Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi is a striking example of an eSports pro who went the path from an academy player to a crucial part of the world’s best team in just one year. Contrariwise, there are others who were initially promising, but whose careers got derailed at some point due to bad decisions or a unfortunate set of circumstances. Today, the CS.MONEY Blog is going to talk about three such players.
Yehor “markeloff” Markelov
The Ukrainian AWPer started his professional career back in 2008 in CS 1.6 in the A-Gaming squad. Markelov ceaselessly advanced and made his way from a promising newcomer to a HellRaisers member, from where he moved to the adventurous Natus Vincere project in 2009. After becoming a part of the legendary NaVi, markeloff won many CS 1.6 world championships and became the world’s best player according to HLTV.org in 2010. But as soon as he started playing the Global Offensive version, things went south for him.
In the new game, the veteran sniper couldn’t get used to the new mechanics of playing a sniper rifle and decided to resign from his duties as an APWer. His departure from Natus Vincere as well as his short periods in Astana Dragons and HellRaisers marked the beginning of the end for the legendary sniper’s career. From 2015 to 2018, Yehor represented Flipsid3 Tactics, the club that’s currently the last in his career. From time to time, Yehor appears at show matches of the legendary NAVI-2010 squad, but most of the time, he remains in the shadows. He hasn’t played a single official match in professional tournaments since 2018.
Turning point: switching to CS:GO and giving up his role as the AWPer, losing motivation.
Denis “seized” Kostin
Denis Kostin started playing Counter-Strike in 2005, when his father connected him to the Internet. His first teams were fbgaming, place2play, and USSR. For a long time, the young Russian remained in obscurity — until Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev and Yehor Markelov left Natus Vincere in 2013.
After joining Born To Win, he established himself as an excellent rifler and, under the guidance of captain Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko, became a finalist of two Major tournaments. However, the paradise was short-lived: after he took over the captain’s role, his stats began to plummet, and he made no achievements other than the victory at ESL One New York 2016. This was followed by short periods in Flipsid3 Tactics and Gambit as well as half a year in Vega Squadron. Subsequently, Denis was out of work for over 6 months. Kostin spent the second half of 2020 in Cyber Legacy, and then represented Trident Clan and Danish Team Singularity, whose colors he has been defending to this day.
Turning point: transition to the role of captain in Natus Vincere.
Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye
Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye is the youngest of our unfortunate trio. He started his career in 2014 in the Danish semi-professional teams NO SIR!, myRevenge, and Isak-eSport, where he performed at a consistently high level, which earned him an invitate to Copenhagen Wolves. Then, in February 2015, Markus joined the country’s second-best team: Dignitas. In 2017, the Dane hit his big time by winning the Atlanta Major with Astralis and becoming the youngest-ever MVP at a Major event.
At the beginning of 2018, Kjærbye transferred to North as a free agent as he didn’t want to second fiddle to Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz. But despite winning three trophies, North never became a top team and ceased to exist at the end of 2020. After playing in FaZe and HYENAS for a while, Markus infamously finished his pro career at the age of 23.
Turning point: refusing to renew his contract with Astralis and moving to North.
As you can see, a career can go to the dogs for most various reasons, and they aren’t always related to age or motivation. Did you like the post and are you waiting for a follow-up? Then stay tuned to CS.MONEY — we won’t let you get bored!
