Kjaerbye Reveals the Reason Behind His Retirement From Competitive CS:GO

Danish rifle, Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye has announced his retirement from competitive Counter-Strike. The 23-year-old Dane came forward to announce his departure from CS:GO, bidding farewell to a career spanning over 10 years. The youngest player to have won a CS:GO Major, Kjaerbye said that he no longer feels the "hunger and determination it requires to compete on top-level". Having said that, he went on to thank his former organizations while also hinting towards what lies ahead for him, which did not mention a transition to Valorant, "I feel this is the time for me to look for new horizons and opportunities".

Kjaerbye Reveals Why He Retired From CS:GO

In his statement Kjaerbye came forward to reveal that, he felt a lack of motivation and the hunger required to compete at the highest level of CS:GO. This could be due to his long struggle with North followed by a bitter experience with FaZe Clan, coupled with the fact that he had been absent from the top-tier of competitive Counter-Strike since 30th Jan, 2021.

One of the best riflers in the world during his peak, Kjaerbye had made history by winning the ELEAGUE Atlanta in 2017 along with Astralis when he was just 18 years and 277 days old, becoming the youngest CS:GO player in the world to win a Major.

Unfortunately, that was also the peak of his career as slowly everything fell apart. He left Astralis in 2018 to join North, but could not win anything significant apart from the memorable victory at DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018.

A few health problems forced him to take some time off from North's active CS:GO lineup and the game itself. He returned after FaZe Clan signed him but the stint did not go as planned, pushing Kjaerbye to the organization's bench from where he had now announced his retirement.

There was no mention by the Dane to transit over to Valorant, a decision that was recently taken by Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt, another CS:GO legend who departed the title recently. However, Kjaerbye did mention that his "Future work can be both inside and outside the game. Time will tell."