Triumph and tragedy: The legacy of Stewie2K

Enigma. A short but simple word that can clearly define the stages of Stewie2K‘s career — a player who burst onto the North American scene with an uncharacteristic playstyle, but one who went on to defy the odds as he rose up to the world stage.

A story that began with a tenure in Cloud9, gave North America its first Major championship, and culminated with a historic run to win the Intel Grand Slam in record time: few have built the kind of legacy left behind by former Cloud9, Liquid, MIBR/SK, and Evil Geniuses member Stewie2K. Few have also fallen off from such a pedestal in the fashion Stewie2K has, the cloth of captaincy and lingering attitude issues in the latter months of his career painting a bleak picture and ultimately playing a key part in his demise. This is his tale.

It wasn’t apparent that the eventual Intel Grand Slam champion would be one to stamp his name in the history books of Counter-Strike when he first became noticed in North America. In fact, he was the subject of much ire early on, his style of play drawing criticism and indignation from other players in FPL as he constantly pushed smokes or caught his opponents out on timing, winning duels based on pure intuition and raw mechanics.

This was at a point in CS:GO when Stewie2K had no international experience and wasn’t a particularly standout player in official matches either, often only being talked about due to his performance in PUG matches thanks to his erratic style rather than his showings on SKDC or Splyce. He was, however, an extremely motivated individual who had everything to prove, not just to the scene at large but to himself and his parents, who doubted his ability to make esports a viable career.

It was, then, largely unimpressive when Stewie2K made his first strides in the professional scene, initially under the tutelage of Kyle “⁠OCEAN⁠” O’Brien who through the years brought up a number of names that are now quite familiar, including Jonathan “⁠EliGE⁠” Jablonowski, Russel “⁠Twistzz⁠” Van Dulken, and Timothy “⁠autimatic⁠” Ta.

The young rifler’s initial online tournaments and LAN appearances were rather middling, and so it came as a surprise at the start of 2016 when it was announced that Cloud9 would pick him up to replace in-game leader Sean “⁠seang@res⁠” Gares, who had departed the team at the end of the previous year.

After an inspiring run of results in the summer of 2015 during which Cloud9 briefly looked like an international title contender, the team had been struggling to make a name for themselves and return to that level of form, and a roster change was made in hopes of turning the tides.

“The idea was that we bring in fresh blood, a new hunger to the team and not some of this old guard that had been recycled over and over and over again,” former Cloud9 manager Tres “⁠stunna⁠” Saranthus explained in a player profile video created by FACEIT. “We wanted to bring someone with a new perspective on the game, and perhaps someone that could reignite where we left off.”

The wick was slow to catch, but eventually it did burn. After a tragically dismal showing at his first Major at MLG Columbus, Stewie2K began to hit his stride, proving doubters wrong as he converted his unconventional style of play into flashy performances offline and on stage. Though titles didn’t arrive immediately, the upstart rifler started to shed his online PUG-star status and began to outshine the more known names on Cloud9, quickly becoming the team’s most exciting player and the one to steer them back to prominence, as stunna had hoped.

Titles still eluded them, though, and it was in August that the team looked to more new blood by bringing in autimatic and handing leadership duties to Stewie2K. That change brought about an uptick in Cloud9‘s performances in tournaments, runner-up finishes and deep placements in events coming off the back of particularly good form from Stewie2K and autimatic. The pair formed a symbiotic partnership, Stewie2K‘s innate aggression and intuition playing expertly off of autimatic‘s more slow, methodical approach to rounds. Stewie2K flourished into arguably North America’s best player at the helm of that lineup, predating the rise of EliGE and Keith “⁠NAF⁠” Markovic that would follow in 2017.

For that roster, everything culminated at the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals in São Paulo, an event in which autimatic, Stewie2K, and Mike “⁠shroud⁠” Grzesiek shone bright en route to a trophy finish. Stewie2K averaged a 1.17 rating, the third highest-rated on his team, and it seemed to be a promising sign of things to come as the North Americans defeated SK in the grand final, the team that had won the last two Majors and been the dominant number one for most of the year.

Despite their showing in Brazil, the hope of the team being a consistent world-beater faded over time. Though Stewie2K remained a stalwart presence on the server, Cloud9 weren’t able to take home a trophy again, the volatility of fading star shroud and the inconsistency of Jordan “⁠n0thing⁠” Gilbert leaving them unable to contest the world’s best teams deep into tournaments.

It all came to a head shortly after Cloud9 stumbled in a rematch versus SK nearly eight months later in the grand final of ESL One Cologne 2017, prompting a roster shakeup as the tournament break got underway. It was the above-mentioned players that would go out in the team’s next changes to make room for William “⁠RUSH⁠” Wierzba and Tarik “⁠tarik⁠” Celik, the latter of whom would take the majority of in-game leadership duties out of Stewie2K‘s hands.

Title wins at DreamHack Open Denver 2017 and iBUYPOWER Masters following the change combined with semi-final finishes in a handful of notable events gave Cloud9 a second wind, a much needed bit of bolstering heading into the start of 2018 and the ELEAGUE Boston Major, where they were soon to make history.

Following a flawless run through the Challengers Stage, Cloud9 found themselves on shaky ground, faltering in their first two matches of the main Swiss group stage. Stewie2K in particular had dismal performances in the team’s first two matches (0.86 and 0.67 ratings), but he showed his unwavering tenacity with an immense return to form in Cloud9‘s following matches. He averaged a 1.33 rating as the team pulled off a comeback effort like few others, fighting back to make it to the playoffs where they beat G2 and SK to make it to the grand final. It was a feat only achieved by one North American team before them, and one that Cloud9 one-upped, delivering thrilling Counter-Strike on the home stage in an intense three-map affair versus FaZe in the Major title decider.

Stewie2K, who had been noticeably quiet during the first map of the series, came alive on Overpass and particularly on Inferno, delivering a highlight for the history books as he defended the B bombsite from FaZe to complete a comeback from 11-15 down and force overtime, where Cloud9 came out on top to grant North America its first and only Major title.

Cracks were already showing for the team, however, even during that very series. In between the first and second map of the grand final, Stewie2K could be heard expressing his frustration with Tyler “⁠Skadoodle⁠” Latham‘s communication, something which would become a recurring issue in the lacklustre tournaments that followed Cloud9‘s Major run.

“At the time I think Ska was pretty burnt out from CS and his communication was at an all-time low and far from the high standard he had set at the Major,” Stewie2K told HLTV.org in an interview just three months later. “When he was demotivated after the Major it caused some frustration for me, because he wasn’t meeting the high expectations he had set before. At the time the team environment wasn’t the best and it seemed like we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win.”

Stewie2K‘s championship mentality and hunger to win was showcased in full force then as he made the bold decision to leave Cloud9 not long after their Major win, citing performance issues with the team and stating that they were “going downhill.” Fernando “⁠fer⁠” Alvarenga had reached out to him with an offer to join SK, a team that had already proven themselves able to be the best in the world and captained by one of the most proven in-game leaders in Gabriel “⁠FalleN⁠” Toledo. The team had first attempted to court Oleksandr “⁠s1mple⁠” Kostyliev and Egor “⁠flamie⁠” Vasilyev, but after that deal fell through at the eleventh hour, it was Stewie2K and autimatic that they turned to.

It was an opportunity you had to jump at if you were Stewie2K. Even if the venture ended up proving unsuccessful, the experience of playing in the Brazilian system and learning from FalleN would be something that Stewie2K could bring home to a North American team, something no other player from the region could offer to a lineup. autimatic ultimately declined the offer, and so Stewie2K set forth on the international venture alone, the sole American on a Brazilian lineup trying to transition to speaking English.

It was a labored effort, and that showed in SK‘s results. They still weren’t able to return to a world-beater level and early exits from Big Events left them wanting, with title wins at the smaller Adrenaline Cyber League and Moche XL Esports doing little to satisfy the hunger. Just three months into the project, the entire roster transferred to MIBR and made another roster change, sending off Ricardo “⁠boltz⁠” Prass and adding a familiar face to accompany Stewie2K in the form of tarik.

The team’s results picked up slightly in the months that followed, a win at the ZOTAC Cup Masters Finals giving way to a 3-4th place finish at the FACEIT London Major and additional deep runs at the ECS Season 6 Finals and ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals. Still, top event titles eluded the team, and it was those that the squad of former Major champions were clamoring for. Ultimately, the project fizzled out, their communication issues and lacklustre results proving too much of a hurdle to overcome as FalleN‘s side returned to a Portuguese-speaking roster by trading Stewie2K with Liquid for Epitacio “⁠TACO⁠” de Melo and benching tarik.

That change helped Liquid immediately find success as they kicked off 2019 with a win at iBUYPOWER Masters over perennial rivals Astralis. Stewie2K‘s arrival had unlocked a Liquid lineup that had been famous for choking deep into events, his entry prowess opening up the game not just for his team, but for EliGE who followed behind him. Stewie2K‘s experience playing alongside FalleN also helped him bring more to the table, chipping in with secondary calling and being an extremely vocal member of the team.

It took them a few months to hit their stride, but soon the entire unit began firing on all cylinders. The explosive aim of Twistzz, consistently stellar rifling and clutches from NAF, and the leadership and AWPing of Nick “⁠nitr0⁠” Cannella all combining together with the aforementioned duo to become one of the most fearsome squads on the server by the time IEM Sydney rolled around.

The title there was Liquid‘s for the taking with Astralis absent from the event, and it was one they claimed in style, romping through the group stage before beating MIBR and fnatic to lift the trophy. It was the first big piece of silverware the team would lift in a streak of six consecutive Big Event victories, a run in which they claimed the title of best team in the world and won the second season of the Intel Grand Slam in a record 63 days.

Liquid looked entirely indomitable, as if no team could fell them in the form that they were in heading into the tournament break. Fittingly, then, it was the break itself that spelled their doom: Though they continued to muster deep runs in tournaments, no other titles came to that Liquid squad for the remainder of the year.

Stewie2K‘s form began to taper off, and the coronavirus-prompted online era did him no favors as Liquid trudged along in domestic events, unable to showcase their full force in international LAN tournaments. Soon enough, changes rolled around, and the powerhouse squad that Stewie2K had helped to unlock was no more.

The team’s attempt to get back to winning ways with the addition of Michael “⁠Grim⁠” Wince and FalleN over the following year proved unsuccessful, with Stewie2K admitting in an interview that he and EliGE were at odds with the Brazilian captain on how to approach the game stylistically. The former Cloud9 member battled FalleN for in-game leadership duties repeatedly, with the captaincy changing hands several times in their year together without much resolution.

Stewie2K‘s winning mentality also reared its head when he criticized Grim‘s progress in the team, although he admitted that the former Triumph player had likely been added to Liquid at the wrong time, and under the wrong roles.

“I think Mike [Grim] just came in at the wrong time, the wrong place, and it wasn’t the best experience for him, but I’m sure he definitely learned a lot from us and just being able to play internationally,” Stewie2K said to HLTV.org at the BLAST Premier Fall Final.

“Mike in general, he’s like any type of up-and-coming player, I’ve talked about it on stream before where all of these up-and-coming players, all they have is really aim, and initially when Mike was put into our roster and we needed to use him, I was not okay with it because I did not want to waste my time hoping that this player can pick it up fast, learn, and become this experienced player that we really need.”

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It paints a stark contrast to what Stewie2K‘s own experiences were when he emerged onto the top scene, when he was given the space to grow on Cloud9 and flourish in his own style. Whereas Stewie2K had come into a Cloud9 team that had never reached the pinnacle of CS:GO and was on a steep decline, Grim was thrust into a Liquid struggling to find its identity and return to a world-beating level amid a worldwide pandemic that put a halt to offline play.

Stewie2K‘s belief in how the game should be played and desire to in-game lead came back to haunt him after he eventually departed Liquid, joining Evil Geniuses at the start of 2022. Despite reuniting Stewie2K with two of his former Major-winning teammates in RUSH and autimatic, the team floundered in their tournament appearances under the 24-year-old’s leadership, winning just five out of 22 offline maps in their first six months together. EG’s inability to find success led to an early end to the tournament season, and they were left with nothing to play in after April.

While Stewie2K‘s attempt at in-game leading was a pivotal issue for the team during that span, it wasn’t the only issue. His own spark on the server was gone. The once-enigmatic individual could no longer surprise his opponents nor take over games, and it was a sorry sight to see. Disagreements he had with coaching staff also came to light after they were unscrupulously removed from the team, and questions began to arise of Stewie2K‘s attitude both in-game and outside of it.

“We didn’t understand why Stewie didn’t give his deathcam, he didn’t communicate all of the time, he was in fun mode, he raged a bit,” former Evil Geniuses assistant coach Paolo “⁠EVY⁠” Berbudeau explained in an interview with 1pv.fr. “The very next morning, we had this discussion explaining that what we had seen was not right. And from there, it was already over.

“Stewie wouldn’t say hello to Damien [team coach Damien “⁠maLeK⁠” Marcel] when we walked into the room from the fifth or sixth day. When Damien spoke, he [Stewie] turned back to his PC, he wasn’t listening to him. Sometimes Stewie would listen to Damien and then turn around and not respond. One of the worst things I ever saw was Stewie denying tactical breaks. Damien would call tactical breaks and Stewie would say no. This is something I’ve never seen, and [it happened] from the first official game. Damien and I looked at each other and we didn’t understand.”

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Everything came crashing down for the team after their ESL Pro League Season 15 appearance when members of the team internally began to express their own issues with Stewie2K‘s attitude, according to EVY. EG coach maLeK went to the organization to explain the issue in hopes of a resolution, but none was found. Soon, the decision came down to keeping Stewie2K or maLeK and the organization chose the former, parting ways with the entirety of the coaching staff. The team internally remained on shaky ground however, and were now the subject of continuing community discussion, especially in regards to Stewie2K‘s reported attitude.

Stewie2K responded to the EVY‘s allegations on stream a few days later. “On my life, I had nothing to do with changes to the coaching staff. I didn’t even know it was happening. No one on the team knew,” he said, before going on to touch on his own individual level. “Don’t you think I’m aware I fucking suck? That I’m putting the team in front of me? That I’m worried about the other side of the map?

“Even the fact that we’re not ready, and trying to focus on everything else but my game. Like, yes, it takes a toll. And I’m not blaming anyone for that. I took accountability for that. You don’t think I know I failed the project? You don’t think I know I failed being a captain? I want to turn back time and fix it the right way. I want to do all of that. But I can’t. And I’m sorry for all the fans that had to see our results this year. We couldn’t win a map. We couldn’t do any of that.”

When the tournament break got underway in July, Stewie2K announced that he would step back from professional play and instead focus on streaming for Evil Geniuses, bringing an end — for now — to his storied and once-fruitful career.

Whether that truly marks an end to Stewie2K‘s story in CS:GO remains to be seen. It would be tragic to see a player who is one of of North America’s most tenured names simply disappear. Somebody who once took the scene by storm through his domination in pick-up games, who overcame doubt in his ability to translate his game to the professional level and rose up to the top of the ranks in the region. However, his incapability as an in-game leader and attitude toward the end of his time have cast a shadow upon his glowing legacy. Stewie2K simply wasn’t cut out to be a leader on his own, and his attempts to fill the role played a large part in his demise.

Although the 24-year-old didn’t rule out a return to competitive CS:GO, it’s unlikely we will ever truly see the Stewie2K of old on the server again.