lineup shortly after.

At the time, dev1ce mentioned burnout and fatigue as the reasons for his hiatus. Since then, dev1ce has not participated in a professional CS:GO match. He has, however, been active on FACEIT for the past seven inactive months and has played hundreds of games there. The player has reportedly participated in around 38 games from the start of September to September 12th.

According to reports, the NiP started considering offers for the player’s transfer in August and had already had conversations with a number of esports organizations. Dev1ce, on his part, apparently wants to make his comeback after his extended hiatus with another team despite NiP not having a primary sniper at the moment.

Ahead of the IEM Rio Major Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR), Ninjas in Pyjamas notably replaced their rifler for the past three years, Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora, with Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen. Aleksib was previously the captain in G2, but was moved to the team’s bench in mid-August. His move also hastened the team’s move to English as their primary mode of in-game communication.

The rosters of teams set to participate in the RMR, NiP included, are already set and locked in, so dev1ce will likely not make his comeback during the IEM Rio Major cycle even if he gets signed to a team before then. The AWPer is more likely to return to competitive play after November 13, when the Major ends.
?More esports news