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Top 5 CS:GO Players Who Retired in 2020

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2020 wasn't easy for the professional esports scene

- January 23rd 2021, 15:03 GMT+1

Dickstacy — **5. Oliver "DickStacy" Tierney**

The Big Dick from down under is without a doubt the biggest personality loss Counter-Strike endured in 2020. On the other hand, in the event he's ever back, imagine the taglines: Return of the Big Dick, Big DickStacy: Reloaded, 2 Dick, 2 Stacy. Ah, the possibilities... (Image credit: ESL)

Ange1 — **4. Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow**

This one has a case for being the saddest departure of 2020. The man persevered for nearly a decade, including six years with one organization, in a very trigger-happy CIS region, always keeping his squad competitive. Now in his 30s, ANGE1 went for a late-career splash in Valorant. (Image credit: Starladder)

Scream g2 esports — **3. Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom**

One retirement that felt imminent once Valorant became a thing was that of Belgian headshot machine ScreaM. He was left without a proper organizational backing way back in the summer of 2018 and **Riot's new FPS just gave ScreaM the ground** upon which to announce a CS:GO retirement in an official manner. (Image credit: G2 Esports)

Daps geng esl one road to rio — **2. Damian "daps" Steele**

Daps is the ANGE1 of North America in a way: he's responsible for the discovery of some of the region's most prominent talent. Unlike his CIS colleague, the Canadian IGL could never keep his own spot on a roster and finally called out the bulls#$% by moving to a hopefully more stable environment in Valorant. (Image credit: Gen.G Esports)

Nitr0 liquid — **1. Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella**

DickStacy may be the biggest loss of pure entertainment, but when we talk in-game influence, nitr0 is the one. The Yank IGLed the most successful NA team in the history of Counter-Strike. The cruel reality of the esport came after a dip in form in 2020 when **Team Liquid released their longest-serving member**. Nitr0 didn't sweat it. Valorant's always there to give a mistreated CS:GO legend shelter. (Image credit: nitr0)

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We'd hardly surprise you when we say that 2020 wasn't too kind to professional CS:GO. The numbers say so. A record for retired players in a year was set by a looong margin and we all know the reasons for that. The pandemic affected all types of businesses and pro CS:GO is exactly that at the end of the day – a business.

It just so happens that Valorant is a better business at the moment, especially for North American players. As you're about to see, a retired CS:GO player isn't the same as a retired esports player. We dug through the dozens of former Counter-Strike pros that retired over the last 12 months and came up with the top five, all of which continue to be active in a different game...

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