shroud blasts “garbage” CSGO experience, praises Valorant

Michael “shroud” Grzesiek’s roots are in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive but that doesn’t mean he has any illusions over the state of the game.

The former Cloud9 rifler discussed the key differences between Valorant and CSGO in a recent stream. He didn’t mince words either, tearing apart CSGO while praising Riot Games’ efforts in establishing its own tactical shooter.

“I’d love to play CSGO if it was fucking good. The beauty of Valorant is its accessibility. You jump in, you go, you play your game, have a good time or have a bad time, but at least you know you’re not going to get cheated,” shroud said.

He noted that every single time he tires to casually jump into matchmaking in CSGO he is bombarded with hackers using aimbot, spinbot, and wall hacks. 

“It’s fucking garbage man,” shroud added. 

The rant comes as shroud has gravitated more and more to Valorant over the last few months. Though shroud has stated that Valorant has a lower skill ceiling than Counter-Strike due to abilities’ potential to trump aim and reaction speed, he has largely praised Riot Games for everything else surrounding the game. He famously predicted in October 2020 that Valorant esports would likely grow bigger than Counter-Strike once live events returned to being the norm.

Specifically praising Valorant’s anti-cheat efforts is an interesting stance for shroud to take, though. Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat engine had an inauspicious rollout mired by questions over users’ security and hackers swiftly cracking through it. Things have improved in the months since, evidently to the degree that Vanguard is getting shroud’s seal of approval.

Does shroud still play Valorant?

shroud is a variety streamer who dabbles in a number of different games, typically first-person shooters. Over recent months, Valorant has been a regular part of shroud’s streams. It hasn’t been his most-played game, however.

Between October 2020 and this writing, shroud’s most-played game on Twitch is Rust. Rust has enjoyed a major resurgence in recent months thanks to its renewed popularity with a number of popular streamers. shroud’s second most-played game during that timeframe is Rust’s predecessor, DayZ. 

Valorant actually sits as his fifth most-played game during this stretch, with World of Warcraft and Escape from Tarkov also getting more screentime on shroud’s stream than Valorant. shroud’s most-played game of all time is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, though he has moved away from that battle royale in favor of Apex Legends.