Shroud, ex-pro CSGO player turned Twitch Streamer talks about the longevity of major esports titles. It yet again sparks the question- can Valorant hold a candle to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?
Shroud has been known as the “King of Reddit” since 2013. His cheeky plays and cocky Aces in the professional matches destroyed opponents left and right. But like s1mple, he was cursed.
Shroud was the best player of his era, yet he could not lift a single major. It was a general problem with the entire North American region.
Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek originally started with “eclipse”. As of now, he is an extremely popular streamer on Twitch who regularly pulls in an average of 40000 viewers on Twitch.
Shroud retired from a professional career to focus on streaming in 2017.
Recently on Livestream while playing Valorant, Shroud was asked what would be easier for the first time viewers: Valorant or CSGO? Shroud rather has a very straightforward answer.
Michael stated that CSGO is quite a simple game to understand. Even his Grandma could understand it when he explained it to her. Valorant is actually a bit extra.
Shroud basically mentions the gimmicks of Valorant. Valorant is well too flashy. Even though the weapons are similar, the use of utility is not quite the same.
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CSGO according to Shroud follows the real-life analogy better.
Valorant has guns, molly and grenades just like Counter-Strike, but the depiction is different. Also, there are superhero-like abilities on agents contrary to IRL stuff.
Counter-Strike is a simple and robust concept that has been ongoing since 2003. The game has been ever-evolving but, the base idea of the game stays the same. Everything else to date has been a copycat in one way or the other: including Valorant.
Shroud simply points to the fact that simplicity is not always a bad thing. Valorant makes the game just too crowded with too many abilities and flashy utilities.
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Valorant might be just too flashy after all?
Basically, Shroud says that the analogy behind ‘Agents’ with their own unique skillset weighs the game down. CSGO’s simplistic and realistic approach makes everything self-explanatory for the viewer.
This is the sole reason that makes CS: GO the most potent eSports game of the last decade. It will continue to be the top Fps eSports title further into this decade.
I’ve had my grandma watch Counter-Strike and understand it. It’s super simple to understand from a watching perspective for the first time.
-Michael “shroud” Grzesiek
CS:GO PGL Stockholm Major 2021 saw the greatest viewership in CSGO Majors history since 2013. The audience counts are improving every year. This year the viewership stood at 2.5 million concurrent peak views.
Also read: Simple in Stockholm Major : The Journey of s1mple from humble beginnings to first major win.
