Legendary sniper Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács has announced his retirement from the world of competitive Counter-Strike after spending almost two decades at the game’s upper echelons and cementing himself as one of the best AWPers of all time.
Although his retirement came in the colors of BC.Games, guardiaN’s fame erupted during his time with Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan. Being part of two iconic CS:GO rosters, guardiaN remains one of the most decorated players of the game despite the major eluding him on several occasions.
Besides going down as one of the greatest ever, guardiaN has failed to win a tier-1 trophy after 2019. 5 years since his last tournament win, guardiaN spent his time across several lesser-known rosters, which concluded his time in tier-1 CS.
“I’m not sad, I’ve done everything I could in esports. I’ve been to Majors, I’ve been to Major finals, I’ve won tournaments, I had amazing teams[…] I’ve done it all. I don’t have a Major trophy, but that’s not all it takes to be happy.”
Starting his professional career with CS 1.6, guardiaN garnered global recognition playing for NAVI. Following his success with the Russian side, he joined the FaZe experimental superteam, which failed to win a major but did bring home several notable honors like IEM Syndey, ESL One New York, and more.
While it is sad to see him go, we can’t do anything but accept that his time has come. Goes without saying that we will miss him as he will forever remain one of the icons of the game.