Vanity set to return to CS:GO

With the hype that Counter-Strike 2 has been causing since its announcement in March 2023, there has been speculation that many players who switched to VALORANT would be considering returning to Valve’s shooter. Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, a former professional CS:GO player who switched to VALORANT in 2021, announced on his Twitter account that he is open to returning to CS.

There is no doubt that, like vanity, other players may also decide to do so in the coming months, as what we have seen of the new Counter-Strike 2 is truly mind-blowing and, most importantly, groundbreaking.

Vanity is ready to return to CS

Recently, news broke that Shopify Rebellion and vanity parted ways, leaving the American player in free agency. In an announcement on his Twitter account, the player said he was open to hearing new offers, and what was surprising was that he mentioned that for VALORANT and CS.

Exploring offers for VAL & CS

Willing to relocate pic.twitter.com/I9j3bEYXb2

— Anthony (@Vanityxz) June 17, 2023

For those who don’t remember it much, vanity was part of the 2017-2021 CS:GO competitive scene. The American IGL and AWPer had great performances in his career, especially with Team Singularity, which managed to lift the WESG 2018 USA champions trophy.

Then he was part of other lesser-known teams, such as eUnited and Swole Patrol, to finally join Chaos Esports Club in 2020. With this team, vanity was one of the pillars of success at DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 NA and, above all, at IEM Beijing Online NA. However, despite all their achievements so far, the organization decided to disband their CS:GO squad.

Vanity at VALORANT

When vanity decided to leave the CS:GO scene in 2021, he immediately signed with Version1, one of the most promising VALORANT teams in the NA competitive scene. His team qualified for the VCT 2021: North America Stage 2 Challengers Finals, thanks to his excellent play.

Then, the team played in the VCT 2021: Stage 2 Masters – Reykjavík, finishing 5th-6th place after losing to Fnatic by 0-2.

Vanity was one of the key pillars of all the success Version 1 had that season, and as a result, he signed with Cloud9 in August 2021. The talented 22-year-old (at the time) showed his high level of play on stage with C9 and helped the team qualify for the VALORANT Champions 2021 playoffs. However, his run ended with a 1-2 loss to Team Liquid, which resulted in the team finishing in 5th-8th place in the tournament.

Then, at the beginning of 2023, Cloud9 was immersed in many problems in its lineup. In addition, after the departure of Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker from the team and the disappointing performance at the VCT LOCK//IN in February, the organization decided to dispense with his services.

Finally, vanity joined Shopify Rebellion at the end of March. Still, he could not positively impact the team, so he decided to part ways with them after playing with the organization for three months.

Header: Carlton Beener | ESL