He didn’t put up the same numbers as himself at the height of his game. Though his previous stats were so good that his form was still nice. He has held the highest TV rating in three months, and is clearly holding a small lone stake.
Phzy wasn’t enough.
The reason this is such a blow for the already limping NIP is their fact they were and will play with a substitute for the rest of the season, if any more matches are played. Love phzy Smidebrant had large shoes and more than enough time to do it. Although he’s played professionally since 2018, he’s never had a shot at large teams before. Thrown in a fire by the fire is sometimes rarely done. It’s easy to see that NIP are absolutely up the river without having any paddled here. But after they learned a few lucky Bo3 wins, they don’t likely do anything close to their rivals. The two matches against G2 were final in the opening round, and Astralis in the Lower Bracket was lacking that little oomph that Dev1ce brings to the table. In truth, the subbed out roster has almost succeeded in besting Astralis. It is more a reflection of how bad Astralis still is then how well NiP performed.
NiP might struggle over 2022.
Although they are no 5 in the world, they’re unlikely to win without Dev1ce. Since their skepticism continues to get terrible, their stronger side, CT, will struggle in huge amounts without their anchors. That isn’t phzys fault, he’s simply outgunned by these top tier teams. Dev1ces game sense and understanding of the role of AWP in the tier 1 is almost unparalleled. This phzy is capable of being more effective later, since he’s proven that he can handle his own things in some ways. The season will be over for NiP, so if there’s no minor tournament going out of the blue, the next time they see them is at IEM Katowice. Since Dev1ce missed out on BLAST World Final and IEM Winter, he will go for IEM Katowice with a much better downtime. Hopefully a long run in Katowice will give the roster time to get back into old form. If they make an early exit, we could also seem to be fighting at the ESL Pro League.
