Look, device is better than farlig.

That’s, I hope, not a hot take. He certainly was a lot better, and there’s nothing to suggest he won’t be at least better than farlig.

But Astralis are not a farlig upgrade away from being on top again.

Expensive mistake x2

device might be the biggest waste of money of all time in CSGO.

Twice.

NIP were insane to spend that much money on a static AWPer just to pair him with academy players. It’s almost no surprise he’s willing to dip on them as soon as he comes back.

Astralis might be even more insane to not be counting their pennies, and instead throwing all of their cash BACK at NIP.

This is why you can’t have nice things.

device hasn’t played an official for a year. Regardless of what you think about him, regardless of how much you think it should make a difference, it has to be a concern.

We’ve seen nitr0 come back – albeit from VALORANT – and look quite a bit worse.

But fine. Let’s say for argument’s sake, device is the exact same player that Astralis let go a year ago.

So f*cking what?

Astralis will have to completely restructure their T-sides, at least. Though that might not be a bad idea, it’s hard to believe that the only issue with this team is farlig.

Xyp9x is still older, and worse, than he was during the peak Astralis era. gla1ve’s impenetrable aura appears to have disappeared, as people outthink and outplay him consistently nowadays.

blameF is still a massive baiter who would rather get two lurk kills after time has run out than go anywhere near the rest of his team.

device getting a few more kills on riflers who overpeek in the mid round is great, but it’s not the difference between, I don’t know, losing to Complexity and winning four Majors.

farlig isn’t even that bad. He was perfectly serviceable before Astralis.

Their CT sides, however, will be formidable.

device was always a lockdown player, and blameF is one of the best CT side players in the world (because he can’t lurk on the CT side).

As long as the enemy team can’t figure out where Xyp9x is playing, they’ll never get into a site.

But is that enough for $1m, or close to it?

An improvement over farlig for seven figures just doesn’t make financial sense. device isn’t a young player who you can expect to stay at this level for another five years. We’ve already seen Father Time take some of Xyp9x’s ability.

For one million dollars, you better be winning the Major, or being sold for more than that.

device, much like he didn’t for NIP (don’t kid yourself, it’s not just because he isn’t playing), isn’t going to win Astralis another Major.

There are too many problems with this team, and blameF taking too many resources, for device to be the fix.

If you have any sense, Astralis, you will run away with the money giving NIP the middle finger.