Counter-Strike has been readily referred to as the bastion of esports.
Simply put, if you were good enough to compete against the top players (and had some time to dedicate), you could join the professional scene and start making the big-boy dollars as fans and sponsors fawned over you infinitely.
Then the pandemic happened, and along with everything else, esports have taken a massive blow as they are relegated to online-only play and quarantined LANs result in infections and spreading of COVID-19.
This frankly sucks, but for some teams that have shown themselves to be more than capable of knocking the best teams in the world, such as Chaos EC did, it is a brutal reality that has reared its head far too readily.
Chaos EC has officially collapsed in spite of winning tournaments, putting Evil Geniuses in their place along with every other team in the leagues, because what many are positing to be VC apprehension of the future of Counter-Strike.
The question as to precisely what Chaos is going to do with their Counter-Strike team has been one that has been pondered across multiple forums, whether a guardian angel organization would pick up the roster or if they would fall wayside in spite of their premium year of play.
Unfortunately, it appears to be more of the latter; Chaos is splitting apart.
The good news here is that at least we’ll get to see these players in other titles that perhaps has their ducks in a row more than Counter-Strike and Valve.
Yesterday on stream, Cloud9 player Mitch leaked that Leaf, of Chaos EC fame, is going to be joining the Cloud9 roster within Valorant.
Leaf made a big name for himself after playing a large role in the upsetting MIBR, which resulted in heavy online turmoil and death threats as he (among other players) was accused of cheating in the competition. He continued to be one of the best mid-range players in the game, working well as a rifler to foil late rotations and site rushes.
Now, it appears that he’ll be joining the Cloud9 roster in Riot’s flavor of the month Valorant.
There is a world where Leaf can end up playing under his old IGL Steel who has joined 100 Thieves, although that roster had already been etched into stone before news of Chaos collapsing their CS:GO scene was rumored. It isn’t implausible to presume that future trades could be conducted, depending on how well Leaf can play in Valorant, where both players are once again reunited.
It also introduces the idea that multiple players of Chaos could be shifting into Valorant, an aspect that the CSPPA could be pleased with; would hate to invite new competition into the league that make the aging players look bad.