Dev1ce breaks down how Astralis has trained for CSGO success

Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz joined Frankie Ward and Dexerto for a short interview at the #OMENChallenge event in London, and got a chance to discuss Astralis’ training tips, his goals for the #OMENChallenge, as well as his viral trophy break.

When you’re one of the best players in the world, you set high standards for yourself. And dev1ce laid out big plans for what he was going to do to his competition at the #OMENChallenge. When Frankie asked if he would knife s1mple, dev1ce responded by saying he’s going to try and knife everyone, and then donate all his winnings to charity.

• Read more: The story of the StarLadder Berlin Major: Astralis’ CSGO Hat-Trick

But dev1ce isn’t just helping charity, as it turns out that a couple of amateur players have been participating in the Astralis training regime. Dev1ce laid out what goes into the training that has produced three straight major titles, and it extends far beyond just in-game experience:

“Basic seating position, basic physical training, good posture, sleep well, how to de-stress, how to mentally prepare for tournaments. [Being healthy] matters the most. Also not overplaying and overthinking things. It’s more or less about finding balance.”

Featured: Check out Dexerto’s coverage of the OMEN Challenge

When it comes to tackling the mental game, Astralis is perhaps the greatest success story. Before their dynasty took off, the biggest opponent to Astralis was in fact Astralis. While they would make several deep runs into tournaments, they would frequently fall short right before the finish line. Thorin describes this time period asthe Astralis era that almost was.

dev1ce with Astralis in the StarLadder Berlin Legends stage

But Astralis would climb out of that pit after the addition of Magisk, and have broken free of the lull that slowed them down to begin this year. Astralis lifted another major trophy at StarLadder Berlin this September, their third major in a row. But when dev1ce himself went to lift the physical trophy, things didn’t go too well.

• Read more: dev1ce breaks trophy at Berlin Major and his reaction is priceless

“It was too heavy,” he told Frankie. “It broke. Or maybe I was too strong.”

dev1ce celebrates a win with coach zonic

Thankfully for Astralis, their confidence is far stronger than the trophy they broke. Frankie referred to her interview with gla1ve at the Berlin major, when the in-game leader admitted that he still didn’t think Astralis was back to being the best team in the world.

Dev1ce said that winning the major was “a huge confidence boost” for the team, but acknowledged that they still need to build off of that, improve their map pool, keep the pace, and let their in-game play do the talking.

There are plenty of big events left in 2019 for Astralis to showcase their improvements: ESL One New York, DreamHack Malmö, IEM Beijing, and the BLAST Global Finals just to name a few. Some more championships go their way and there won’t even be a discussion on who the best team in the world is.