As part of AWPgust, we’ll be taking a look back through CS:GO history to pay our respects to some of the greatest AWPers to ever grace the game. Players who have defied the odds with their impressive plays, or maybe just players who carved out a unique place in history for themselves through their unique playstyle, special achievements, or incredible games.
To kick us off in AWPgust, we’ll be going over the king of Danish Counter-Strike, device. The most consistent AWPer in all of history, even when s1mple was creating his legend as the greatest to ever touch the game, it was device who analysts would have told you to learn from. A man who took a year-long break and still managed to return better than ever, this is the story of device.
device began his story in CS:GO with Copenhagen Wolves, a team in which he would first link up with dupreeh and Xyp9x, two players he would go on to do great things with. Not yet an AWPer, device would already establish himself as one of the best players in the world as he attended the first ever CS:GO Major, Dreamhack Winter 2013.
Although he wouldn’t truly become an AWPer until 2016, device began his time using the big green as a member of TSM in 2015. His teammates karrigan and cajunB would AWP on Mirage and Dust_2 respectively, but the remainder of the map pool belonging to device was enough to give a glimpse of the future he would have while using the weapon.
As 2016 rolled around and cajunB’s services were no longer required by Astralis, device would take up AWPing full time. A dangerous force with the weapon, he and the rest of the team were still held back by the same issues they had been for their whole time together. When the going got tough, Astralis failed to get going, and as perennial semi-final bottlers, glory always seemed to slip from his grasp.
Glory wouldn’t escape them for long, however, and although device and Astralis fell to a surprise-package OpTic team in the final of ELEAGUE Season 2, they would get immediate revenge on their American rivals in the final of the very next event, ECS Season 2.
With a tier one LAN win to close out the year, Astralis had entered a new chapter, one where finally, after being in attendance of every Major in CS:GO, device would depart the event with the trophy in his hands.
Oddly though, despite his position as the team’s superstar, it wouldn’t be device who had praise heaped on him at the end of the event. Instead, it was kjaerbye who was lauded as the youngster that helped device over the line as he still struggled to find the composure to see out big games.
Although he was now in possession of that coveted trophy, the lack of composure and need to be held up by his teammates in that all important final match versus Virtus.pro would remain the overarching narrative. Still regarded as a bottler, the chapter in which device recorded his first Major win would not be the chapter in which he won over the hearts of those who always looked to deny him.
That chapter wouldn’t even begin to be written until a year later when Astralis’ ELEAGUE Atlanta hero, kjaerbye, would unceremoniously depart for the organisation’s closest rivals, North.
With kjaerbye gone, it would be Magisk who would step in to replace him. A very different player, the move would allow Astralis to solve issues within the team in terms of roles, and unlock the potential in the team that had threatened to become realised a year earlier.
The team would go on to win three Majors and the inaugural Intel Grand Slam with device at the centre of it all. Over the two years of Astralis dominance in 2018 and 2019, device would raise his number of HLTV MVP Awards to 19, and would only lose out on the top spot in their end of year rankings for 2018 because of the insane level s1mple showed that year.
Now a bonafide superstar, there was no doubting that device was one of the best players of all time, and unlike most other superstars, his playstyle was one anyone could recreate.
Sure, it was predicated by the incredible lengths Astralis would go to to prepare for each game and each opponent, but it was safe, consistent, reliable, a playstyle that excelled on a positional basis, on playing the numbers game, and on only taking fights where he would be by far the favourite.
Unlike his rival s1mple, device could become a teacher for anyone watching at home, and that style of play would become a model for AWPers in the later years of CS:GO.
Still, dominance can’t be maintained forever, and as Astralis’ reign at the top came to and end and the online era rolled in, device would look for a new challenge, a challenge he would find with NIP.
Sadly, it was a move that wouldn’t work out. His new team never managed to finalise a roster fit for a player like him, and as results and personal issues took their toll, he would enter a leave of absence that would take him out of professional play for almost the entirety of 2022.
Eventually though, device would return home to Astralis, and since then, he hasn’t looked back.
Trophies may not yet have arrived, but device returned with instant impact. His form made it appear like he had never missed a day, and once again, he is a constant figure at the top of the Astralis scoreboard.
“I think if device didn't come back at this level, he would be forgiven. I think if he fell off, that would be like 'oh yeah, that makes sense, he took a long break' so, it's insane. It's insane especially with how exponential the meta changes have been and also how nuanced, if you look at the game today to three years ago, it's very hard to see what's changed, but from three years ago to three years before that, it's more obvious. So the fact that device can stay on top of it, and you look at his events since rejoining Astralis, there's been no onboarding experience, he's been the top fragger every single map since he joined the roster. Him, s1mple, ZywOo, and NiKo, are four players that are playing a completely different game to any other player in history, and that's why.” - launders
Now with a team that looks capable of fighting at the top level of Counter-Strike for those trophies he has waited too long to lift again, it may not be long before device continues to write his name into the history books.
One of the most consistent AWPers in Counter-Strike history, a player with incredible longevity having been a prominent figure since the games’ release, device is a man who has carved out respect for himself even when there were so many naysayers.
He might not be the GOAT player, but to us, all of the above makes him the GOAT AWPER.
“I think device will go down in history as one of the greatest AWPers of all time, as one of the greatest players of all time. Sure, he can't compete with s1mple and ZywOo in terms of individual level, but he is the most winning AWPer of all time. He's got the four Majors, he's got all the trophies, he's done everything. I think he is also a guy with an enormous amount of talent who, at some times, came by it a bit easy and then he realised if he also put in hard work he can become one of the greatest players of all time, which he then did. So for me, device serves as a great inspiration. I also grew up playing with him and even back then, he was always mega talented and you could just see he was better than the rest of us even without touching the game. For device, he'll go down in history as one of the all-time greats.” - Pimp
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