A close match between Nordavind and Movistar Riders proved that rage-quitting is never a good idea.Â
The two teams faced off in a close match in the lower bracket of the Dreamhack Masters Spring 2021 qualifiers. Nordavind looked sharp on the third map Mirage, leaving no space for Movistar Riders to breathe. The team was struggling throughout the second half, and Nordavind progressed to match point. Â
The team seemingly had things locked up in the 25th round, but Alejandro “mopoz” Cano kept his team alive by pulling off a one-on-three clutch. However, it wasn’t his smart play that became the highlight of the game. Owen “smooya” Butterfield ragequit in the middle of the round, seemingly thinking Nordavind had the game in the bag.
The 21-year old was taken down as he approached the B site and handed over an AWP to Jesper “tenzki” Plougmann. The AWPer disconnected from the server in a beat, apparently showing no faith in his teammate’s ability to pull off the clutch. After mopoz pulled off the clutch, smooya was forced to reconnect and helped Movistar Riders force overtime and take a 2-1 series victory with a 19-16 win.
smooya reconnected the server when mopoz was done saving the day but his ragequit instantly went viral among fans. Some Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players found it hilarious, but he was understandably blasted for disrespecting his teammate. smooya later said his PC crashed, but this was quickly shown to be a lie as footage circulated of him messaging “ggwp” in all-chat before leaving.
He’s human, he did it wrong and it won’t happen again, he learned about this situation and we don’t have anything bad towards him everyone in this world did it or where close to do it sometime, we fail and we learn https://t.co/6ILLCCPyrf
— mopoz (@AlejandroMopoz) March 7, 2021
Despite this, mopoz spoke up in defense of smooya and stated that the team has no bad blood towards him. smooya also later admitted to ragequitting after the video circulated and spoke out on the matter in a Twitlonger. Though he was apologetic, he also questioned why people were criticizing him.
“Please know that I am really working on all things to do with becoming a better person as well as professional. That’s all I can do and I will continue to do so while trying to maintain the mistakes to a minimum. Of course, I’m not immune to bad judgment during situations but it sometimes feels like because of my past I get judged much harder on my actions,” smooya said.
Though Movistar Riders managed to beat out Nordavind in a tense series, the team wasn’t able to take that momentum forward. The team was swept the next day by Cloud9 and will not be able to compete in Dreamhack Masters Spring 2021. The question now is whether mopoz’s attempts to smooth things over were sincere or whether they’ll be frustrated over this move by smooya.
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