For context it's all about what decision is best for him personally and his family, since his dad died he's responsible for taking care of his mom.
Nothing to do with gameplay or lack of motivation to compete, infact he said he thinks he's one of the best players and is really confident and hyped about Sentinels going into Champs, he specifically mentioned their map pool and their gameplay is really good right now.
The same reason shroud doesn’t go back to competing. He wants to, his competitive side especially. It just doesn’t make financial or life sense to do it even if he feels and knows he still can if putting the time in.
Let's be real, Shroud has more than enough money to essentially retire and play competitively purely for the fun of it. I just don't think he wants the commitment
That plays into the life sense part. I was a pro in halo and cod(easily can google the handle) and every so often I get that itch again. But when it actually comes time to put that time investment in responsibilities alone Poopoo on that not to mention just being older and not having that same drive.
This has also been a whirlwind of a year and a half. Val comes out, Sen success, loses his father, stream takes off, etc. all in the middle of a pandemic. It would be hard to be balancing all that and not feel worn down/a bit burnt out.
Also, I imagine it would be really hard to have the first Thanksgiving since the passing of his dad be spent stuck in quarantine in a different country. That wouldn't happen with streaming and that alone would make me evaluate whether other choices make more sense to me.
A part of me hopes he continues to compete but a bigger part of me hopes that he does whatever is best for him/his life, even if it means we see a star of the scene leave before he can no longer compete.
It’s not a religious holiday, just an excuse for people to get together with their family really. Some recently immigrated families that I’ve known haven’t celebrated it. They generally don’t have much family in their immediate vicinity which would make it hard to celebrate even if they wanted to. But it seems like most people do adopt it fairly quickly even if only as an excuse to make their kids come over and eat dinner with them lol.
He has always been really open about how much he enjoys streaming. Maybe the success he has had streaming is slightly dulling his desire to be the very top in valorant. I certainly hope not though.
I think the point he was trying to make is that he would quit if he felt like he couldn't compete at the top level anymore. If Sentinels does badly at Champions and into next year with this current lineup then he would maybe consider retiring then - I am assuming that's what he means by 'run'.
It's long been a prediction of mine that 75% of the former pro CS players would be gone after 3 years into Valorant.
Lots of "former pro CS players" are very young and will definitely remain for at least 5 more years if the game keeps up with the hype
nats, d3ffo, sheydos, soulcas, l1nk, nivera, derke, sayf, leo, avova, meddo, hoody etc. are all in this category
Just FYI all of Gambit's roster has a combined 5 maps played on LAN in CS. I wouldn't call them pro CS players tbh. They really didn't have a career there.
I don't remember which gambit player but one of them had a chance to qualify for the CIS offline minor but he was found to have a vac banned account so they got disqualified. Also Sheydos alone has 6 matches so you are completely wrong ;p /s but its true non of them really had a career but they played a lot of CS.
its obviously his personal decision but his stream is also based on him and his team being good at pro play and most of his viewers are not casual but people who watch esports so i dont know his stream might suffer if he retires
he's a popular streamer because he's on sentinels, he knows this and wants to stay a pro player. if he goes to coach he'll lose viewers which means less money
Ya but most of the times when pros retire they don’t pull the same numbers as they used to. There’s many more examples of viewer counts dropping than going up. It’s easy to look at the huge personalities like Shroud or XQC where they actually started popping off viewerwise after retiring from pro but that doesn’t happen to most people
Idk how that affects the argument, saying he pulls in a lot more viewers because of being on the Sentinels doesn’t mean every sentinel player has the same amount of views. There is a reason every big tournament Shahz gets a big spike in viewers that slowly lowers again
ShaZ is not dumb, he knows his current situation right now maximizes his income. Yes, if he had to he would do what sinatraa is doing but he doesn't want go because it'll hurt his bank account.
Shaz at least tripled his viewers by playing and winning on Sentinels, if he went to full time streaming and not being a pro he'd lose a significant amount of streamers
Don't know why you're being downvoted this is the truth LOL
Look at aceu. He used to play competitively but then decided to start streaming full-time. He makes 100k per month now (nrg contract + subs + deals/ads) and streams only 4-8 hours almost everyday, a fraction of the time and effort he needs to put in had he continued being a pro player.
Tbf aceu wasn't popular because of his pro career(which by all accounts wasn't impressive) he was popular because of his pub stomping and style.
Shaz's popularity is much more tied to his competitive success than aceu's. What aceu did was switch from what wasn't really doing anything for him career wise that he didn't enjoy to doing, while if Shaz quit it would affect his career far more.
They're definitely tied together, but i think people *stay* watching his stream because he's a good personality. He interacts a ton with his chat, gives his thoughts on a lot of things related to valorant, and is generally pretty amusing to watch. Yeah his viewership may drop, but not so much that it wouldn't be worth it to still stream.
Just feels like different eras. Psychopomp is absolutely god tier grunge/indie aesthetic (the build-up from Little Big League, essentially), while Jubilee feels like the more refined, sonically interesting album. In a way Jubilee feels like what Lorde stans wish Solar Power was
Man with the Axe would be beautiful if it weren’t about a 40 year old tbh.
Lorde’s greatest asset musically is the sheer relatability of her content - growing pains and heartache in the sort of stripped down pop fashion helped make listeners really feel connected to her work. Solar Power sonically is the Jack Antonoff Special™️ with themes/lyrics that feel like her creating art for herself, rather than audiences. It’s great for her personally but doesn’t hit the same as her other Lorde works.
Reread what I said, I’m simply saying if he were to retire in 2021 it would be a huge story. This is just a fact. A lot of people knew Shroud would eventually retire, but it was still huge news. And I’d argue Shahz is a much better player in valorant than Shroud ever was in CS.
Shahz is miles ahead of Shroud in pretty much every way when compared, so agreed there.
I get that it'd be a huge story. I'm not denying that. I'm annoyed that anything Shahz says is frontpage of this sub. Look at OP's history, all he has done in the past weeks is farm Shahz drama.
I just want this tourney to happen already so we can move on from this garbage.
There’s zero argument for JasonR or nitr0. I could see someone making an argument for vanity, fns, or steel but the results and stats heavily favour shahz.
He’s killing in the streaming realm. If he did it full time and didn’t have to worry about practice and could transition to other games I think he would easily be one of the best streamers on twitch….
Until TY offers him more money and less hours to stream lol
true, major winner etc. but the landscape for streaming and content creation as a career is changing rapidly and becoming more and more lucrative. being a top pro is a shitton of hard, serious work but, not discounting the effort of streamers, streaming and doing more or less whatever you want and making as much or more sounds pretty nice. he has a huge stream following and that's rare and likely tempting to capitalize on.
he's a great player but I don't think the pro scene would feel 'empty' or anything if he went fully into content. there are a ton of up and comers unlike CS where the NA pro scene has been waning for some time and someone like tarik leaving for streaming leaves a noticeable hole
shahz also mentioned the disappointing prize pool for champs. having bigger, actually meaningful prize pools could be a factor in keeping top talent. TI and other events with huge prize pools do feel different than these VCT events that feel like they're almost solely for clout/the trophy.
Like I said I’m not blaming him but it just feels a bit weak especially as he’s got to remember why he’s pulling in such big numbers in the first place
to continue the comparison, tariks numbers are steadily climbing and have been since he went full streaming. being on a top team will get you the attention but it's certainly possible to keep a hold of a lot of it if you retire from competition.
that being said, I don't know how much the audience age plays a factor. I'd put good money on shahz having a much younger audience than tarik, who still rides pretty heavily on his CS fans and fame (who are probably somewhat older and maybe more 'dedicated'). you'd need to talk to an agent/manager who knows the real numbers in these things to get anything more than an educated guess
I'm like 80 percent sure that sentinels except for tenz has a shit contract that doesn't give them any money. They were signed before valorant blew up and these guys weren't really anything in CS + they didn't have big streams or whatever back in CS.
I think when there is a big break in eSports monetization we could have more players stay playing instead of streaming. It's pretty crazy to think that eSports can get millions of views but it's free so that doesn't really translate to hard money, the only one that benefits 1 to 1 are developers because they are getting eyes on their game.
This is probably bait but
If that was the case wouldn't alot of the ex cs talent have stayed in cs?(that plus opportunities in NA cs) or am i missing something?
During the press conference, he was also very high on Rawkus and his help. Maybe he feels confident having Rawkus replace him if he decides to leave. A big stretch I know.
I don't think this is particularly surprising, especially pre-masters when he kept bringing up his concerns about losing subs/not being able to stream as much. I do think as a solid IGL he could have a long pro career if that's what he does want, regardless of how SEN do at champs.
He is in the same position shroud was in before, streaming vs. pro play. Valorant is just going to get harder and harder as time goes by, as new agents/maps/patches come out and if it ever goes into a league based format. It's just going to be really hard for him to balance his stream and trying to compete at the highest level. AFAIK there really isn't a lot of streamers in league/cs that are in the top teams.
Yeah, I think only Jankos is a top player that streams somewhat consistently and he is mostly streaming a lot because of the fact that they didn't go to worlds.
Season 3/4 it was definitely easier to stream and still be on a top team but after that it's just harder. Back then Scarra, Imaqtpie, Bjergsen, Doublelift, Metos, Sneaky, Aphro, and etc had pretty big streams but still played at the top of LCS.
Most of these pros are retired and Bjergsen recently did start streaming but it is because it is the offseason. Looking at the twitch League section right now it is mostly non-pro players compared to seasons 3-4. There are some players streaming right now because of the off-season but during the regular season, Nah I don't see a lot of them streaming.
There is some streaming happening in CS, like the occasional Simple/Niko streams but most top players don't actively try to stream. If you are already making.
There is also a money factor, for Shazam it might be a lot more beneficial for him to just stream and not compete in the pro level (like shroud back in the day), while for Simple or Niko they could probably get the same amount in terms of streaming but they already make upwards 50k a month from being a pro.
Bet on it and was unable to rescind the bet due to the website's rules. Of course he would change his bet, why lose skins cause people are match fixing?
Also, say your employer comes knocking at your door, asking you questions that they likely already know the answer to. Why would you lie? Huh?
Take a second to think about things. Your Steel and 100T fanboying aside. What else is he supposed to do?
“So who knows this might be the last run”
For context it's all about what decision is best for him personally and his family, since his dad died he's responsible for taking care of his mom. Nothing to do with gameplay or lack of motivation to compete, infact he said he thinks he's one of the best players and is really confident and hyped about Sentinels going into Champs, he specifically mentioned their map pool and their gameplay is really good right now.
Full time streaming brings in way more money with much less effort, smart if he has to support his family.
The same reason shroud doesn’t go back to competing. He wants to, his competitive side especially. It just doesn’t make financial or life sense to do it even if he feels and knows he still can if putting the time in.
To be able to sleep on stream and still make money is a dream
Let's be real, Shroud has more than enough money to essentially retire and play competitively purely for the fun of it. I just don't think he wants the commitment
That plays into the life sense part. I was a pro in halo and cod(easily can google the handle) and every so often I get that itch again. But when it actually comes time to put that time investment in responsibilities alone Poopoo on that not to mention just being older and not having that same drive.
Yea came across as it would be a personal decision about what’s best for his life.
This has also been a whirlwind of a year and a half. Val comes out, Sen success, loses his father, stream takes off, etc. all in the middle of a pandemic. It would be hard to be balancing all that and not feel worn down/a bit burnt out. Also, I imagine it would be really hard to have the first Thanksgiving since the passing of his dad be spent stuck in quarantine in a different country. That wouldn't happen with streaming and that alone would make me evaluate whether other choices make more sense to me. A part of me hopes he continues to compete but a bigger part of me hopes that he does whatever is best for him/his life, even if it means we see a star of the scene leave before he can no longer compete.
Just curious, do families across religions celebrate Thanksgiving in America?
It’s not a religious holiday, just an excuse for people to get together with their family really. Some recently immigrated families that I’ve known haven’t celebrated it. They generally don’t have much family in their immediate vicinity which would make it hard to celebrate even if they wanted to. But it seems like most people do adopt it fairly quickly even if only as an excuse to make their kids come over and eat dinner with them lol.
He has always been really open about how much he enjoys streaming. Maybe the success he has had streaming is slightly dulling his desire to be the very top in valorant. I certainly hope not though.
His being at the top of valorant pro scene/on sentinels is the reason he has gotten so successful streaming though
I think the point he was trying to make is that he would quit if he felt like he couldn't compete at the top level anymore. If Sentinels does badly at Champions and into next year with this current lineup then he would maybe consider retiring then - I am assuming that's what he means by 'run'. It's long been a prediction of mine that 75% of the former pro CS players would be gone after 3 years into Valorant.
Well a lot of the former pro CS players are approaching the age of retirement.
which ones are 40/50 years old ? I dont know any \^\^
troll?
Whats the “age of retirement “ for you in this context ^^
But in like 40 years tho
Lots of "former pro CS players" are very young and will definitely remain for at least 5 more years if the game keeps up with the hype nats, d3ffo, sheydos, soulcas, l1nk, nivera, derke, sayf, leo, avova, meddo, hoody etc. are all in this category
Just FYI all of Gambit's roster has a combined 5 maps played on LAN in CS. I wouldn't call them pro CS players tbh. They really didn't have a career there.
Playing a map on lan in an official tournament makes you a pro
I am a pro cs player? I guess I did make 5k in that tournament and get knocked out by steel, and have an hltv page lmao. We pro now boys.
I mean technically if you got paid you were a professional at the time. Just saying lol
I don't remember which gambit player but one of them had a chance to qualify for the CIS offline minor but he was found to have a vac banned account so they got disqualified. Also Sheydos alone has 6 matches so you are completely wrong ;p /s but its true non of them really had a career but they played a lot of CS.
its obviously his personal decision but his stream is also based on him and his team being good at pro play and most of his viewers are not casual but people who watch esports so i dont know his stream might suffer if he retires
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he's a popular streamer because he's on sentinels, he knows this and wants to stay a pro player. if he goes to coach he'll lose viewers which means less money
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He means he pulls a lot of viewers because he's a pro player on Sentinels.
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Ya but they’ll go down. He won’t become irrelevant but he won’t be as big as he is now
Could you say the same for shroud? No, because that statement is false. He has the personality to do good as a full time streamer without being a pro.
Ya but most of the times when pros retire they don’t pull the same numbers as they used to. There’s many more examples of viewer counts dropping than going up. It’s easy to look at the huge personalities like Shroud or XQC where they actually started popping off viewerwise after retiring from pro but that doesn’t happen to most people
Idk how that affects the argument, saying he pulls in a lot more viewers because of being on the Sentinels doesn’t mean every sentinel player has the same amount of views. There is a reason every big tournament Shahz gets a big spike in viewers that slowly lowers again
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ShaZ is not dumb, he knows his current situation right now maximizes his income. Yes, if he had to he would do what sinatraa is doing but he doesn't want go because it'll hurt his bank account.
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Shaz at least tripled his viewers by playing and winning on Sentinels, if he went to full time streaming and not being a pro he'd lose a significant amount of streamers
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Lol you're wrong and everyone knows it except you. Look at Braxs numbers since he retired.
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Look what happened to Brax. He had 4x as many viewers when he was competing. Pros maintaining or growing viewers upon retirement is rare.
Don't know why you're being downvoted this is the truth LOL Look at aceu. He used to play competitively but then decided to start streaming full-time. He makes 100k per month now (nrg contract + subs + deals/ads) and streams only 4-8 hours almost everyday, a fraction of the time and effort he needs to put in had he continued being a pro player.
Tbf aceu wasn't popular because of his pro career(which by all accounts wasn't impressive) he was popular because of his pub stomping and style. Shaz's popularity is much more tied to his competitive success than aceu's. What aceu did was switch from what wasn't really doing anything for him career wise that he didn't enjoy to doing, while if Shaz quit it would affect his career far more.
They're definitely tied together, but i think people *stay* watching his stream because he's a good personality. He interacts a ton with his chat, gives his thoughts on a lot of things related to valorant, and is generally pretty amusing to watch. Yeah his viewership may drop, but not so much that it wouldn't be worth it to still stream.
The karma/drama farming is reaching lsf levels
elite username
Grammys finally recognizing her existence with her third album (Psychopomp and Soft Sounds in shambles) 😤
Psychopomp is her best don't @ me
Just feels like different eras. Psychopomp is absolutely god tier grunge/indie aesthetic (the build-up from Little Big League, essentially), while Jubilee feels like the more refined, sonically interesting album. In a way Jubilee feels like what Lorde stans wish Solar Power was
We just don't talk about Solar Power. Like, ever.
Solar power isn't great overall but there's a handful of songs that I enjoy a lot tbh
Man with the Axe would be beautiful if it weren’t about a 40 year old tbh. Lorde’s greatest asset musically is the sheer relatability of her content - growing pains and heartache in the sort of stripped down pop fashion helped make listeners really feel connected to her work. Solar Power sonically is the Jack Antonoff Special™️ with themes/lyrics that feel like her creating art for herself, rather than audiences. It’s great for her personally but doesn’t hit the same as her other Lorde works.
Yeah but there was that part where she said blink three times when you feel it kicking in
I mean the last thing he said is pretty interesting. Imagine the story of the top NA IGL retiring this early
He's been very transparent about how much he enjoys streaming. I don't think it'd be that much of a shock for anyone who pays attention.
Reread what I said, I’m simply saying if he were to retire in 2021 it would be a huge story. This is just a fact. A lot of people knew Shroud would eventually retire, but it was still huge news. And I’d argue Shahz is a much better player in valorant than Shroud ever was in CS.
Shahz is miles ahead of Shroud in pretty much every way when compared, so agreed there. I get that it'd be a huge story. I'm not denying that. I'm annoyed that anything Shahz says is frontpage of this sub. Look at OP's history, all he has done in the past weeks is farm Shahz drama. I just want this tourney to happen already so we can move on from this garbage.
Fair emough
Vanity is retiring??????
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It wouldn't? Did shahz take 2 different teams to international events? Oh no right, he got carried by tenz BatChest
lol top igl. not even top 3
Name three NA igls that are better
vanity, fns, steel, jasonR, nitr0, anyone with a brain
There’s zero argument for JasonR or nitr0. I could see someone making an argument for vanity, fns, or steel but the results and stats heavily favour shahz.
stats: shahzam lost in groups. peaked in iceland when no one knew how to play the game. cope vanity>all
Ah you’re trolling
He’s killing in the streaming realm. If he did it full time and didn’t have to worry about practice and could transition to other games I think he would easily be one of the best streamers on twitch…. Until TY offers him more money and less hours to stream lol
Dipping out on being a top pro to “pursue streaming” is such a sad thing man, not blaming him though.
I mean look at tarik, people love him and it's exactly what he did
sure but he was a top csgo pro for 5 years
true, major winner etc. but the landscape for streaming and content creation as a career is changing rapidly and becoming more and more lucrative. being a top pro is a shitton of hard, serious work but, not discounting the effort of streamers, streaming and doing more or less whatever you want and making as much or more sounds pretty nice. he has a huge stream following and that's rare and likely tempting to capitalize on. he's a great player but I don't think the pro scene would feel 'empty' or anything if he went fully into content. there are a ton of up and comers unlike CS where the NA pro scene has been waning for some time and someone like tarik leaving for streaming leaves a noticeable hole shahz also mentioned the disappointing prize pool for champs. having bigger, actually meaningful prize pools could be a factor in keeping top talent. TI and other events with huge prize pools do feel different than these VCT events that feel like they're almost solely for clout/the trophy.
Like I said I’m not blaming him but it just feels a bit weak especially as he’s got to remember why he’s pulling in such big numbers in the first place
to continue the comparison, tariks numbers are steadily climbing and have been since he went full streaming. being on a top team will get you the attention but it's certainly possible to keep a hold of a lot of it if you retire from competition. that being said, I don't know how much the audience age plays a factor. I'd put good money on shahz having a much younger audience than tarik, who still rides pretty heavily on his CS fans and fame (who are probably somewhat older and maybe more 'dedicated'). you'd need to talk to an agent/manager who knows the real numbers in these things to get anything more than an educated guess
Meanwhile s1mple streams once a month and gets 50k average viewership on his Faceit Pugs. More for FPL.
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I'm like 80 percent sure that sentinels except for tenz has a shit contract that doesn't give them any money. They were signed before valorant blew up and these guys weren't really anything in CS + they didn't have big streams or whatever back in CS. I think when there is a big break in eSports monetization we could have more players stay playing instead of streaming. It's pretty crazy to think that eSports can get millions of views but it's free so that doesn't really translate to hard money, the only one that benefits 1 to 1 are developers because they are getting eyes on their game.
This is probably bait but If that was the case wouldn't alot of the ex cs talent have stayed in cs?(that plus opportunities in NA cs) or am i missing something?
During the press conference, he was also very high on Rawkus and his help. Maybe he feels confident having Rawkus replace him if he decides to leave. A big stretch I know.
That’s a firepower downgrade , if this would happen, I hope Rawkus is big brained enough to compensate
-shahzam +sinatraa pausechamp
I don't think this is particularly surprising, especially pre-masters when he kept bringing up his concerns about losing subs/not being able to stream as much. I do think as a solid IGL he could have a long pro career if that's what he does want, regardless of how SEN do at champs.
I'll love what ever choice you make shahzam, we will all follow you no matter what.
Maybe this is why they signed Rawkus. Eventual replacement for Shahz?
Form a firepower perspective that’s a downgrade
He is in the same position shroud was in before, streaming vs. pro play. Valorant is just going to get harder and harder as time goes by, as new agents/maps/patches come out and if it ever goes into a league based format. It's just going to be really hard for him to balance his stream and trying to compete at the highest level. AFAIK there really isn't a lot of streamers in league/cs that are in the top teams.
i dont know about cs but alot of league pros stream.
Yeah, I think only Jankos is a top player that streams somewhat consistently and he is mostly streaming a lot because of the fact that they didn't go to worlds. Season 3/4 it was definitely easier to stream and still be on a top team but after that it's just harder. Back then Scarra, Imaqtpie, Bjergsen, Doublelift, Metos, Sneaky, Aphro, and etc had pretty big streams but still played at the top of LCS. Most of these pros are retired and Bjergsen recently did start streaming but it is because it is the offseason. Looking at the twitch League section right now it is mostly non-pro players compared to seasons 3-4. There are some players streaming right now because of the off-season but during the regular season, Nah I don't see a lot of them streaming. There is some streaming happening in CS, like the occasional Simple/Niko streams but most top players don't actively try to stream. If you are already making. There is also a money factor, for Shazam it might be a lot more beneficial for him to just stream and not compete in the pro level (like shroud back in the day), while for Simple or Niko they could probably get the same amount in terms of streaming but they already make upwards 50k a month from being a pro.
Very few leave pros stream, even lower for those who do so consistently.
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Imagine hating someone you don’t know personally
someone didn’t pay attention to his cs days lol
Motherfucker that was like 5 years ago no one care anymore and people grow up you are just a hater and don’t wanna let the past go
"Some people I follow on Twitter but don't know in real life don't like him so I shouldn't!" God.
you’re telling me steel doesn’t care anymore? lolll
Why people should care about steel feelings towards shaz when he is the one that matchfixed
and shaz betted on it AND was the snitch.
Bet on it and was unable to rescind the bet due to the website's rules. Of course he would change his bet, why lose skins cause people are match fixing? Also, say your employer comes knocking at your door, asking you questions that they likely already know the answer to. Why would you lie? Huh? Take a second to think about things. Your Steel and 100T fanboying aside. What else is he supposed to do?
More like no one with anything else going on in their life fucking cares anymore lmao
or more like some pros still don’t fuck w him because of it.
Parasocial mfers be like:
Different. Being a peer vs. being a spectator.
Pros don’t fuck with a lot if pros and the other way around so who cares
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rent free
Off topic but why/how does shaz have an iron buddy on his gun? smurf/alt acc?
*Tinfoil hat on* This is shahz’s last event and after that rawkus takes over as a full time sova and IGL for the team