Nick J. April 20, 2020
After almost three years away from the platform, Sam "DaZeD" Marine returned to Twitch last night to try his hand at Riot Games' new shooter, Valorant. Once considered one of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's best in-game leaders, DaZeD stepped back from Counter-Strike and livestreaming in 2017. His appearnce on stream was a surprise to many as the former pro played several matches of Valorant with Team Liquid's Jake "Stewie2k" Yip and Kyle "OCEAN" O'Brien.
DaZeD's best play from his first-ever Valorant stream came from an ace clutch that showed off DaZeD's Counter-Strike roots. In a four versus one on match point, DaZeD took several calculated peaks for four clean kills and made the ace clutch look easy to cap off the end of an impressive 32/17/8 Cypher performance.
Over the eight hour stream, DaZed showed off a calmer, more low-key personality than in the past when he was known for being unpologetically critical of his teammates and his opponants. During his first stream back, however, DaZed looked like he was playing for fun. Always the in-game leader, he shrugged off several of his opponent's late lurks before explaning why they were poor positions to his viewers.
While there were a few times viewers got to see glimpses of the old DaZed, the former Counter-Strike pro looked completely at home in Valorant. DaZed told viewers that he wasn't just back for the night, but back for good. According to Valorant's new in-game leader, he not only plans to continue to stream, but compete in Valorant when the game is fully released this summer.