Record! 600,000 see how shroud performs as a professional in Valorant – Twitch bully etches: He would be even better

It was the expected huge event on Twitch and in e-sports: The streamer Michael “shroud” Gresziek made his professional debut in Valorant on August 4th at the age of 28. 5 years earlier, the Canadian ended his professional career in CS:GO. More than 600,000 people watched the event at its peak, setting a record for Valorant in North America. But one wasn’t impressed: The “Juicer”, xQc, thinks it can do better.

Why is this so exciting?

• Streamer “shroud” is a Twitch veteran: he originally earned his reputation as a pro player in CS:GO, but became a full-time streamer early in his career. In 2017 he actually ended his professional career as an e-sportsman forever, as was thought for 5 years.
• On Twitch he was considered a “shooter god” or “human aimbot”: Streamers don’t usually play the shooters at the pro level that shroud had. With his shooting skills and his calm, unexcited manner, the Canadian earned a huge audience and a considerable fortune through a “mixer deal”.
• Now, at the age of 28, shroud wants to know it again and starts a professional career again with a “real team” in the shooter “Valorant” – this is a fascinating experiment that ultimately tests whether the “human aimbot” that Twitch is unrivaled, can keep up with pro players who have been doing nothing but training Valorant for years.

One of his fellow players, the Star TenZ, praised shroud in advance. So it shouldn’t be a marketing gimmick:

Record viewership for Valorant in North America

How was the event received? After 5 years away from the pros, shroud was playing in a Valorant match and the interest was huge. According to a website, a peak of 608,385 simultaneously watched shroud’s pro debut with the Sentinels (via escharts). That was a record for Valorant in North America.

The numbers come together across multiple channels and platforms: About 133,000 watched on Twitch through Riot’s channels and 69,000 watched on YouTube. Streamer tarik’s channel had even more viewers than Riot itself (via dexterto).

New heroes appear regularly in Valorant:

shroud plays well, but his team still loses

How good was shroud? shroud plays for the “Sentinels” team: The “Sentinels” are actually a strong team in Valorant, but they are under pressure in 2022 and cannot meet the expectations placed on them.

Now shroud had to learn about the problems of the team first hand. The streamer and his team were able to win the first map – shroud got 17 kills and 10 assists with Viper – but the next two maps were lost. In the end, The Guard prevailed and shroud was 39/59/25.

In general, however, observers agree that shroud did a good job and didn’t seem a bit rusty.

SHROUD WITH THE 3K TO TAKE MAP 1! pic.twitter.com/tSzHRbMfFx

— ValorIntel (@ValorINTEL) August 4, 2022

Who saw it differently? The streamer xQc was not impressed. The “Juicer” claimed in the Twitch chat that he could do better than shroud: he would never miss such easy shots. He would “smack those noobs.”

It is unclear whether xQc is serious or just wanted to provoke. As a former professional in Overwatch, xQc has experience with shooters himself, but he has not handed down such outstanding skills as he admits to himself. On the contrary:

4 million watch the world’s largest Twitch streamer become a noob at CS:GO in 36 seconds