A professional from Counter-Strike 2 left the stage early after an important tournament victory and did not attend the autograph session. He has now revealed the reason.
What kind of tournament was it?
- The “Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024” took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in Counter-Strike 2 until October 13.
- For seven days, 16 teams from around the world fought for the trophy and a prize pool of $100,000.
- The final on October 13 was contested by the teams of Natus Vincere (NaVi) and Mouz, which NaVi ultimately won 3:1 on the map Ancient.
Winner leaves the stage early
What happened after the victory? NaVi won the final, and shortly after the end of the final map, the trophy presentation and celebrations on stage were to take place. This is, of course, an important moment for players that they usually celebrate extensively and take their time – not so for NaVi’s Aleksi Antti Kaarlo Virolainen, better known as Aleksib.
During the trophy presentation, the Finnish Aleksib was still present and stood with his celebrating teammates for a few minutes. However, while they stayed on stage much longer to celebrate and take photos with the trophy, Aleksib left early.
Furthermore, the Finn skipped the following autograph session. Later he explained what the reason was.
Why did he leave the stage? As Aleksib explained in a post on X.com, he is mourning a close person who recently passed away. He had struggled deeply with his emotions and did his best to suppress them.
He then apologized for not attending the autograph session but was glad to have met many great fans during the tournament.
NaVi is also the team with which CS legend s1mple celebrated his most memorable successes. However, recently the Ukrainian was only a substitute there. He will soon play on loan for another team: “The counterpart to Ronaldo” – One of the best players in Counter-Strike is back, but for a much worse team
