Twistzz blasts CSGO pros who switched to Valorant, sees backlash

A number of professional Valorant players are very angry at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken.

The PGL Antwerp Major is going on right now and that has CSGO’s top stars discussing the state of the game. That also results in players discuss CSGO’s rival tactical shooter, Valorant.

Twistzz sat down for an interview with CSGO website Dust2 and fielded a question about the state of the game’s North American region, which Twistzz himself is from. The FaZe Clan star chalked up the region’s woes to younger talent moving to Valorant due to a lacking work ethic.

“This will come as no surprise that I am saying this, but I have to say that the current region is abysmal. I mean, we saw so many new players moving to VALORANT because they just want the easy money. They see a new game and they see everyone is trying to get into it and it’s easy money. I think the switch is for the money and the work ethic wasn’t there in CS to become better,” Twistzz said.

The statement from Twistzz seemingly struck a nerve with many ex-CSGO pros, as they spoke out on Twitter.

Twistzz blasting Valorant pros draws broad criticism

CSGO and Valorant pros alike pushed back against Twistzz’s statement that it was a lack work ethic that led to their defection to Valorant. Instead, they cited the stripped-down infrastructure in the North American scene.

Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker gave a sarcastic response, but touched on several issues that made pro CSGO untenable in North America.

In 2019, ESL Pro League announced a significant change to its qualification system that resulted in a slew of teams around the globe being kicked out of the tournament series. Surrounding this, numerous organizations pulled out of CSGO. North America was particularly hard-hit by this with a long list of organizations changing regions or leaving CSGO entirely.

Valorant arrived a few months later with much broader investment from associated organizations and significant tournament organizer support. That made Valorant a preferable landing spot for anyone that wasn’t already signed by a stable organization.

Twistzz has spent the vast majority of his career as a member of well-supported teams, joining TSM less than a year after his pro debut and going from top organization to top organization from there, including Team Liquid and now FaZe Clan.

While top players can certainly still make money in CSGO, it’s easy to see why players looking to climb might be taken aback by the fact that there’s no ladder to go up anymore. Especially when rival game Valorant offers a more realistic path with proven opportunities for success, with North American teams already winning major international tournaments in Riot Games’ new tactical shooter.