At the beginning of the week, information portals 1pv.fr and Dexerto published reports that Nikolai “device” Reedtz plans to leave NIP and return to Astralis. Citing numerous sources, they mention that the Dane is now looking for an opportunity to free himself from a three-year contract with the Swedish team.
The return of device would be very welcome news for Astralis, since after his departure in April 2021, its management was unable to find a suitable sniper. However, the long-term contract awarded to NIP may be a difficult hurdle to overcome. Sources estimate the cost of device's transition to a Swedish esports organization at between $700,000 and a million. It is unknown how much of this payment NIP will require to be returned as compensation for the player's return to Astralis.
From NIP’s performances at recent major tournaments, it was noticeable that device’s relationship with the team was not very productive. At the BLAST Premier Fall Finals the team lost to Liquid, and at the PGL Stockholm Major it could not finish higher than 5th-8th place. Despite some successes (for example, the fact that device received the MVP title at IEM Fall), NIP’s performance in 2021 can hardly be called successful. The departure of head coach Björn “THREAT” Pers and the arrival of Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, which added in-game communication challenges due to the language barrier, didn't make things any easier either. Ultimately, device missed the last matches of the year — as the team management reported, due to health problems.
