Notorious North American streamer and ex-Counter Strike and VALORANT pro Matthew ‘WARDELL’ Yu has indicated his return to the competitive scene may be on the horizon.
He previously left CS:GO to pursue a VALORANT career in 2020, playing for noteworthy teams like TSM and as played as a stand-in for Version1. WARDELL also grew in notoriety in his streams during this period, racking up the views and showcasing his incredible operator ability.
The star Canadian streamer has all but officially announced his return to the competitive Counter-Strike circuit on a Sept. 21 tweet, saying, “Goin’ back to cs.”
In his Counter-Strike career, WARDELL played for Ghost Gaming and AWPed under the Orgless banner. He was seen as an up-and-coming talent in the NA community, when the region struggled to find a consistent top-tier AWPer, players like WARDELL and Josh ‘oSee’ Ohm stood out.
If WARDELL does return to play in NA, several orgs would be interested.
This news comes after the franchising situation for North American VALORANT teams. Several big-name teams, like OpTic and TSM, haven’t been selected for the franchise league in its first round of invitiations, making it a struggle for some North American teams to get to play matches against European competition.
North American Counter-Strike has been heavily impacted by VALORANT’s success, with players leaving to pursue a game with an undoubtedly stronger scene. But, WARDELL isn’t the first ex-CS:GO pro to make their way back.
Nitr0 and Floppy made their way back to CS:GO eventually, essentially climbing back to the competitive levels they were at before, after an adjustment period.
