When one of North American CS:GO’s greats in Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip stepped back from competition this past summer, many anticipated that he would spend some more time playing VALORANT after stepping into full-time content creation.
Since this transition, Stewie has gone all in on VALORANT, leaving behind his former game almost entirely for the time being. Over the 444 hours he’s streamed over the past three months, he’s streamed 442 hours of VALORANT and only two hours of CS:GO, according to SullyGnome.
His in-game performance has been nothing short of impressive as well. Right now, he’s ranked in the top 100 of Radiant players in North America as of Episode Five, Act Three, and he has the fourth most total competitive wins of any player in the top 100 with 116 wins as of Nov. 9. Near the end of October, he even reached the top five of all Radiant players, according to Tracker.gg.
But is all this just a competitive itch or are bigger plans in the works?
Is Stewie2k playing in NA VCT Challengers in 2023?
Most of this is speculative, but there are some rumors and reports that suggest that Stewie2k is at least thinking about competing professionally in 2023, and the open bracket qualifiers of the NA VCT Challengers scene would certainly provide an avenue to playing.
Independent VALORANT reporter and freelance caster Flynn has reported that Stewie2k is supposedly teaming with a stacked roster of former/current pros and that the group is even looking for an organization to pick them up. This group includes Jared “zombs” Gitlin (former Sentinels), Braxton “brax” Pierce (T1), Shane “Rawkus” Flaherty (former FaZe player and Sentinels coach), and Ian “tex” Botsch (NRG).
The group has been spotted scrimming and running customs together via Sentinels sixth man SicK’s stream, with former Sentinels analyst Dani Hashweh either taking on the coaching role or filling in as a temporary fifth as Rawkus coaches.
In an early November stream, Stewie2k said that he’s really enjoying the scrim atmosphere and that he’s been putting time into watching and learning from some of the top teams like Cloud9 and 100T and top players like Xeppaa and trent.
If he’s putting time into scrimming now with a consistent group, there’s a good chance this team could compete in NA Challengers for 2023. And with promotion to tier one via Ascension up for grabs, it’s not outlandish to consider that an organization could pick up such a talented team stacked with big names ahead of the start of Challengers play if Stewie2k and his teammates do make it through qualifiers.
Published: Nov 9, 2022 05:25 pm