Steven R. May 30, 2019
A Counter-Strike legend is hanging up his proverbial gloves.
Swedish star Markus "pronax" Wallsten has announced his retirement from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition, effective immediately. He announced the news on his Twitter account.
“As of today I am officially retired from competitive CS:GO and I would like to sincerely thank everyone that have supported me through my career as a player,” Pronax said. “I am moving on to something bigger than myself. Full statement will be released in the future.”
He gave no further hints as to what is coming in the next chapter of his life, but he leaves CS:GO as one of its most heavily credentialed players.
Pronax’s competitive career in CS dates all the way back to 2007 in Counter-Strike 1.6, playing with a number of notable teams from that era. He made the jump to Global Offensive when the game launched and became the in-game leader of Fnatic in 2013. There he helped to establish the organization as one of esports’ premier brands and built the team into a true dynasty in Counter-Strike's rich history by captaining the squad to three major titles.
He split from Fnatic alongside teammates Jesper "JW" Wecksell, Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson in 2016 to found his own team, Godsent. While his teammates would eventually find their way back to Fnatic in the months that followed, Pronax stuck with the organization as a player until 2018 when he joined Digital Chaos, but remained a shareholder in Godsent until its closure later that year.
He split from the rebranded Chaos Esports Club in 2018 and took a hiatus from there. He most recently competed with Team Ancient alongside former teammate Andreas "znajder" Lindberg.
Retirements in esports can often be short-lived and it would not be surprising to see Pronax pop up in events over the coming months. But that will ultimately come down to what his next steps are decided to be.