It was the expected massive event on Twitch and in esports: The streamer Michael “shroud” Gresziek made his professional debut in Valorant on August 4 at the age of 28. Five years earlier, the Canadian ended his professional career in CS:GO. More than 600,000 people watched the event at its peak, a record for Valorant in North America. But one was not impressed: The “Juicer”, xQc, believes he can do better.
Why is this so exciting?
- The streamer “shroud” is a veteran on Twitch: He originally earned his reputation as a professional player in CS:GO but quickly became a full-time streamer early in his career. In 2017, he actually ended his professional esports career for good, or so it was thought for five years.
- On Twitch, he was considered a “Shooter God” or “human Aimbot”: Usually, streamers do not play shooters at the professional level that shroud had. The Canadian amassed a huge audience with his shooting skills and his calm, composed demeanor and made a considerable fortune through a “Mixer deal”.
- Now, at 28, shroud wants to give it another shot and begins a professional career in the shooter “Valorant” with a “real team” – this is a fascinating experiment that ultimately tests whether the “human Aimbot”, who is unmatched on Twitch, can compete with professional players who have been training nothing but Valorant for years.
One of his teammates, Star TenZ praised shroud in advance. So it should not be a marketing gimmick:
Viewership record for Valorant in North America
How was the event received? After five years of professional abstinence, shroud played in a Valorant match now and the interest was enormous. According to a website, at its peak 608,385 simultaneously watched shroud’s professional debut with the Sentinels (via escharts). That was a record for Valorant in North America.
The numbers come together from various channels and platforms: About 133,000 watched on Twitch through Riot’s channels and 69,000 through YouTube. The channel of streamer “tarik” even garnered more viewers than Riot itself (via dexerto).
New heroes regularly appear in Valorant:
shroud plays well, yet his team loses
How well did shroud perform? shroud plays for the team “Sentinels”: The “Sentinels” are actually a strong team in Valorant, who are under pressure in 2022 and cannot meet expectations.
The team’s problems were now experienced by shroud firsthand. Although the streamer and his team managed to win the first map – shroud scored 17 kills and 10 assists with Viper – the next two maps were lost. In the end, “The Guard” prevailed and shroud ended with 39/59/25.
Overall, observers agree that shroud delivered a good performance and did not seem rusty at all.
SHROUD WITH THE 3K TO TAKE MAP 1! pic.twitter.com/tSzHRbMfFx
— ValorIntel (@ValorINTEL) August 4, 2022
Who thought otherwise? The streamer xQc was not impressed. The “Juicer” claimed in the Twitch chat that he could do better than shroud: He would never miss such easy shots. He would “smash those noobs”.
Whether xQc meant it seriously or just wanted to provoke is unclear. Although xQc has experience with shooters as a former professional in Overwatch, such outstanding skills, as he claims, are not documented. In fact:
4 million watch the biggest Twitch streamer in the world become a noob in 36 seconds in CS:GO
Whether xQc meant it seriously or just wanted to provoke is unclear. Although xQc has experience with shooters as a former professional in Overwatch, such outstanding skills, as he claims, are not documented. In fact:
4 million watch the biggest Twitch streamer in the world become a noob in 36 seconds in CS:GO
