Although not much is known about Riot’s new shooter Project A, professional player “swag” is leaving his CS:GO team to fully concentrate on the new game.
Who is it about? The well-known CS:GO player Braxton “swag” Pierce announced on February 28 via his Twitter account that he had left his team Swole Patrol. He writes:
I have decided to retire from competitive CS:GO. And while I might stream Counter-Strike in the future, my main goal is to await the release of Project A and realize my ambitions of being the best in the world.
Thank you all for your support and I hope you will continue to support my journey. It has been a fun 8 years and 22,000 hours from 1.6 to GO (Yikes, but I don’t regret any of it)
Source: Swag Twitter
What is the background? As DotEsports reports, the 23-year-old player was considered one of the best talents from North America years ago. He played for teams like Complexity and iBuyPower. However, he was also involved in the match-fixing scandal in 2014, where players from iBuyPower were banned for match manipulation from CS:GO (via Sport1.de). Although ESL and DreamHack lifted the bans in 2018, Valve’s competitive ban remained in place.
He is the first known CS:GO pro to turn his back on the game to pursue Project A now. Should Riot’s shooter hit as well as this CS:GO pro here raves about, more pros might follow Swag’s path later.
How does the scene react? On Twitter, Swag’s statement is getting a lot of attention. CS:GO observer David “prius” Kuntz writes that he will watch him as an observer on the server. “[…] also good luck. Smart decision, by the way. RIOT will be very happy to have you and AZK in their game and maybe you will eventually work for them as game developers when you fully retire [as professional players].” (via Twitter)
What is Project A? In October 2019, developer Riot Games, known for League of Legends, announced six new games. Among them was the shooter Project A. The developers clarified early on: This will be not like Overwatch, rather like Counter-Strike. It’s no wonder that former CS:GO pros feel drawn to the new title now.
Recent news about Project A revolves around a leak that is said to show a character from the game.
