Evan ‘Eggsterr’ Grady has shared on stream that he intends to step away from the competitive Valorant scene after ENVY’s final VCT Americas Stage 1 contest against MIBR.
Eggster makes a preemptive retirement statement on stream
Speaking on his stream, the American player stated, “I’ve been kind of inconspicuous, but I have decided that the statement that I will make is that I have officially retired from competitive play.”
Eggsterr explained the reasoning behind the decision as linked to recent Yoru nerfs, which rendered his one-trick largely unplayable at the highest level. Eggsterr shared, “I’m not going to lie, they got me. I’m not trying to play other agents.”
The Yoru specialist signalled a return to content creation, stating, “People forget that I’m a content creator who went pro; I’m not a pro player. That’s not where my soul lies. My identity does not lie in pro play.
“I’m not going to lie, pretty much all Stage 2* my head has been in the clouds. I will be playing against MIBR. I’m not officially retired yet. I’m going to leave my heart and soul out there. I’m going to give that game everything I’ve got. I’m going to give that game 130%.”
*VCT Americas Stage 1 is the second stage of the year following Kickoff
The statement follows rumors that ENVY was practicing without Eggsterr, followed by the player sharing the famous gif of Jamal Adams being locked out of The Jets facility, leading him to believe he was cut from the team.
Eggsterr’s incredible rise in Valorant bogged down by ENVY struggles
After securing the Radiant Ranked 1 multiple times on stream, the content creator stepped into competitive play in 2024, playing in a team called RANKERS in Valorant Challengers 2024 NA Split 3.
After winning that split, ENVY signed the roster, replacing Christian ‘nightz’ Smith with Ayan ‘ion2x’ Rastogi, creating the team that would go on to earn a VCT berth with their VCT Ascension 2025 victory.
The Valorant world never saw that roster in action at the highest level, with ion2x and canezerra too young to compete. Angelo ‘keznit’ Mori and Daniel ‘Rossy’ Abedrabbo would join the roster for VCT Americas Kickoff, before the sudden benching of ENVY’s best performer, Hunter ‘inspire’ Schline, after the team’s middle-bracket loss to Cloud9.
VCT Champions 2023 winner, Maximilian ‘Demon1’ Mazanov, joined the roster in the wake of the fallout, but it seemed all was not right behind the scenes at ENVY.
To go from bad to worse, ENVY were met with the news that their future prospect Canezerra would be banned for 12-months, following suspected offensive language.
The ban brought about the termination of the 17-year-old’s contract, removing a potential future piece of the roster and a vital part of RANKERS/ENVY’s climb from Tier 2.
While the content creator can be proud of the incredible rise of his roster, propelling him to pro play, the combination of the roster’s issues and his individual decline after the Yoru nerfs, makes for a somewhat unsatisfying ending to what was one of Valorant’s greatest fairytales.
ENVY currently sits with a 1-3 record in VCT Americas Stage 1, with the first-place team, MIBR, left to play.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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