Why is Ethan leaving Evil Geniuses and what are his plans moving to VALORANT?
Ethan “Ethan” Arnold is the latest Counter-Strike pro to make the switch over to Riot’s competitor, VALORANT. After nearly two years, Ethan was a part of the Evil Geniuses roster since they were initially acquired by NRG.
Ethan’s time with the roster saw several career highlights as during his time under the NRG banner, Ethan and company won IEM Shanghai 2018 and cs_summit 3. After being picked up by EG in September of 2019, Ethan found even greater success by lifting trophies at ESL One New York 2019, cs_summit 6, Blast Premier 2020, and StarSeries Season 8. Ethan played a massive role in helping EG’s top-five finish in HLTV’s 2019 World ranking and individually finished in the top 20 players of 2019.
2020 and the early part of 2021 saw a slump for EG as their move to Europe did not yield the immediately positive results they were hoping for. Following their losses from G2 and Astralis that knocked them out of IEM Katowice 2021, Ethan made the decision to leave the CS scene altogether.
Replacing Quan “dicey” Tran, the primary Operator of 100 Thieves, the VALORANT roster has added another former CS pro alongside Spencer “Hiko” Martin, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, and Joshua “steel” Nissan.
100 Thieves have similarly experienced a downward trend as they have struggled to qualify for the VALORANT Champions Tour first Masters event, failing to qualify in the first open qualifier and finishing 5th-6th in the closed qualifier. With the addition of Ethan, 100 Thieves has consolidated some of the best former CS talent onto one team and hope to translate this into a return to success.
Who do you think will replace Ethan on EG? Will Ethan be able to take 100 Thieves to Masters? Join the discussion on social media or our Discord!
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