dev1ce 's Climb Back to Form: A Statistical Performance Review
With the closure of Blast Premier Spring Groups, the eyes of many fans were glued to one particular Danish superstar. Dev1ce had been on a long break, citing mental health issues, after his move to Ninjas In Pyjamas. Finally, the Dane decided to move back to his home in Astralis.
This Blast tournament, even though a qualifier, was the first major or S-tier tournament played by Astralis with dev1ce in the active roster. Many fans were curious to see how the former 4 time Major Winner would fare, while being out of the competition for over a year.
Astralis played 4 games in the tournament, and we’ll go through each of them.
Game 1: Astralis vs Vitality
Even though Astralis lost the series 2-0, they still put up a decent fight. Barely losing the first map, and pushing the second into overtime. It was clear that Astralis were slowly coming back to form, but Vitality was the better team here.
The devveking had quite the performance on Map 2 (Vertigo), putting out a server high 31 kills. This offset his decent performance in Map 1 (Overpass) where he only got 17 kills, compared to BlameF’s 32. But he did manage to get the most opening kills at 6.
From the detailed stats, we can see that the 2-time major MVP had quite the impactful series, with a 1.31 impact rating, and a 0.97 rating overall.
Game 2: Astralis vs Heroic
Their second game in the tournament, Astralis finally managed to win a map, even though they still lost the series 2-1.
Astralis won Map 1 (Inferno) with quite a dominant CT-side. Dev1ce topped the table with 28 kills, most AWP kills at 11, and a 1.53 rating. However, Heroic proceeded to win the next 2 maps 16-4 each. On Map 3 (Vertigo), dev1ce again managed to get most AWP kills at 6, with a total of 11 kills.
The detailed stats reveal that it was not the best series for the Danish superstar.
Game 3: Astralis vs NIP
Astralis have their first taste of victory in the tournament against NIP. Facing off against his former team, dev1ce put up quite a fight.
Although NIP managed to take Map 1 (Overpass), dev1ce still managed to amass 23 kills, 9 of which were from the AWP. Astralis hit back in Maps 2 and 3 (Mirage and Ancient), where dev1ce again got to show off his AWP skills with 9 and 11 AWP kills on each map.
Falling behind only BlameF, dev1ce had a much better game this time, with a 1.17 rating, and higher kills and damage per round than both of his previous matches.
Game 4: Astralis vs OG
Although OG managed to take Map 1 (Inferno), Astralis fought back. Even when OG pushed the final map into Overtime, the Danish side managed to come out on top to win the series and qualify for the Spring Finals.
Dev1ce had a consistent showing in this map, getting most AWP kills in all 3 maps at 11, 13, and 18 kills respectively.
With a 1.17 impact rating throughout the series, it was evident that dev1ce is right back at home with Astralis.
With the entire team stepping up in this series, Astralis have slowly managed to come back to form, and the Danish star AWPer seems to be settling back in very well.
It will be interesting to see how Astralis fare in the coming tournaments. Though they did not qualify for IEM Katowice 2023, we will see them play again in ESL Pro League Season 17.
Image Source: Astralis CS Twitter