Andreas Franck "Cr1t-" Nielsen has been a steady presence in Dota 2 since the start. After dabbling in competitive DotA, he teamed up with fellow Danish player Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard to go pro in 2012 with Gamer University. Cr1t- bounced between multiple teams competing in regional leagues hosted by StarSeries and playing in larger events with We Haz Asian.
We Haz Asian was sponsored by H2K Gaming, but the team split off just days later and disbanded not long after. This became an unfortunate pattern for the first few years of Cr1t-’s career.
He reunited with Ace on Team Life, which served as the foundation for a new, all-Danish mousesports roster. The team posted generally poor results due to the roster’s instability and role swaps, which eventually saw Cr1t- return to Team Life. During this time, Cr1t- shifted from being a core player to playing support. He would remain a support steadily for the remainder of his career to this point.
Team Life found another new sponsor in Meet Your Makers, but this too went poorly. MYM underwhelmed in competitions and dissolved after a few months, with Cr1t- leaving after the team failed to qualify for The International 2014.
Cr1t- stepped away from the pro scene to some degree for the following season, competing sparingly for a number of different teams while staying active in in-house leagues and solo queue. His skills remained sharp and he received a great deal of interest from pro teams following The International 2015’s roster shuffle. He decided to join former Fnatic duo Johan “N0tail” Sundstein and Tal “Fly” Aizik at (monkey) Business, which later rebranded as OG.
This decision was a transformative one for Cr1t-. After years of being a journeyman, he found his first steady home and the first big tournament wins of his career at OG. The team hit the bigtime with a top-four finish at the MLG World Finals and then established itself as elite by taking first place at the Frankfurt Major. OG’s performance dipped during the winter, but picked back up in the summer with the team taking three consecutive top prizes at DreamLeague Season 5, ESL One Frankfurt 2016, and the Manila Major.
OG entered The International 2016 as one of the favorites to win, but the team suffered a surprisingly early exit from the event.
Cr1t- split off from OG and replaced Peter “ppd” Dager as the captain of Evil Geniuses, a team where he would remain for years to come.
His run with the team started in strong fashion with a first-place finish at Mars Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn. Evil Geniuses bounced between posting very strong performances and mediocre results, but top-four finishes at the Boston Major and Kiev Major saw the team given a direct invitation to The International 2017. Once again, Cr1t- and his team were handed an early exit from the event despite being a contender to win.
Cr1t- ceded his captaincy role upon the signing of former Digital Chaos captain Rasmus "MISERY" Filipsen. This move panned out poorly for the team as EG went from posting mixed results in the first half of the season to consistently negative ones.
This prompted another shakeup to Evil Geniuses’ roster late in the season, with former OG teammate Tal "Fly" Aizik joining Evil Geniuses and becoming the new captain of the team. This saw the team’s fortunes turn around in a big way, with the team posting a first-place showing at Dota Summit 9 and following that up with a third-place performance at The International 2018.
Evil Geniuses billed its TI8 roster as one that could lead to long-term success, which saw the team remain intact for the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit season. The team didn’t win any tournaments, but consistently qualified for majors and posted solid results. This led to EG earning a direct invitation to The International 2019, which they converted into a sixth-place finish.
This prompted more changes at Evil Geniuses, but Cr1t- remained with the team. Evil Geniuses started the 2019-2020 season in impressive fashion by taking fourth place at the MDL Chengdu Major and finishing as runners-up at both the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore and DreamLeague Season 13.
