Why Device is Counter-Strike’s Cristiano Ronaldo
And whether his move to NiP will eclipse Ronaldo’s to Juventus
In an interview with hltv.org, Device’s new in game leader, hampus, said that “signing device is like signing Cristiano Ronaldo”. And this is a comparison I want to take further.
Both Device and Ronaldo are considered by a minority — mostly their own fans — to be the greatest player of all time.
Both can boast of staggering achievements: for device, it is four majors in a row and for Ronaldo, it is three successive Champions Leagues.
Both are players who are models of efficiency after being mocked early in their careers — for diving, for choking, for too many stepovers.
A common saying is that if you built the perfect footballer in a lab, you would create Ronaldo. And Device shares these characteristics: he is competent with a rifle and an AWP, has a perfect understanding of rotations and will never take unnecessary risks.
Yet because of this, both players lack something. Messi is great despite his short stature; S1mple over-peeks, goes for unnecessary knife kills and tries flashy AWP flicks.
Device and Ronaldo put up incredible numbers, but their play is simply not as exciting as their greatest rivals. It is natural to like the underdog, and Device and Ronaldo resemble the unassailable AI supervillain more than the plucky and flawed protagonist.
This is of note because both players did show human elements early in their career. Ronaldo was a streaky winger, more interested in entertaining fans with tricks than the ruthless chance conversion that defined his peak.
Device, though still consistent, had problems in playoffs. When I first watched CS:GO, his story was an attractive one, and a key reason for me becoming an Astralis fan. This was the team that always got close without converting their talent, and Device was emblematic of this problem.
That he overcame his choking issue is commendable, but the way he did so lost a bit of that charm. A full-firing (Astralis) Device never takes a 50–50 duel, and functions within a system where his passive playstyle is a positive rather than a negative.
This is why his move to Ninjas in Pyjamas is so interesting — and so risky. For years, Device has been the best player in the greatest team of all time and now, he has ripped off that safety blanket.
NiP still has aggressive players — REZ in particular — but the skill gap within the team suggests Device might have to return to his pre-Zonic style: a style that was more entertaining but ultimately far less successful.
His transfer opens up the comparison to Ronaldo again, via his 2018 move to Juventus. Both have been accused of being ‘system players’, whose astonishing individual numbers are buoyed by team success.
And Ronaldo’s move to Juventus has not halted these grumblings: Juventus will lose Serie A for the first time this decade — possibly even missing out on Champions League football. You can point to several factors for this (Juventus’ poor recruitment, Pirlo’s inexperience, and Ronaldo’s age) but the fact remains Device will want to avoid this sort of anticlimactic ‘new challenge’ in Sweden.
Unlike Ronaldo, age will not be an excuse, with Device saying recently he feels he has not reached his peak as an individual player. He has been bold in interviews, praising NiP’s setup, and setting his sights on winning the major on home turf in Stockholm.
Yet beneath the surface (and on the surface - I mean come on, Device isn’t exactly arrogant is he?) this comparison falls down slightly. Ronaldo went to Juventus expecting to compete immediately, hoping to use his last few years of physical prowess to guide the club to their first success in Europe.
If Device’s departure from Astralis was to prove his ‘haters’ wrong, to show he is not a system player but capable of competing with S1mple and Zywoo without gla1ve, his choice of NiP, a team ranked 13th, is a strange one.
Nearly every team in the world would have taken Device — and probably paid him more than the Swedish organisation (I’ve heard G2 need an awper…). His choice of Sweden suggests motivations outside of in-game success — quality of life.
In public, Device has said this higher quality of life will let him reach a higher individual level.
And now he will have to prove it, by doing what Ronaldo could not: reach the same level of success outside the system that was purpose built for his own success.
For the sake of the narrative, I hope he does. Counter-Strike needs a top tier Swedish team, and sport is all about the storylines.
And who would have a better story than Device: from talented choker to a ruthlessly efficient system player, and now hoping to become an underdog champion of the world.
