Nitr0 Quits Valorant and Makes CS:GO Return to Lead Team Liquid in 2022
Circle completes as the king returns!
Cover-Credits:
The circle completes as Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella makes a CS:GO comeback with Team Liquid. The 26-year-old had left the North American organization in August 2020, also announcing his retirement from the game to pursue a career in Valorant with 100 Thieves.
Roughly 17 months later, nitr0 has returned to pick up exactly where he left off, competing professionally in CS:GO as the in-game leader (IGL) of Liquid. Yes, the lineup might have changed slightly with the addition of a French veteran and a new dedicated AWPer, but the goal and situation of the team is almost similar.
With a lot of team undergoing multiple roster changes for the 2022 season, it will surely be interesting to see if Liquid with three veteran players will be able to find success or not.
Nitr0 comes back to CS:GO after 17 months to compete with Team Liquid
'Captain America' after more than 1.5 years has returned exactly where he left off. Having retired from CS:GO in August 2020 following a rough online phase, to pursue a career in Valorant just months after the game had officially released, nitr0 despite facing a lot of success with 100 Thieves initially failed to qualify for the Valorant Champions 2021.
Just a week after PGL Major Stockholm 2021 had concluded, reports started to surface that nitr0 was thinking of making a comeback in CS:GO with Liquid. Well, three months later all the speculations have come true as nitr0 returns home to restore the lost pride and success of North American Counter-Strike.
In an interview with The Washington Post, nitr0 has gone on to state the following,
I don’t know if you remember, but I was still really interested in playing under a Counter-Strike team once I left Liquid (in 2020). Valorant wasn’t my first option; it was still Counter-Strike. I still really like the game a lot. I still think it’s my passion. I’ve played it since I was really young, like, below the age of 10. The game has been a huge part of my life growing up. I’ll always love the game, and I thought that in the moment it was just the right decision to make.Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella - Interview with The Washington Post
Nitr0 who is going to be the IGL for Team Liquid in 2022 also revealed a bit about how he plans on leading the lineup this time around. While confessing that he did lack when it came to being a leader "outside of the game," he feels that things have changed and the new lineup will surely notice these difference.
Talking about his return to Liquid, nitr0 revealed that he had no other offers on the table, it was just him talking to Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski to join the organization.
As for what he aims to achieve with Team Liquid, nitr0 goes on to say that,
I hope to obviously achieve some trophies. I want to feel accomplished by this time next year, and to feel like we did better than their previous year. I want to feel like we, as a team, are progressing and doing something every day to better the team. That’s the number one thing that I want. And so far, it’s been really good. I think we’re going to have super good relationships within the team. We have a lot of good personalities. We have really hard workers and obviously we have a lot of talent.Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella - Interview with The Washington Post
With nitr0's return, Team Liquid's CS:GO roster is now complete for the 2022 season and looks as follows,
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski - Entry Fragger
Keith "NAF" Markovic - Lurker
Joshua "oSee" Ohm - AWP
Richard "shox" Papillon - Support / Lurker
Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella - IGL
Eric "adreN" Hoag - Coach
Just a fun fact, in Liquid's announcement Captain America's shield can be seen covered in black paint as someone cleans it. This is directly related to 100 Thieves' announcement video where the shield was spray painted black with the organization's logo on it, basically signifying nitr0's return to both CS:GO and Team Liquid.
