devve is back. No, for real this time.

More than a month after returning to the dumpster fire that is Astralis, device will finally debut at CCT North Europe Series 2 playoffs.

Which is a pretty good idea — he gets to ease back into tier two Counter-Strike before 2023 properly kicks off.

But, after device skipped Elisa Masters Espoo because he ‘wasn’t ready’ to play it does seem a bit strange.

If you ask us, the second-best player of all time probably would have done fine against the likes of HAVU and BIG. But whatever, it is what it is.

There’s a reason the CCT Tour has made it into the newsletter, maybe for the first time. We’re right to be excited about device’s return, he is one of the most consistent star players of all time, the forefather of modern AWPing.

Everyone, ourselves included, is tired of talking about device outside of the game. It’s both boring and unfair to speculate about the reasons behind his absence.

He’s a fucking good CS:GO player. Let’s move on from all the nonsense now, and just enjoy one of the very best we have. He deserves that.

Tune in to this week's episode of Overtime on Inferno where your favorite hosts aizyesque and Logan Ramhap go deep on the biggest news in CS:GO:

• How could we make blameF good?
• The NIP rollercoaster
• Who Cloud9 and NaVi could sign

We’re warming up for roster move season, but the truly crazy moves haven’t yet started happening. They’re coming, though, and this is the calm before the storm.

• Evil Geniuses have cut a couple of players, which doesn’t really mean much, because they have about 100 anyway. djay left, before being picked up by ATK, while chop got the chop from EG Black.
• Coach stikle- from BNE has left the team, citing burnout and different visions from the team. Sad to see the group broken up, but we have a feeling it’s not going to stop them running riot at the next RMR.
• kRYSTAL has left his career as a player behind, suggesting that he was always the one who sacrificed himself for the team but recognising he won’t get a chance to be a star player any more, and is looking to become a coach.
• Peppzor might have impressed in his stint at fnatic, but he will have to impress somewhere else; he has left them to look for a new team.

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Have you ever wondered how much a team benefits from their permaban being replaced by a new map?

No? Us neither. That’s this story wrapped up then.

Oh, sorry. That’s not really our job, is it. TLDR’s own Harry’s gone and written another one of those long articles on HLTV about incredibly nerdy stuff, and personally, we love it. As always.

There’s far too many takeaways to completely outline in 200 words, but largely it suggests that teams don’t always benefit in the way you think they might from their permaban being removed.

Though there are teams - say for example, Vitality and Astralis historically - who have gotten better with map changes, this isn’t exactly an obvious pattern in the data. It’s a narrative that seems to only really matter for the elite, and even then, it could be coincidence.

It also turns out, from the data, that really good teams tend to win more on new maps. Go figure. Glad we have the data to show this.

The article does point out that BIG might be one of the most affected teams, largely as they pick Dust 2 a lot, but they also lose it a lot of the time they pick it.

It’s like when North lost Cobblestone from the map pool. They kept picking it and losing it. We think it might actually help them that Dust 2 is gone.

Whatever happens, there’s a new opportunity for someone to become the best Anubis team in the world. At least for a week, until everything they do gets copied by karrigan, who then does it better.

💥 Banging tweets

• Besides the fact that his statement is wrong and we agree with Ryan (for once), this dude also spelled esports as “e sports” so his opinion doesn’t count.
• And the award for most puns used in a player announcement goes to: Wings Up!

🏝️New map, new content

• There might still be one or two kinks to work out for Anubis. Small kinks.
• Want to rek some n00bs on Anubis? Surprise them with one of ATK’s executes that you’ll definitely execute flawlessly with your mates.
• Finally, if you’re already bored of Anubis: here’s some other maps to check out.

🤔 Interesting statements

• Dev1ce is back to being a player now, but he never stopped being a comedian.
• It might feel like stating the obvious, but yes: the ESL Rankings suck.