Steel is the latest CS: GO in-game leader to leave the game for Valorant

The exodus of CS: GO pros to the Valorant esports scene does not seem to be coming to an end any time soon.

After nitr0 joined 100 Thieves, Josh “steel” Nissan is set to be the next CS: GO veteran to leave the game for a whole new career in Riot’s Valorant.

Steel was a part of Chaos’ CS: GO line-up since 2019 and will not be completely leaving the organisation. Instead, he will take up streaming Valorant and creating content on it under their banner.

With that being said, Chaos will be losing a great in-game leader and whoever will take up his spot will have big shoes to fill.

Yet another CS: GO in-game leader leaves for Valorant

Even at the best of times change is constant. Coming off of our recent success, @JoshNissan will be transitioning to streaming full-time as a content creator focused on Valorant.📰https://t.co/conBgUWL4d pic.twitter.com/FqSzIQ6JM3

— Chaos EC (@ChaosEC) August 31, 2020

It’s safe to say that North America has always had a deficit of proper leaders when it comes to CS: GO. Valorant's ability to attract players from that pool is also not helping Valve's shooter all that much.

After the likes of Hiko and nitr0 left CS: GO to find a new career in Valorant, Steel is the latest to join the club. However, he is starting out as a content creator for Chaos and not a professional one.

Steel is one of the most celebrated veterans of CS: GO. He has been playing the Counter-Strike genre professionally for around 10 years now and started his career with CS: Source.

During his time on the CS: GO pro scene, he has had the opportunity to play for a lot of teams like Team Dignitas and Ghost Gaming before finally joining Chaos in November of 2019.

Steel’s iBUYPOWER scandal and his role as a groomer

It wasn’t exactly Steel’s professional success that earned him his notoriety but rather a scandal that he got caught up in.

Steel’s name was caught up with Brax and AZK (both now a part of the T1 Valorant roster) in a match-fixing scandal in 2014, and all three players were banned indefinitely from every future Valve-sponsored tournaments.

However, non-Valve tournaments like ESL, DreamHacks and FACEIT lifted the ban in 2017. Since then, Steel has been grooming and leading the younger generation of CS: GO players.

In a recent interview with HLTV.org, Steel comments that his departure to Valorant was “just a matter of when.” Even though Chaos has been performing rather well with the addition of Erick “⁠Xeppaa⁠” Bach and Nathan “⁠leaf⁠” Orf in May and June respectively, Steel felt that it was time to make the shift.

There is speculation that he might be joining up with Hiko and nitr0 to be a part of the 100 Thieves line-up but only time will tell if Steel wants to go pro in Valorant.