Team Liquid Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip may have been a little too loose with his words on stream.
In a recent Twitch broadcast, Armeen “a2z” Toussi and friends commented on stream that Braxton “brax” Pierce should play a game with them. brax is a CSGO veteran who recently joined T1 to play Valorant, Riot Games’ new tactical shooter. What made it fishy was when Stewie2K replied to a2z that brax couldn’t play Among Us because he was probably in a game with Sam “DaZeD” Marine, another retired CSGO pro and a former iBUYPOWER teammates of swag’s.
“They’re, like, 11 hours deep,” Stewie2K explained.
This seemed pretty innocent at first. Then suddenly, all of the streamers started frantically shushing Stewie2K for his statement.
“The pothead done fucked up,” a2z joked.
At this point, viewers pieced together that DaZeD was playing such long sessions with brax because he may be joining T1 to play Valorant as well. This was a rumor being thrown around ever since 100 Thieves signed former CSGO pro Josh “steel” Nissan to its roster.
DaZeD being signed to T1 was made even more apparent when Stewie2K replied, “Everyone knows it.”
While most Valorant fans were immediately focused on how much Stewie2K might have been smoking at the time, some took the opportunity to point out that T1 shouldn’t actually sign DaZeD.
One viewer noted that T1 doesn’t have any firepower beyond star player brax. Instead of adding more, they were worried that they’d brought on a player who is known for being toxic and unmotivated. Another player said that DaZeD will make T1 “one of the worst teams” since he has for so long been an entertainer and not a pro player.
Is DaZeD making the jump to competitive Valorant?
DaZeD played for such teams as iBUYPOWER and Quantic Gaming, but hasn’t been in a lot of big tournaments lately. Instead, DaZeD started showing up as an analyst to smaller events over the past few years.
In 2014, DaZeD was one of seven CSGO professionals permanently banned from Valve events when he was caught in a match-fixing scandal. People had become suspicious after iBUYPOWER lost to NetcodeGuides.com in Season 5 of the CEVO Professional League. It soon became clear that iBUYPOWER had purposely thrown the match since DaZeD helped found NetcodeGuides.com and many had bet in their favor.
The ensuing ban effectively ended DaZeD’s career as a top CSGO pro, but it’s possible that he may seek to make a competitive comeback in Valorant.
T1 has yet to confirm if DaZeD is joining their Valorant roster, but Stewie2K seems quite convinced that it will be announced in the near future.
