Steel leave CS: GO For VALORANT

Veteran CS: GO player Joshua "Steel" Nissan reportedly wants to enter the competitive world of VALORANT. Steel received a lifetime ban from participating in major Valve sponsored races in 2015. So switching to VALORANT, where it's not banned, makes perfect sense.

Steel played for a variety of teams, including iBuyPower, Team Dignitas, Ghost, and Chaos during his time in Counter-Strike, and became known as one of North America's top game leaders at the dawn of the global offensive era. During his CS career, he played for a host of different teams, including Team Dignitas and iBUYPOWER. During his time at Counter-Strike, the 30-year-old enjoyed consistent success, helping his teams win a half-dozen A-Tier and S-Tier events. Most recently, he led Chaos to a semi-final at the DreamHack Open Summer 2020: North America tournament and a semi-final at the ESL One: Cologne 2020 tournament.

Steel's move to VALORANT is not a surprise, as he received a lifetime ban from Valve events in 2015 due to his involvement in the iBUYPOWER match-fixing scandal at DreamHack 2014. He was banned from ESL events in 2017, but their VALVE ban remains in place. While Steel is a great team captain and a great leader in the game, the Valve Majors ban has been a serious obstacle to his future in Counter-Strike.

With VALORANT starting off quite positively and with many organizations looking for players hoping to join the scene, there seems to be a future in the title with which he could attempt to participate in the bigger and more prestigious events than the 30-year-old. attracted to the game.

The move from Steel to VALORANT follows the departure of other notable CS: GO players who have also made the move to Riot's new shooter. There is currently no information on which Team Steel would join if it officially switched to VALORANT. According to the report, CS: GO players who have now signed with VALORANT teams include Nick "itrnitr0⁠" Cannella, Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin, and Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom.

Regardless, the veteran has played more Valorant on his Twitch stream lately than CS: GO. Whether the reports will be released remains to be seen, but there seems to be a good chance that Steel, along with quite a few of his peers, will make the leap to Riot's new FPS.