- 2020 has witnessed more than 60 notable CS:GO players retire from the game.
- Another report alleges that more than 200 players retired from CS:GO across multiple tiers and regions.
- This might be the most number of CS:GO pros that have quit the game in one calendar year.
2020 has been a tough year for competitive CS:GO. We observed a shift in how tournaments were played this year with events moving to an online format due to the global health situation, multiple methods of cheating rocking the scene hard, and most importantly Riot Games launching VALORANT. All of this has resulted in more than 60 notable professional CS:GO players retiring from the game this year which has allegedly observed more than 200 players in total quitting the game across all tiers and regions!
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More Than 60 Notable CS:GO Players Retire In 2020
2020 has rocked the world hard and though there might be countless number of memes based on this very subject, it is actually true how a lot of things around the world have been negatively impacted this year. The competitive CS:GO scene was also hit hard with more than 60 notable professional players retiring from the game in 2020.
In addition to this another alleged report showed that more than 200 CS:GO players had left the game across all tiers globally. If this report is to be believed this makes 2020 the year where most number of professional CS:GO players have quit the game within the period of one calendar year.
As per the above image it can be clearly seen that less than 25 players quit the game in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019, with the least number of players retiring from the game in 2017. There was a slight surge in 2018 where close to 50 players decided to hang their boots, but nothing had crossed that mark until 2020 where these numbers have skyrocketed but not without reasons.
The professional CS:GO circuit is among those businesses that has been hit hard in 2020 which is very evident from the fact that such a huge number of pros decided to quit playing the game professionally, reasons behind it are as follows:
- The North American scene reduced in size massively as the online era has witnessed teams move over to Europe to stay on top of the competition.
- Multiple cheating scandals hit the scene hard starting off with the ‘CS:GO Spectator Coach Scandal’ and then the ‘Stream Sniping Controversy’.
- Riot Games launched VALORANT which is probably the biggest reason, acting as the perfect game to transition to for a lot of CS:GO players from multiple regions and across different tiers.
Valve was recently called out for the same by prominent esports journalist Richard Lewis along with Rod “Slasher” Breslau for their inactivity and passiveness when it came to CS:GO. Blaming them for the current state of competitive CS:GO which is on the brink of collapse if things continue to proceed as they presently are.
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