Nicolai "device" Reedtz - The Most Valuable MVP

Cover Image Courtesy: DreamHack | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: Astralis

In counter-strike the individual effort of a player is something that definitely stands out, often building the narrative of a team’s victory around it. So, to honour these players who step in and consistently give great performances map after map, in an attempt to steer their team to victory, an MVP award is given as part of every major CS:GO tournament.

Despite many players receiving this award over the course of the last 7-8 years, one name that has raced ahead to grab the most number of MVP awards is Nicolai “device” Reedtz. The Danish AWPer has a total of 15 awards to his name, seven of which he won last year in 2018.

The 24-year-old holds his own when it comes to consistency, as he is miles ahead of everyone else behind him. To put it in contrast, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and Kenny “kennyS” Schrub who share the second rank on the list of MVP medal holders have a total of 10 awards, none of them coming in 2018 and 2019.

Also, he and Emil “Magisk” Reif are the only two players from the current Astralis roster to have won more than one MVP award with all the others having won just one medal till now.

Device has also been the man behind the wheel, driving Astralis to all four victories that they have secured in the history of ECS tournaments till date, ECS Finals Season - 2, 5, 6, and 8. In all the four tournaments, it was Device who walked away as the MVP each and every single time.

Out of his 15 MVP awards, 2 of them have been awarded to him for his outstanding performance in FACEIT Major 2018, followed by StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. To give a perspective of how great of an achievement this is, Astralis has won a total of four counter-strike majors, highest by an organization in the history of counter-strike, and out of the four majors that they have won, device has been awarded an MVP medal in 50% of them.

Despite having played counter-strike for nearly ten years now, it feels as though he has just started out on his journey because 10 of his 15 MVP awards have come in 2018 and 2019 itself. He has played a really huge part in helping Astralis reach where it is today, the impact score of 1.30 is proof of how important he is to the team.

In the last two years, device has gone on to become one of the first counter-strike players to cross the million-dollar mark in tournament earning, while also racing ahead to bag the highest number of MVP awards, and it feels as though the Dane is just stepped into the prime age of his career with a lot more accolades waiting to be marked by his AWP.