Mike "shroud" Grzesiek, member of the Cloud9 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, has been playing since its launch. He rose to prominence through the popularity of his twitch stream as well as his talent in the game which he displayed in ESEA-M with Slow Motion and then with Exertus and Manajuma in ESEA-I. He is mostly known for his lurking and clutching ability, as well as his weapon accuracy. After his time in Manajuma, he was acquired by compLexity Gaming as a stand-in replacing Todd "anger" Williams. Upon compLexity being acquired by Cloud9 on August 1st 2014, he was signed as a permanent player like the rest of his teammates. He was the second longest standing member of the team alongside Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert until they were both replaced by RUSH and Tarik in August of 2017.
Go Hard Or Go Home?
Should Cloud9 just cut their ties immediately and fast-track the process of replacing the one-time rising talent? Shroud explained to his stream, the platform for most announcements and speculation within in the NA community it would seem, that he did not want to be a professional player in CS:GO for too many more years, explaining that he had tried it for a few already and thus saw only one to two more on the horizon, with the possibility of even less time remaining, should the feeling overcome him to finish his career even more prematurely.
This comes on the back of discussion a few months back that if he could be guaranteed fantastic streaming success, with a stable 10,000 subscribers a month on twitch - equivalent to the income a successful lawyer would make, then he would quit being a CS:GO pro and focus solely on streaming. That, coupled with Shroud's poor performances over the last year and his continued success as a streamer has had many wondering if he would simply step aside and make streaming his sole profession, no longer juggling the two.
The perception of many, including fREAKAZOiD - Shroud's team-mate for almost a year spanning Spring of 2015 to 2016, is that Shroud's planned trajectory for exiting the professional side of the game means he should likely consider leaving immediately, as his focus will not be as pure. Certainly, for some players - likely including fREAK himself - such thoughts may well be a sign-post suggesting that one is no longer driven to win and thus should reflect upon why one continues to play and whether it is worth continuing at all. Some individuals build their identity upon a single-minded focus to improve and a will to accomplish great things.
Suffice it to say, as a cursory glance around the scenes of any competitive discipline will attest to, these individuals are far less common-place than they might imagine. The worlds of competitive play are filled with people who perform to a good but not great standard, B- students as it were, and those who have talent but don't always maximise it. Simply practising and playing is enough effort from many professionals in disciplines which can earn one a living to quench their thirst for competition. There is no shame in matching most of your peer group in effort, accepting the results and then starting over again tomorrow.
C9 Focus Group Or Problems?
A concern amongst the community is not simply Shroud's individual focus and drive, but the effect his decision could have upon his better performing team-mates, such as the feisty Stewie and the cool-but-deadly autimatic. C9's ethnically Asian duo are seemingly never figured within discussion about Cloud9's failures, seen, somewhat rightfully, to be the redeemable elements of the team and the path to future success. Yet in this instance surely some of the responsibility for this issue lies at their feet as well as Shroud's.
If they legitimately think Shroud will not perform his duties as a player and is simply holding up the process of finding his replacement then wouldn't such players, often cited as being the players who are more driven to succeed within the team, consider taking the decision out of the Canadian's hands and remove him effective immediately? Certainly one could look at some of the great teams and make the case that when they saw weakness or a lack of motivation in a player then they make the hard and sometimes ruthless decision to remove the player harbouring such issues.
SK Gaming removed fnx at a point where they were still making it to at least the semi-finals of every offline event they attended. flusha and JW left FNATIC after making the semi-finals of the major and reaching the ELEAGUE S1 final, on the basis that they felt as if staying only delayed the inevitable break-up which would occur down the line, largely due to personal differences. Old school legends HeatoN and Potti, who have won among the most majors in CS 1.6 and consistently placed top 3 at huge tournaments, were infamous for chopping out any weakness they saw or upgrading when the opportunity presented itself. They were more concerned with winning trophies than friends.
Time's Up In CS:GO But Better Horizons Are Coming?
Shroud exiting CS:GO makes sense in all respects. Here is a player who has seen his peaks in form, failed to recapture his highest level of performance and finds himself in a team which is long overdue some kind of roster move to reset their collective paradigm for how to play Counter-Strike. With such success in his side gig, and clear value to an organisation within such a role - something which will not be lost on C9 owner Jack, the transition to full-time streamer was always on the cards and indeed is something which Shroud has had to reflect upon and consider many times prior to making public such thoughts at this point in time.
Shroud began his professional career, having been plucked out of the semi-pro scene, in the summer of 2014. Closing in on three years of competitive play, it is worth bearing in mind that even if he retired on the 1st of January of 2018, he would have been a full-time professional for three and a half years. That is a longer career than many professionals in many esports can point to. In CS:GO, it is typically only the most versatile or legendary names who have survived as long, assuming they were not carrying over success from CS 1.6 or CS:Source.
Shroud's career thus-far suggests he is no liability in respect to motivation or level of play, solely related to this particular topic. He is a professional who will continue to balance his professional careers in each domain and practice and play to the best of his ability. There are many cases and arguments to be made for removing Shroud from Cloud9, but his plan to retire in the next couple of years is not one of them.
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