23-year-old Counter-Strike Player Cynic Passes Away

The North American Counter-Strike community is mourning the loss of a crucial member of their professional scene, David “cynic” Polster. The player passed away yesterday at the young age of 23. 

Incident

The reason for cynic’s death is unknown. His passing was publicized by the esports organization Nouns, for whom he previously played in his career. 

The Nouns Twitter account revealed that cynic’s father informed the organization about the unfortunate news. 

Earlier this week we were informed by David’s father that @cyn1c_fps has passed away.

This has impacted our staff deeply as we had worked with David intimately since we entered the CS scene. He was a pleasure to be around and beloved by all team members.

He was always a… pic.twitter.com/OC36YKzcZ0

— Nouns Esports ⌐◨-◨ (@nounsesports) January 27, 2024

His family did not specify the cause of cynic’s death, so it is likely they want to keep it private and we should not speculate on the reason for it. 

Cynic’s Counter-Strike History

Cynic began his professional Counter-Strike career in Global Offensive, where he joined numerous North American stacks starting in 2018.

Eventually, cynic started to make a breakthrough in the North American scene in 2021 when he joined Party Astronauts. With Party Astronauts, cynic mainly played ESEA Cash Cups for $15,000 prize pools. 

However, with the same roster, cynic qualified for ESL Pro League Season 15, a Tier 1 tournament featuring $823,000 in prize pools. This event featured the best teams in the world. Unfortunately, he finished last, but it was still a memorable experience for his lifetime. 

The young talent continued his journey in Nouns, one of the more established North American Counter-Strike teams of this era, where most orgs have pulled out of the esport entirely. In Nouns, cynic continued dominating Cash Cups, pocketing some good change. 

Unfortunately, cynic was dropped from the roster at the end of 2023, and that was his last notable team in his short career.

The Community Will Remember Cynic

According to his former teams and peers, cynic was a pleasure to be around and was beloved by all his team members, including staff. 

The North American Counter-Strike community is sending their deepest regards to cynic’s family, including professional players who have moved to Valorant. 

Even though the player barely has any social media presence, choosing not to Tweet or like any Tweets at all, his name will be remembered as a naturally gifted player and, overall, a really nice guy.