5 CS:GO Pro Players Who Got Retired In 2023

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) expands upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched 19 years ago. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive doesn’t have that problem, though. CS: GO is two teams armed with guns, going after one another. It’s one of the most accessible games In esports and that fact has helped it grow into one of the cornerstones of the industry.

But while the game itself is easy to digest, there is a lot to take in. When it comes to the CS: GO pro scene, its teams, players and tournament structures define it.

Kenny Schrub retire from CS:GO

Kenny “⁠kennyS⁠” Schrub took the stage at the Accor Arena to address the French crowd and announce his retirement from competitive Counter-Strike. He leaves Global Offensive as one of the game’s most recognizable AWPers with 11 LAN trophies and a Major winner’s medal to his name. The French marksman steps down from competition after more than 10 years in the Counter-Strike scene, with a career spanning Source and Global Offensive. His performances throughout the first years of CS: GO earned him worldwide recognition thanks to his hyper-aggressive style and lightning-fast

Kenny “kennyS” Shcrub has announced his retirement from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, taking the stage at the Blast.tv Paris Major 2023 after GamerLegion beat Heroic in the Semi-final. 

The 28-year-old French AWPer has finally hung his mouse after an illustrious 11-year-old career in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive where he first started to play for VeryGames back in 2012. After hopping several teams here and there, Schrub rose to prominence after he joined Team EnvyUs and led them to their first-ever Major championship in 2015 at the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca in Romania.  After being placed on the bench by G2 in March 2021, kennyS has been unable to compete for a period of 18 months citing burnout. The decision was made after the French AWPer, who had struggled with mental health concerns for years, had a string of disappointing tournament results and a downward trend in his overall performance. 

Flusha retires from CS: GO

Veteran Counter-Strike: Global Offensive rifler Robin “flusha” Ronnquist announced his retirement Tuesday, ending his career with three major championships and four Most Valuable Player selections. The Swede spent parts of his 11-year career with organizations that included Fnatic, Cloud9 and GODSENT. His teams won 22 LAN trophies. He spent the past year working to build EYEBALLERS, a Swedish start-up. Flusha, 30, won tournaments that included DreamHack Winter 2013, ESL One Katowice 2015 and ESL One Cologne 2015. Fnatic remembered his contributions to the squad on Tuesday.

“A legend retires today. Thank you for all you brought to CS @flusha and everything you brought to Fnatic. We wish you all the best going forward Robin,” the organization tweeted. Flusha said he doesn’t have set post-retirement plans. “Decided to retire from playing competitive CSGO,” he tweeted. “I’m still gonna be sticking around doing whatever.. not too sure yet!”

Taz retire From CS: GO

Legendary rifler Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas announced his Counter-Strike: Global Offensive retirement on Friday. “I retire (heart emoji) see You around,” the 36-year-old veteran from Poland posted on social media.

In the Twitter post, he is standing in front of a trophy case full of winner’s medals and wearing a Tasmanian Devil sweatshirt that reads, “That’s all folks!” TaZ began his professional career in Counter-Strike in 2001 and made the transition to CS: GO in 2012. He most recently competed with HONORIS from 2020-23 following stints with Devils. one, Virtus. pro and others. Career highlights included a major win at EMS One Katowice 2014 and the 2005 Samsung Euro Championship

Despite this disappointing end to his career, TaZ will no doubt go down in Counter-Strike history as one of the most successful players. But the show must go on, with the CS: GO scene ramping up for its final Major, due to take kick-off in Paris on May 8.

Also Read: CS GO: Is The Game Losing Its View Globally?

Nick Cannella -nitro retire from CS: GO

The 27-year-old announced on May 26 that IEM Dallas will be his last CS: GO tournament, explaining that the “amount of travel has become too much” following the birth of his second child.

nitr0 stated at the time that he would be focusing on streaming and spending more time with his family, though he admitted that he “would love to continue playing competitively”. I’m retiring from Counter-Strike, but I’m leaving my options open for other games and stuff,”  “If I get an offer, I’ll consider it obviously, but as of now I’m just going to start my stream up and just try to just see where that takes me because there’s nothing else to do right now. I’m not going to actively look for another Counter-Strike team because I’m just not interested right now.”

Despite retiring from CS: GO to focus on family and streaming, Team Liquid’s Nick “nitr0” Cannella hasn’t completely shut the door on a potential return to esports.

ZywOo retire from CS: GO

ZywOo was deservedly named MVP after helping Even though the French AWPer was a dominant player throughout the tournament, he was beaten by legendary CS: GO pro turned Heroic head coach Richard “Xizt” Landström in three different statistics—KAST, support rounds, and deaths per round. G2 Mikyx on playstyle differences with Rekkles vs. Perkz: They adapt to me.

KAST, which stands for Kills, Assists, Survived, and Traded, is a metric that calculates how much a player has contributed per round based on the number of rounds that a player had. Xizt had the highest KAST of IEM Rio—78.4 per cent—leaving Magisk (77.9 per cent), Dupree (76.4 per cent), and ZywOo (76.4 per cent) behind, according to HLTV. The retired pro also had the most support rounds—43.1 per cent—and nobody was even close to beating him in that regard. He averaged 0.47 deaths per round, according to HLTV. ZywOo had the second-lowest death per round as well after he averaged 0.54 throughout the tournament.