900 days have passed since the start of the first VALORANT beta. Because of the huge hype generated, many professional players from other games decided to try the new product. CS:GO pro players were not an exception. It was no surprise since the two games are of the same genre, so the transition shouldn’t have been painful.
Two years have passed and it’s time to think of conclusions. Who managed to become superstars in VALORANT? Who decided to come back to CS:GO after lackluster results? CS.MONEY Blog thoroughly browsed through these players to tell you where they are now.
VALORANT Champions Participants
The main event of the year, VALORANT Champions, came to an end last Sunday. Sixteen teams competed to become the best in the world, and of eighty players, twenty-six had background in competitive CS:GO. Here’s more about them.
It is worth mentioning that only seven ex-CS:GO players finished in top-4. Five of them play for OpTic Gaming, the runner-up of the tournament, and two of them represent FunPlus Phoenix, a European squad that finished the tournament in fourth place.
OpTic Gaming decided to go the relatively easy way and signed five players with CS:GO backgrounds. However, only two of them are known to wider audiences. FNS and yay played in CS:GO majors, and the latter even got to playoffs with Complexity Gaming. FNS finished 9th-12th a few times but did not become the Legend. Crashies, Marved, and Victor (previously known as food) are less known. Nonetheless, these five players are now the face of the NA VALORANT scene.
Currently, the most successful European player with a background in CS:GO is ANGE1. Kyrylo had a reputation as a strong captain, his team broke the famous NiP LAN streak, but he didn’t get a chance to shine on a tier-1 scene for quite some time. In VALORANT, ANGE1 also struggled at first: he couldn’t find the ideal roster, but everything worked out this year when FPX won a Major in Copenhagen. FPX’s captain is known for his unorthodox approach to the game: he often denies the established meta and can surprise opponents with unpopular agent picks.
Another FPX player with CS:GO background is ardiis. The Latvian player was accused of match-fixing and cheating; however, he was never found guilty. Now, in a LAN environment, he plays spectacularly, finally finding his place on the professional scene.
One of the most interesting participants of Champions was Team Liquid. ScreaM, who still holds the record for the highest headshot percentage of all time (68.1%), decided to unite with his younger brother Nivera (ex-Vitality). Add Dimasick to that roster, who played in the Boston Major, and super talented Jamppi, who, however, received VAC ban due to a stupid decision when he was young. The fifth one is soulcas (earlier known as dOMM), who played for London Esports.
That squad looked strong on paper but fell short during the season. A 7th-8th place for such a talented roster is disappointing, especially considering their top-4 finish in 2021. It seems that ScreaM, Nivera, and Jamppi feel comfortable in their new esports title, but they are yet to score big.
Finally, we should mention the third European club, Fnatic. Three ex-CS:GO players are part of this squad: Boaster, Derke, and Enzo (aka Fearoth). All of them failed to get to the big international scene, but they managed to become great VALORANT players.
It is worth mentioning that not only EU and NA organizations have players with experience in competitive CS:GO. 11 out of 16 Champions participants have at least one Counter-Strike representative. For example, there are players from Indonesia (f0rsakeN, blaZek1ng) and Chile (Adverso, Mazino). Fun fact: xccurate, the older brother of f0rsakeN, recently announced his transition for VALORANT, too.
And another fun fact: none of the eight Brazilian players has a background in competitive CS:GO. The winners of Champions, LOUD, have two fresh players (aspas and less), one ex-CrossFire player (pANcada) and players who transitioned from Paladins (Saadhak) and League of Legends (Sacy).
Notable Players from Europe
While Europe is by far the strongest region in CS:GO, in VALORANT, it’s all different. That being said, some ex-CS:GO players are feeling confident even though they missed the Champions this year. Out of all active players, let’s highlight Mixwell and nukkye.
Mixwell won ELEAGUE Season 2 together with OpTic Gaming. During the early stages of competitive VALORANT, the Spaniard was the core player of G2 Esports, the first dominant team in VALORANT history. During the summer of 2020, G2 won all the tournaments they participated in, and quite often in a supremative fashion.
Nukkye is known for his time in HellRaisers, and the Lithuanian player also managed to stand out. He won the European First Strike, the first grand tournament by Riot Games, and this season he played for G2 when they were close to qualifying for the Champions.
One more player worth mentioning is nAts. Ayaz tried to make it to CS:GO, but had only seven maps played in the HLTV database. However, he became a superstar player whose extraordinary skill immensely helped Gambit Esports win the Berlin Major and finish second in Champions-2021.
Notable players from North America
While European players who were used to CS:GO stayed mostly loyal to Valve’s title, the NA scene decided to give this esports newcomer a chance: from Hiko (a veteran who managed to win NA First Strike) to some known players like skadoodle, ShahZaM, and shroud. Many players tried their luck in the new shooter.
Let’s start with two CS:GO Major champions. Skadoodle and autimatic attempted to save their duo and continue winning in the new game. They both played for T1, but failed to achieve decent results. Both left the team in January 2022. Autimatic returned to CS:GO and now plays with Evil Geniuses, while Skadoodle is focused more on streaming.
The current captain of T1 is Steel, another well-known player. After Valve’s ban, he tested Overwatch, unsuccessfully though. Yet in VALORANT, he is doing alright. Before T1, he played for 100 Thieves together with Hiko and nitr0 (by the way, the latter decided to return to CS:GO and now plays for Team Liquid). In 100T, they showed decent results in international tournaments like being runner-ups in Berlin Major.
Another exciting story covers the fate of other iBUYPOWER players who were banned. Swag, AZK, and DaZeD couldn’t achieve success as steel. They tried to stick together in T1, but in 2021 they were all gone. Swag (now known as brax) switched to streaming while AZK and DaZeD fell off the radars of competitive VALORANT.
900 days is enough time to make career decisions. While looking at known players from time to time is interesting, we prefer CS:GO more.
