SmithZz announces retirement
Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux has announced that he has ended his career as a professional player.
The Frenchman’s official departure from G2 marks the end of an exceptionally long playing career, which began in Counter-Strike: Source, where SmithZz won a plethora of tournaments as a part of various VeryGames rosters in 2008-2012 before transitioning to CS:GO.
In the new game, the now 31-year-old became the 17th best player of 2013 and won 14 more titles as a player, including the game’s fourth Major at DreamHack Winter 2014 with LDLC. He went on to put his playing career on hold as he moved to a coaching position in G2 at the beginning of 2017 and added three more trophies to his name from behind the team.
In mid-2018, SmithZz was back on the server as he reunited with Kévin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans under the Spanish organization, but he was placed in an inactive position after just five months when the team was restructured again.
Since then, he has transitioned to streaming, where he intends to keep putting his focus from now on with hopes of “making professional CS more accessible to the community” and “reinforcing the link between the two worlds.”
“More than 15 years of grinding the game out, managing to make it my job, creating memories I will never forget, including winning a Major. This game built me as a human being. It introduced me to people that are now so important in my life, it made me travel around the world, discover so many places. And for all of that I will be thankful for the rest of my life,” SmithZz said in a Twitlonger post.
“I want to thank my last home, G2 Esports, and I wish them nothing but the best, the staff, the players, everyone deserves it. I could not have dreamt of a better organization to end my career at. They gave me the opportunity to transition towards a streamer career over the course of last year, and I thank them for that as well.
“It is like a fresh start, grinding as a streamer with many objectives in mind, including one that is particularly important to me, making professional CS more accessible to the community. Reinforcing the link between those two worlds, something that is not easy to do when you are active pro player. This new challenge reminds me of my younger years in CS, and I’m eager to take it up.
“Get ready for a bunch of new stuff, follow my channel and let yourself be carried along. If any brand is interested to find out more about my project and possibly support it, you can contact me at smithzzme@gmail.com”
Some of SmithZz’s most notable achievements as a player in CS:GO include:
Majors
1.DreamHack Winter 2014 (LDLC)
Other tournaments
1.
ECS Season 1 Finals (G2)
1.World Championships 2015 (France)
1.
1.SLTV StarSeries XII Finals (Envy)
1.
1.MLG X-Games Aspen (LDLC)
1.
1.
1.MSI Beat it! 2013 Grand Finals (VeryGames)
1.RaidCall EMS One Fall 2013 Finals (VeryGames)
1.
1.
1.
New beginnings
Read: https://t.co/D1GuPQ9iUf
— SmithZz (@OfficialSmithZz) February 3, 2020
©hltv.org