Canadian CS:GO Pro Ocean Transfers to Valorant as a Coach

Canadian pro- Kyle "OCEAN" O'Brien is retiring from CS:GO and will be moving over to Riot’s competitive first-person shooter Valorant. However, he will no longer be on the map fragging as a player. Instead, the 33-year-old will be joining North American organization Pittsburgh Knights outside of the game as the Valorant roster’s coach. The move was announced on the official Pittsburgh Knights Twitter account. This adds to the numerous North American CS:GO pros who have made the transition to Riot’s first-person shooter, leaving behind CS:GO to pursue a fresh environment in the professional Valorant scene.

OCEAN Moves to Valorant

It seems like almost every week we get news of an ex CS:GO pro moving over to Riot’s Valorant, just recently it was Ethan "Ethan" Arnold who left Evil Geniuses to make a career switch. On March 3, long-time CS:GO professional OCEAN, also known as KKona and odeag, made the switch to Valorant.

It was revealed on Twitter that OCEAN had been signed to coach the Valorant team of North American organization Pittsburgh Knights. This marks the end of OCEAN’s time as an active player on CS:GO and marks his start to Valorant as a coach instead of an IGL like he was before.

OCEAN began his professional CS:GO career back in 2012, the year when the game came out. In that time. He has played with numerous pros, for numerous teams across North America, and he last played with SapphireKelownaDotCom (SKDC). Despite never really playing for a Tier 1 team, he played the game for nine long years before retiring. 

Throughout his career with numerous teams, OCEAN has earned approximately $10,587 USD in tournament winnings. He took home the most prize-winnings while playing with SKDC during their runner-up finish at World Gaming Canadian Championship Series 2017.

The Pittsburgh Knights is an esports organization based in North America and was formed in 2017. The organization fields players in 8 different competitive video game titles, including Riot’s competitive FPS.

The Pittsburgh Knights Valorant roster was founded in Nov. of 2020 and has competed in numerous tournaments in the North American region. They’ve had a disappointing run so far with teams like TSM, FaZe Clan and T1 overshadowing the team in tournaments like the First Strike North America - UMG Tournament.

However, with the addition of an experienced FPS player like OCEAN as their new coach, they might soon find success in their upcoming tournaments.