Life After Death, Steel’s Story

On January 26, 2015, the IBuyPower ban was released. This ban applies to the following players: Sam “Dazed” Marine, Braxton “swag” Pierce, Keven “AZK” Lariviere, and Joshua “Steel” Nissan. Since that fateful day, their CS: GO career stopped. All were banned from competing in Valve-sponsored tournaments, but many tournament organizers made the same decision. Two years later, that changed when ESL was the first organization to lift the ban from July 24, 2017. The decision was made following the advice of the Esports Integrity Coalition (a consortium created to address these issues. cheating or related issues of e-sports). Nearly a year after the ban was lifted, Steel put Torqued through multiple qualifiers to compete in DreamHack Tours and ESL One Belo Horizonte. This is Steel’s life after death.

There have been moments of hope, brought about by the sympathy of the community. There was an unfounded rumor that they would have their ban lifted a year after 2015, but it wasn’t long before it became clear that the ban was permanent. It was the final fatal blow and anger, sadness, or hopes were all gone. All that remains is acceptance.

But the community still stands by the players, especially swag and Dazed. They are more popular players than Steel. They are hailed as saints because they can be the saviors of North America’s communist regime. Swag was probably the best player in the world, Dazed could have been the captain who could save North America from the gloom. Those comments are clearly overblown, but it shows just how hot these two players are. All expressed with the hashtag #freebrax. Unlike Dazed and swag, steel is not mentioned as a saint. Maybe it’s because of his personality, he’s rude, critical, and it seems like he’s approached the community the wrong way.

For Steel these are dark times. He became a streamer and a youtuber and although he does quite well, it seems his heart is always on the pro scene. That’s why he competes in tournaments like Fragadelphia or takes a break from Counter-Strike to play Overwatch when there’s a glimmer of hope in the pro scene. But he paid his debt, he understood what he did was wrong and tried to do what he could to atone for his mistake. The best example is his video warning Timmy about match-fixing at Beyond the Summit.

So when ESL made its decision, it was a revival, a second chance for steel. Despite the community’s attention on Dazed and the swag, it was actually steel who made the comeback. He paired up with former teammates Neil “montE” Montgomery and Trey “tck” Martin to form Torqued. Together they competed in ESEA. Although things didn’t go as they had hoped, he was finally able to play again.

People expect too much from Dazed. He made a team with swag GX and the team was inflated too high. Those expectations were never met and the future of Dazed – a captain who could save North America or swag – an all-time great player has gone up in smoke. Dazed has been out of the game for too long and has begun to enjoy the life of a streamer more than a professional player. Swag played well, but wasn’t the player the community had speculated. In the end, the GX players competed against Steel. With the consent of his former teammates, Steel adopted Torqued’s nickname and now he and AZK and swag are the core members of the team.

Since the team returned to play with Steel, along with Matt “Pollo” Wilson and Kenneth “koosta” suen, they have been on the rise. Over the past few months they have climbed to the top of the ESEA. At their first LAN tournament, they played at CS Summit 2. They were a whole new team at the time as they had only been back together for six days and hadn’t played at their best. Even so, they defeated Vega Squadron, and although they couldn’t go any deeper, that single victory was admirable. A few months later they followed up by qualifying for DreamHack Tours by defeating Ghost Gaming, Swole Patrol, and compLexity. At ESL ONE Belo Horizonte, they beat Bravado, NRG, Rogue and compLexity. Overcoming everything, Steel has proven himself to have the temperament of a captain and is also often a top frag.

Steel has atone for its mistakes and the community has calmed down. He’s had his lesson and has worked on his passion for this game. He made a mistake and then bad behavior, he paid the price. He realized what he did was wrong. This is also the story of the community as they willingly accepted the former IBP players who were bogged down and deserved to be punished. But after their punishments, they rose again and proved that man can change, man can learn from his mistakes.

But most of all, this article is about a player who has dedicated his life to Counter-Strike. About a player who dedicated his heart and soul to the professional arena of Counter-Strike. Because of one mistake, he was rejected, but now he has redeemed his mistakes, now the community has changed, he has been given a second chance. Steel may never get back the lost years, may never be able to compete in Valve-sponsored tournaments. But once again he can compete in the biggest LAN tournaments, he once again has the opportunity to meet and face the best in the world, and maybe that’s enough.

Source: VPESports