shroud and i are both from toronto. if you’d like to meet the cooler one…. I’ll be at off world bar doing an IEM Rio watch party in Toronto on April 23rd (Grand finals!): bit.ly/3KOwfju
Launders analysis is always so grounded. He really puts the human behind the player while also showing a bigger picture. He does this by understanding the players perspective in relationship to the bigger picture.
@@MrRtisch I don't think it's about proving or disproving anything. It's more like he DID get at least one big title (within the context of the time). Neat bit of trivia too.
Since you talk so much of what others have done for the game, I think we should reflect that onto you as well. Besides you being a great caster and making pro play more entertaining, you release content that encourages the community to generate a more psychologically healthy environment. This is some great stuff and as a community, we are obligated to thank you for what you are doing. ❤
Since you're talking so much about what others have done, why don't we talk about what you've done for CS then, huh? I have no idea, but seeing how you look like a nice individual, I guess you've done your best to keep the community healthy
I'd love to see this type of video on some other pros from yesteryears. Maybe go the other way and talk about pros who are underrated today (new players never saw them in their peak). GuardiaN for example would be sick! That guy has got to be some of the safest pair of hands I've ever seen one the awp.
having seen falcons play in the rmr's this really just explains how i felt about kennyS in the current meta, mechanically he's a monster, but he never seemed to be able to get a read on the game or take control of things, always getting caught off guard. just shows how much there is to cs than meets the eye. Also great video mohan, really like the perspective and light you shed on these topics, very insightful. 👍
i think one of the things that annoys people of recent (i personally don't care) is that these guys left CS which is fine and all, but then some of them (shroud being one of them) bashed on CS pretty hard then they are the first to get access to the CS2 beta, some feel like they don't really deserve it especially when at the time some of the current pro's hadn't even gotten access yet and actually had to ask for access. i know why they got access (publicity) but some people dont like that type of thing. on the CS side of things what he good at CS yeah he was, anyone who plays at pro level CS had to have been good at some point but was he a good pro? no he was average at best and those who say he could have been the greatest of all time if he tried harder just no, even when he was in his "prime" he was mid tier, in his prime was he better then players like Olof, Guardian, Flusha, Cold, F0rest etc no he wasn't. this is a guy who never made top 20 ever if you want to ever be in the conversation of being a great of CS you atleast need to be in the top 20 atleast once
I actually thing he very well could've been the greatest of all time but I guess he didn't really, like REALLY focus on improving the aspects that he was lacking in, like the part where lau talked about the Cobble B site presence and comparing him to Stewie and how Shroud lacked assertiveness and utility use etc. I think "the switch" never clicked for him and those things might've never even crossed his mind, he just focused on improving his mechanical skill.
I agree completely i'd say overall tho Shroud is a better "gamer" which sounds incredibly cringe but Shroud has been able to perform at "professional" level in literally all the games he touches which is why I think people consider him to be one of the greatest of all times. I do agree that pro level wise he was overrated in csgo but overall I wouldn't say he's an overrated streamer.
@@isoreii5062hes a very successful streamer, hes not one i watch personally but i dont think hes over rated and yeah hes very good at games, he picks the mechanics of games up well, hes kinda a jack of all trades master of none in that sense, i dont think he has the capacity to be the best (at a pro level) in any 1 game but he can be ok in all of them
@@Remu- even if he did focus on really improving i dont think he would have been as good as the players i mentioned. personally i think Brax had a way higher skill ceiling then shroud did
@@comeatmebro3229 Yeah Brax was a hell of a player but he seemed like the kinda guy with not much of a work ethic and now he seems to have fallen off the face of the earth completely.
Great video. As a French fan who begun to watch CS in 2015, it brought back so many memories. Even if it was the beginning of the end for Shroud competively speaking.
This take is based. Csgo up until recently has not had much in terms in content other then gun buffs and nerfs and it does get boring after a while. I myself am sitting on 15k + hours and see myself playing old school runescape more often than not these days because it gives me dopamine rushes still seeing that number go up after hours of grinding. you dont get that same feeling when your account ranks up and you get a new service medal or ranking up to global. it gets old after a while, and some people cant afford to buy skins to keep the game interesting.
It gets boring in the same way a traditional sport might get boring… CS is intentionally designed to have basic and simple rules so that the highest skill ceilings can be reached. Think basketball, always the same court dimensions, rules etc. in that sense, the ‘game’ and the ‘content’ is the skills we hone as CS players. CS is designed to be every man’s sport that gives them an area to continuously improve, to learn communication and team play, and to achieve sport ‘greatness’. This is why the game has been here for ages and still hits peaks! Content is fun but perhaps Valve has done rigorous analysis and found a trade off/cons to introducing more content (like danger zone, gameplay like Negev changes etc)
@@thalberg- I agree with your take. That makes total sense, I just wish they would add something that doesn't change gameplay that adds some sense of progression to the game like a gun leveling system (different from other games like cod and val)
i for one am hopeful and excited to see some of these guys come back even just for the bros for the mm demons, gives us some motivation to play more when your favourite streamers are not just grinding faceit
These are some of the most interesting cs vids I see nowadays and I expect the viewer numbers to rise massively. Maybe you just need that one vid that youtube algorythm decides to recommend to everyone and this channel will start getting 100k+ views per vid easily.
Shroud, Moe, Steel, DaZeD, Swag, Tarik, Shaz and more I'm forgetting now all played such a huge part in me getting into the competitive side of CS. Before discovering the CSGO section of Twitch in 2013 I would only play community game modes like Jailbreak. Watching those guys stream Rank S while also getting to see them compete against each other in real matches was something special.
Funny, was just thinking about your videos randomly a few days ago. Used to watch you when you made movement videos for csgo, great to see you still in this sphere!
Been taking a long break from CS and decided to return and went to see if lau had some new videos and i love this greenscreen handheld microphone thing feels very General Sam'ish and adds such a cozy vibe to your analysis.
I came into this expecting to not like what I would hear, only to be blown away by your insight. I’m 25 now, and your commentating and expert analysis of the game has amazed me since I was 16/17.
He was average, just had good aim but other than that he wasn't good at anything else, was just mid. Shroud fans act like he was a top 5 cs player. Thats why he was good on Faceit, but when it came to LAN he was average. S1mple plays like Shroud did on Faceit at LAN. Sure he might have gotten better, but he was average when it came to being a PRO player. Its the same reason why rank 1-5 faceit players can go to pro lan and do absolutely nothing worthwhile, being a good pro is more than mechanical ability. Stewie managed to translate his Faceit stomps into pro games, Shroud didn't. He also left the game that made him who he was, then started shitting on it, which also adds to why cs players don't like him. Shroud did have a pretty good year where he hovered around 1.14-1.16, but having a good year don't make you a great player, most pros have their moments
Also, to say that the game made him is an exaggeration. He brought a lot of attention to the game as well, it was a mutual relationship. And like Launders said, the community has done nothing but call him overrated and a snake for leaving CS. I'm not a huge fan of shroud but shitting on the guy the second he streams a game he wants to play is the reason why content creators and streamers haven't touched CS in years.
Not to forget Stewie helped improve the meta. Smokes went from becoming walls to something to push and prod and even take advantage of. I love how now atleast people in MM try to pop flash through a smoke than rushing blindly because they saw how good Stew was doing it.
The thing that made me interested to shroud is not just from him playing csgo and his aim but how he adapts quickly to other games and sweep a lot of players, maybe not in the professional level but enough to at least win a lot of games
i'd say his positioning & gamesense are really good (though obviously not as good as his mechanics) & that gives him a lot of good fights - in whatever game. it's definitely something people can learn from seeing how people like him play games, imo
4:50 this is such a good statement like I’m big into rainbow six siege and shroud came back to play ranked with his friends and uploaded a video. I had no problem with this until I went to the comments of the video and saw a lot of uneducated people in his comments saying he’d destroy pros even though he was struggling vs copper players and I’m not making that up in the video the enemy team were all coppers but I get it he is amazing at every game he touches but claims like that are insane
launders i used to find u so boring when u where casting matches due to ur voice but in a youtube video format its actually so soothing and ur knowledge on the game is great
5:50 I wouldn't say that is the best 1v5 of all time due to how many whiffs there were in that clip. Maybe you could say it was the best 1v5 during that era of csgo but that would definitely not happen these days lol
new lau enjoyer here. usto be a hater on the casting... at times, but over time ive come to really appreciate your breakdowns and explanations of the game. also the chemistry you and skrawny have is really entertaining. i really enjoyed the shroud vid. thanks for the good content.
Shroud's best top performances in big matches imo: 1) pro league s1 final vs fnatic, 100-80 (across 4 maps) including 32-17 on map 1 and 32-24 on map 4 2)e-league season 1 vs navi 78-57 (across 3 maps) dude literally went insane in this match literally was pugging 3)vs nip in cologne 2014 with 69-50 across 3 maps 4) facit league 2015 finals vs fnatic 56-38 (across 2 maps) including 37-26 on map 2 with double overtime but had good 3ks for highlights Some people would argue his best performance vs navi in cologne 2017 but he wasnt so consistent throughout the match in the first 5 rounds he already had 12 kills but still ended with 26-15 in total of 30 rounds
I've played CS for 20 years and I didn't even know Shroud's name until PUBG. He wasn't a very noteworthy pro, and his pug streams meant nothing to me since "streaming" was barely noticed at the time. Times sure have changed. But sure, him talking about CS in his streams essentially give the game free advertising , so I'll give him credit where it's due.
He was an exceptional smurf you could say hahah. Its something about the movement of good players I think. When I play against people who move unpredictably (in my case its actually the bad players) all my aim leaves me. I cant hit sht. For him its the opposite I think. People just walk perfectly into where he wants to hit.
I would love it if he comes back to cs2 successfully. Yes his skills are very mechanics oriented, but I also think it's a bit unfair to compare him to current pros, as the playstyle has evolved a lot from then to now.
Well he wasn't good enough then. It's not about playstyle, he just isn't smart enough and didn't have the mental for the highest level. Nobody questioned his mechanics.
Insane mechanical skill and got lucky with some of his decision making, unfortunately pros will exploit weakness and he had alot to exploit strats wise, fun to watch though, he would get in the worst position and fight his way out, fun to ask how the F is he going to get out of this...
I think as fans, some of stewie, shroud and Tarik’s comments can get under the skin because we all love this game (and love them as NA fans) and you don’t want to hear them talking down on it as a game. This is the NA old guard, the OGs of an NA scene that is severely lacking in star power. Maybe if we had someone like m0nesey, to faun over and put our hopes into, then we could let them leave gracefully, but for now we have our opinions, their fans have theirs, and the players themselves don’t seem to give much of a shit either way. Idk, when I saw Stewie and Hiko reacting to the CS2 trailer it made me realize how much they’ve all moved on.
This kind of video would be interesting with a lot of different players. Would be nice to see some real delving history of snax, NBK, kennyS, Guardian, flusha, n0thing and so on. Lots of great players who aren't at the top level anymore but have a lot of history (even pre-dating CSGO obviously).
Good at getting clips in FPL and Rank S, average at best on LAN. He had his moments but people see his Twitch clips and think he's doing that shit in officials lmao.
Vindication! This is basically what I've been saying for years. Shroud is not just good but great at every FPS I've seen him play. I have no doubt he could still grind up to global elite in CS. But that is a different set of skills from being a pro. It's a bit like, the globetrotters are "good at basketball," but they wouldn't do well in the NBA (an exaggeration, but you get the point).
cs fans can be so dumb, while shroud I get there’s natural push back because so many people hoist him up like he was a goat, and he can be quick to criticize while he may not always be right, but my favorite thing was when he played cs like one day a year a few years ago just to shed light to all the cheaters in the game, he obviously makes these comments because he cares about cs. Tarik is just like only positive stuff man idk how people could ever hate on the man lmfaoo
I don’t get why when shroud said the exact same criticisms of CS (poor mm, infrequently updated, etc), people called it “hating” on the game (even though he also said lots of positive things about the game at the same time), but when people who only play CS make the same criticisms, it’s fine. Just because he went to play another game doesn’t mean he’s wrong or “hating” on CS. At the same time people who pretend shroud was some kind of under appreciated CS prodigy are giga cringe. He had some nice highlights but overall had relatively unimpressive stats.
Nice video and I'd be up for defending Shroud most of the time considering not only the era he played in but also considering the obvious raw talent he had. However, there's absolutely no way he was ever even the best player mechanically in the world. I've been watching comp CS since 2014 and whilst Shroud was certainly up there, there is no basis to claim he was (apparently by far) ever a better mechanical player than players like Niko, Rain, Scream, Shox, Cold (picked these as they were the best comps for Shroud's arguable peak). One would argue that these players not only DID put those highlights together, but did them in pro matches and not Rank S, and even if you want to eye test these players, its a bit over the top to claim Shroud is BY FAR the best mechanical player over any of them.
yeah i was really confused by this point. even s1mple came into the scene in 2015 i believe (with esl ban of course) and put up wayy better stats than shroud ever did
I don't get why you guys can't differentiate between mechanics and skill. Shrouds mechanics (movement, crosshair placement, raw aim, spray control, etc) were practically robotic when you watched him play and while I don't know if his mechanics were the best we've seen when you look at someone like ropz but at his time of playing he was pretty much #1. His skill was sub par as you constantly see him doing really stupid plays, bad comms, and other things lau pointed out but that's not his mechanical skill. Someone like cold did not have insane mechanics compared to the other pros, he was simply better than everyone else at all of the other important aspects of CS for a good year or so. Same with these other pro players that you mentioned who are all better players but just not at his overall mechanics. Maybe one or 2 were better movement or crosshair placement and maybe raw aim but legit all of his mechanics were at a level that most couldn't beat maybe only match at certain points but that was shrouds constant. Still has insane mechanics despite not even competing
@@AvocadoBondage ok lets look at the years he has played and the top 20s. shox, flamie, device, forest, s1mple, scream, niko, olof, elige, rain, electronic, ropz, twistzz. those i would consider being better than shroud mechanically. some are of course debatable but im confident that most players i listed are clearly better
shroud also said that recently one thing he lacked of back when he was competing was the game sense. He said he used to only play the way n0thing told him to. I think if he had kept competing, he would definitely be one of the top players.
Don't really care what game shroud plays, he's cool, not toxic, and his aim is so damn satisfying, back when I watched him in old Cs times him and roca where my faves because of the consistant aim, so sick
As an Indian I've been watching CSGO when I was like 13-14 years old. Basically I can say that I'm a boomer who even watched the first CSGO major. I remember watching shroud coming to Cloud9. He wasn't that great and I wasn't a super fan of him but he had insane mechanics from the very beginning. Also the fact that coming from a country where PC gaming isn't so huge even till this date and people generally plays games like PUBG-Mobile and other mobile games everyone knows who shroud is. No matter what game you play most of them know who shroud is. So I'd say that not only what he has done for CSGO but for esports in general is quite an achievement. I'd rate him as someone who is so fucking adaptive and you can literally give him any fps games, give him few weeks and he'd play better than majority of people.
Obviously I am no big pro, but I can absolutely credit my 3k hours in CS to shroud. I watched him destroy in PUBG, then got recommended some VODs of Shroud-C9 matches. I was watching those pro games for a few months before ever touching the game myself. While I didn't know anything about the game, hell I remember googling whether the players can see the outlines through the walls, they were just so fun to watch xD
10:24 Shroud did win EPL Season 4 in 2017, which I would consider a big tournament win. In the grand scheme of things though, it’s a pretty minor detail that doesn’t affect the point of the video.
Dude can frag, but fragging isn't the only thing that wins. It looks good in casual games, but when the games get real he fades out. Raw aim can't beat a full team working together during the length of a match.
As a diehard CSGO elitist I definitely don't hate shroud and to a certain extent I understand why he shits on CS as much as he does. But I do think it's hilarious when people who started playing video games with Fortnite and Call of Duty try to argue that he's the best FPS player of all time. Anyone who's a pro in CSGO would be better than any most FPS players, that's just a fact, and if s1mple focused more on his stream than being a pro he'd look even crazier than shroud. As for people like tarik, I respect them because 1. they don't constantly shit on counterstrike and 2. he won a MAJOR, FOR NA! At least he's actually qualified to speak on the game and still showcases the pro scene to his Valorant viewerbase and supports the scene
I think people don’t notice that shroud is not really a competitive person like that imo. He’s actually not the right type of human being that fits the scenario of being a CS pro for 10 plus years. Just because he has insane mechanics people presume it goes hand in hand with being a competitor but I don’t think his heart was ever really in being just a CS pro hence why he quit to do other things. I guarantee even if he didn’t start getting big in streaming he would of still quit around the same time to play other games And there would never be just one game he sticks to indefinitely.
shroud and i are both from toronto. if you’d like to meet the cooler one….
I’ll be at off world bar doing an IEM Rio watch party in Toronto on April 23rd (Grand finals!): bit.ly/3KOwfju
dap me up waste yute
How is THE blast guy not casting the finals
Can't wait to meet you launders my favourite caster the GOAT right here!! Please bring scrawny as your +1 see you at the bar my guy!
@@lejo4 cuz its iem event,not blast event.
@@teared12761 see ya there!
Launders analysis is always so grounded. He really puts the human behind the player while also showing a bigger picture. He does this by understanding the players perspective in relationship to the bigger picture.
Always an intelligent n nuanced take
don't forget the mayonnaise
he won pro league season 4 against SK so i would count that as a big tournament win. 200k prize for winning back then was big.
true! didn’t even remember that
But that kind of proves the Stewie point. C9 didn't win until he got there.
@@MrRtisch I don't think it's about proving or disproving anything. It's more like he DID get at least one big title (within the context of the time). Neat bit of trivia too.
and that was when the Brazilians were unbeatable
TRUE
Really good video Launders, really like these type of retrospective type videos.
Since you talk so much of what others have done for the game, I think we should reflect that onto you as well. Besides you being a great caster and making pro play more entertaining, you release content that encourages the community to generate a more psychologically healthy environment. This is some great stuff and as a community, we are obligated to thank you for what you are doing. ❤
Fav caster and analyst ❤
I learned how to air strafe/kz from launders from his tutorial video way back. Flowers to him too.
Since you're talking so much about what others have done, why don't we talk about what you've done for CS then, huh?
I have no idea, but seeing how you look like a nice individual, I guess you've done your best to keep the community healthy
bot
@@frank6048 u be smooth with it lmao
Commenting every video until the demos come back
I'd love to see this type of video on some other pros from yesteryears. Maybe go the other way and talk about pros who are underrated today (new players never saw them in their peak). GuardiaN for example would be sick! That guy has got to be some of the safest pair of hands I've ever seen one the awp.
The guy survived the AWP nerf like it was nothing and was the best AWPer in the world for like 3 years
wait til you find out what video i've been working on for the last month
having seen falcons play in the rmr's this really just explains how i felt about kennyS in the current meta, mechanically he's a monster, but he never seemed to be able to get a read on the game or take control of things, always getting caught off guard. just shows how much there is to cs than meets the eye.
Also great video mohan, really like the perspective and light you shed on these topics, very insightful. 👍
i think one of the things that annoys people of recent (i personally don't care) is that these guys left CS which is fine and all, but then some of them (shroud being one of them) bashed on CS pretty hard then they are the first to get access to the CS2 beta, some feel like they don't really deserve it especially when at the time some of the current pro's hadn't even gotten access yet and actually had to ask for access.
i know why they got access (publicity) but some people dont like that type of thing.
on the CS side of things what he good at CS yeah he was, anyone who plays at pro level CS had to have been good at some point but was he a good pro? no he was average at best and those who say he could have been the greatest of all time if he tried harder just no, even when he was in his "prime" he was mid tier, in his prime was he better then players like Olof, Guardian, Flusha, Cold, F0rest etc no he wasn't.
this is a guy who never made top 20 ever if you want to ever be in the conversation of being a great of CS you atleast need to be in the top 20 atleast once
I actually thing he very well could've been the greatest of all time but I guess he didn't really, like REALLY focus on improving the aspects that he was lacking in, like the part where lau talked about the Cobble B site presence and comparing him to Stewie and how Shroud lacked assertiveness and utility use etc.
I think "the switch" never clicked for him and those things might've never even crossed his mind, he just focused on improving his mechanical skill.
I agree completely i'd say overall tho Shroud is a better "gamer" which sounds incredibly cringe but Shroud has been able to perform at "professional" level in literally all the games he touches which is why I think people consider him to be one of the greatest of all times. I do agree that pro level wise he was overrated in csgo but overall I wouldn't say he's an overrated streamer.
@@isoreii5062hes a very successful streamer, hes not one i watch personally but i dont think hes over rated and yeah hes very good at games, he picks the mechanics of games up well, hes kinda a jack of all trades master of none in that sense, i dont think he has the capacity to be the best (at a pro level) in any 1 game but he can be ok in all of them
@@Remu- even if he did focus on really improving i dont think he would have been as good as the players i mentioned.
personally i think Brax had a way higher skill ceiling then shroud did
@@comeatmebro3229 Yeah Brax was a hell of a player but he seemed like the kinda guy with not much of a work ethic and now he seems to have fallen off the face of the earth completely.
I haven't watched one of your videos in a while and these are SO good. The editing, the vibes, the cadence, the analysis, just A+.
Great video. As a French fan who begun to watch CS in 2015, it brought back so many memories. Even if it was the beginning of the end for Shroud competively speaking.
i do freelance editing and i have to say this editor you have hired is absolutely amazing, i love how smooth and creative everything is
This take is based. Csgo up until recently has not had much in terms in content other then gun buffs and nerfs and it does get boring after a while. I myself am sitting on 15k + hours and see myself playing old school runescape more often than not these days because it gives me dopamine rushes still seeing that number go up after hours of grinding. you dont get that same feeling when your account ranks up and you get a new service medal or ranking up to global. it gets old after a while, and some people cant afford to buy skins to keep the game interesting.
It gets boring in the same way a traditional sport might get boring… CS is intentionally designed to have basic and simple rules so that the highest skill ceilings can be reached. Think basketball, always the same court dimensions, rules etc. in that sense, the ‘game’ and the ‘content’ is the skills we hone as CS players. CS is designed to be every man’s sport that gives them an area to continuously improve, to learn communication and team play, and to achieve sport ‘greatness’. This is why the game has been here for ages and still hits peaks! Content is fun but perhaps Valve has done rigorous analysis and found a trade off/cons to introducing more content (like danger zone, gameplay like Negev changes etc)
@@thalberg- I agree with your take. That makes total sense, I just wish they would add something that doesn't change gameplay that adds some sense of progression to the game like a gun leveling system (different from other games like cod and val)
you're killing it lau! absolutely loving the vibes from all of your recent videos :))
thanks!
this is probably the best CS content i've seen, love it!
Launders knees must be hurting, get up man
i for one am hopeful and excited to see some of these guys come back even just for the bros for the mm demons, gives us some motivation to play more when your favourite streamers are not just grinding faceit
Great video dude, nice to hear this kind of insight. Keep up the content.
thanks 🙏🏽
These are some of the most interesting cs vids I see nowadays and I expect the viewer numbers to rise massively. Maybe you just need that one vid that youtube algorythm decides to recommend to everyone and this channel will start getting 100k+ views per vid easily.
can we get a "how good was stewie2k?" you mentioning him made me wanna see an actual brain break it down and not the score esports lol
the cringe esports🤮
ok
Shroud, Moe, Steel, DaZeD, Swag, Tarik, Shaz and more I'm forgetting now all played such a huge part in me getting into the competitive side of CS. Before discovering the CSGO section of Twitch in 2013 I would only play community game modes like Jailbreak. Watching those guys stream Rank S while also getting to see them compete against each other in real matches was something special.
Such a golden era of CS, many of these newer players especially in cs2 have no idea what really started this whole era of counter strike
Funny, was just thinking about your videos randomly a few days ago. Used to watch you when you made movement videos for csgo, great to see you still in this sphere!
Been taking a long break from CS and decided to return and went to see if lau had some new videos and i love this greenscreen handheld microphone thing feels very General Sam'ish and adds such a cozy vibe to your analysis.
I came into this expecting to not like what I would hear, only to be blown away by your insight. I’m 25 now, and your commentating and expert analysis of the game has amazed me since I was 16/17.
I’m not old but rewatching that 1v5 vs NetCodeGuides almost a decade later is wild to think how early in his career it really was
He was average, just had good aim but other than that he wasn't good at anything else, was just mid. Shroud fans act like he was a top 5 cs player. Thats why he was good on Faceit, but when it came to LAN he was average. S1mple plays like Shroud did on Faceit at LAN. Sure he might have gotten better, but he was average when it came to being a PRO player. Its the same reason why rank 1-5 faceit players can go to pro lan and do absolutely nothing worthwhile, being a good pro is more than mechanical ability. Stewie managed to translate his Faceit stomps into pro games, Shroud didn't. He also left the game that made him who he was, then started shitting on it, which also adds to why cs players don't like him. Shroud did have a pretty good year where he hovered around 1.14-1.16, but having a good year don't make you a great player, most pros have their moments
This
To call his aim "good" is understating it
Also, to say that the game made him is an exaggeration. He brought a lot of attention to the game as well, it was a mutual relationship. And like Launders said, the community has done nothing but call him overrated and a snake for leaving CS. I'm not a huge fan of shroud but shitting on the guy the second he streams a game he wants to play is the reason why content creators and streamers haven't touched CS in years.
@@acrostiic5623 he gained his audience through cs though lmao if he was shit at cs he wouldnt have got as much of an audience
Not to forget Stewie helped improve the meta. Smokes went from becoming walls to something to push and prod and even take advantage of. I love how now atleast people in MM try to pop flash through a smoke than rushing blindly because they saw how good Stew was doing it.
The thing that made me interested to shroud is not just from him playing csgo and his aim but how he adapts quickly to other games and sweep a lot of players, maybe not in the professional level but enough to at least win a lot of games
i'd say his positioning & gamesense are really good (though obviously not as good as his mechanics) & that gives him a lot of good fights - in whatever game. it's definitely something people can learn from seeing how people like him play games, imo
Idk why people say he adapts well to other games quick. Fps games yeah? Other games? No. I’ve seen this dude be ass in fighting games and Moba lmao
This is a great video, really enjoy the retrospective and deeper insight into the game
4:50 this is such a good statement like I’m big into rainbow six siege and shroud came back to play ranked with his friends and uploaded a video. I had no problem with this until I went to the comments of the video and saw a lot of uneducated people in his comments saying he’d destroy pros even though he was struggling vs copper players and I’m not making that up in the video the enemy team were all coppers but I get it he is amazing at every game he touches but claims like that are insane
awesome as always, loving this concept
really concise way of putting out your thoughts, you're a great speaker dude!
launders i used to find u so boring when u where casting matches due to ur voice but in a youtube video format its actually so soothing and ur knowledge on the game is great
always appreciate your empathetic views on stuff man ❤
5:50 I wouldn't say that is the best 1v5 of all time due to how many whiffs there were in that clip. Maybe you could say it was the best 1v5 during that era of csgo but that would definitely not happen these days lol
NiKo 1v5 >>>>
Damn lau this was a great video, thanks for the insight the bit about stewie and shroud was really cool to hear
Np glad you liked it!
i am so glad you said that about how shroud is the only player that makes pubg look like its not lagging. ive always, always, wondered this as well.
new lau enjoyer here. usto be a hater on the casting... at times, but over time ive come to really appreciate your breakdowns and explanations of the game. also the chemistry you and skrawny have is really entertaining. i really enjoyed the shroud vid. thanks for the good content.
That Netcode vs Manajuma match was insane. Watching that 1v5 round live just ignited a fire in me and got me juiced to play CS
I guess we can all agree we love shroud for his mechanics and his aim not like soloing, playing tryhard, winning and other stuffa.
Shroud's best top performances in big matches imo:
1) pro league s1 final vs fnatic, 100-80 (across 4 maps) including 32-17 on map 1 and 32-24 on map 4
2)e-league season 1 vs navi 78-57 (across 3 maps) dude literally went insane in this match literally was pugging
3)vs nip in cologne 2014 with 69-50 across 3 maps
4) facit league 2015 finals vs fnatic 56-38 (across 2 maps) including 37-26 on map 2 with double overtime but had good 3ks for highlights
Some people would argue his best performance vs navi in cologne 2017 but he wasnt so consistent throughout the match in the first 5 rounds he already had 12 kills but still ended with 26-15 in total of 30 rounds
so fkn real Launders, great video, love the objectivity
love this form of video and editing, love you launders
big blazeh
the production value is SO GOOD
I've played CS for 20 years and I didn't even know Shroud's name until PUBG. He wasn't a very noteworthy pro, and his pug streams meant nothing to me since "streaming" was barely noticed at the time. Times sure have changed. But sure, him talking about CS in his streams essentially give the game free advertising , so I'll give him credit where it's due.
where potti at :|
Just like lau said he’s average.. those stats can’t survive in tier 1
bro WHO edited this video? I was cracking up the whole time especially when shroud summit and tarik where on the screen. Omfg
He was an exceptional smurf you could say hahah. Its something about the movement of good players I think. When I play against people who move unpredictably (in my case its actually the bad players) all my aim leaves me. I cant hit sht. For him its the opposite I think. People just walk perfectly into where he wants to hit.
I would love it if he comes back to cs2 successfully. Yes his skills are very mechanics oriented, but I also think it's a bit unfair to compare him to current pros, as the playstyle has evolved a lot from then to now.
he’d be tier 12
He won't
Well he wasn't good enough then. It's not about playstyle, he just isn't smart enough and didn't have the mental for the highest level. Nobody questioned his mechanics.
he is bot i rekt him
@@yessir6427 yuh put you against prime fnatic at pro league season 1 finals and see if you can have the series shroud did
The old man summit pic had me laughing so hard I had to pause for a sec
shroud was actually on the c9 team that won esl finals in brazil, first tier 1 tourney lan win for NA
keep the content coming launders. 9/10
Great video, enjoying the show on blast too
2:34 sleepy lau
Insane mechanical skill and got lucky with some of his decision making, unfortunately pros will exploit weakness and he had alot to exploit strats wise, fun to watch though, he would get in the worst position and fight his way out, fun to ask how the F is he going to get out of this...
I think as fans, some of stewie, shroud and Tarik’s comments can get under the skin because we all love this game (and love them as NA fans) and you don’t want to hear them talking down on it as a game. This is the NA old guard, the OGs of an NA scene that is severely lacking in star power. Maybe if we had someone like m0nesey, to faun over and put our hopes into, then we could let them leave gracefully, but for now we have our opinions, their fans have theirs, and the players themselves don’t seem to give much of a shit either way. Idk, when I saw Stewie and Hiko reacting to the CS2 trailer it made me realize how much they’ve all moved on.
The valde parallel was great and is an awesome hook for further conversation about shrouds potential
Great content Lau 🎉
thanks broo
This kind of video would be interesting with a lot of different players. Would be nice to see some real delving history of snax, NBK, kennyS, Guardian, flusha, n0thing and so on. Lots of great players who aren't at the top level anymore but have a lot of history (even pre-dating CSGO obviously).
Great video! Sad at first as I thought it would be a pov analysis of an old game but was an interesting video nonetheless.
So excited to watch the IEM Rio Finals in toronto with you
I'd love to see you do one of these types of analysis vids on Skadoodle
Great video the stewie example explained a lot!
Realy nice video giving an insight of nacs's history that we europeans forget sometimes. :D
This title should never have been a question dude!
Good at getting clips in FPL and Rank S, average at best on LAN. He had his moments but people see his Twitch clips and think he's doing that shit in officials lmao.
he had some insane plays on LAN too. obviously not as many as he would get in pugs
great analysis, very well spoken
Vindication! This is basically what I've been saying for years. Shroud is not just good but great at every FPS I've seen him play. I have no doubt he could still grind up to global elite in CS. But that is a different set of skills from being a pro. It's a bit like, the globetrotters are "good at basketball," but they wouldn't do well in the NBA (an exaggeration, but you get the point).
2:45 Blud is definitely cooking but I'm having takeout. 💀
cs fans can be so dumb, while shroud I get there’s natural push back because so many people hoist him up like he was a goat, and he can be quick to criticize while he may not always be right, but my favorite thing was when he played cs like one day a year a few years ago just to shed light to all the cheaters in the game, he obviously makes these comments because he cares about cs. Tarik is just like only positive stuff man idk how people could ever hate on the man lmfaoo
This is the guy from the launders show!
At the 2:41 ish mark you were definitely cooking, us big brain gamers think faster than we speak B)
shrouds been tearing it up in some of his recent cs2 videos.
I don’t get why when shroud said the exact same criticisms of CS (poor mm, infrequently updated, etc), people called it “hating” on the game (even though he also said lots of positive things about the game at the same time), but when people who only play CS make the same criticisms, it’s fine. Just because he went to play another game doesn’t mean he’s wrong or “hating” on CS. At the same time people who pretend shroud was some kind of under appreciated CS prodigy are giga cringe. He had some nice highlights but overall had relatively unimpressive stats.
What a spicy thing to say. I never followed the scene that closely but I have watched Shroud stream so now I have to know. 😂
great video dude!
Shroud 1v5 might have looked impressive in the early days looking it now is lke wtf they can't hit him :D
Nice video and I'd be up for defending Shroud most of the time considering not only the era he played in but also considering the obvious raw talent he had. However, there's absolutely no way he was ever even the best player mechanically in the world. I've been watching comp CS since 2014 and whilst Shroud was certainly up there, there is no basis to claim he was (apparently by far) ever a better mechanical player than players like Niko, Rain, Scream, Shox, Cold (picked these as they were the best comps for Shroud's arguable peak). One would argue that these players not only DID put those highlights together, but did them in pro matches and not Rank S, and even if you want to eye test these players, its a bit over the top to claim Shroud is BY FAR the best mechanical player over any of them.
To be fair, Launders did say "in my opinion" or something to that effect. I agree with ya, though. Shroud's mediocre at best, relative to other pros.
yeah i was really confused by this point. even s1mple came into the scene in 2015 i believe (with esl ban of course) and put up wayy better stats than shroud ever did
I don't get why you guys can't differentiate between mechanics and skill. Shrouds mechanics (movement, crosshair placement, raw aim, spray control, etc) were practically robotic when you watched him play and while I don't know if his mechanics were the best we've seen when you look at someone like ropz but at his time of playing he was pretty much #1.
His skill was sub par as you constantly see him doing really stupid plays, bad comms, and other things lau pointed out but that's not his mechanical skill. Someone like cold did not have insane mechanics compared to the other pros, he was simply better than everyone else at all of the other important aspects of CS for a good year or so.
Same with these other pro players that you mentioned who are all better players but just not at his overall mechanics. Maybe one or 2 were better movement or crosshair placement and maybe raw aim but legit all of his mechanics were at a level that most couldn't beat maybe only match at certain points but that was shrouds constant. Still has insane mechanics despite not even competing
@@AvocadoBondage Nah g
@@AvocadoBondage ok lets look at the years he has played and the top 20s. shox, flamie, device, forest, s1mple, scream, niko, olof, elige, rain, electronic, ropz, twistzz. those i would consider being better than shroud mechanically. some are of course debatable but im confident that most players i listed are clearly better
shroud also said that recently one thing he lacked of back when he was competing was the game sense. He said he used to only play the way n0thing told him to. I think if he had kept competing, he would definitely be one of the top players.
Just ordered a set of acezones, lets hope theyre worth the hype!
Don't really care what game shroud plays, he's cool, not toxic, and his aim is so damn satisfying, back when I watched him in old Cs times him and roca where my faves because of the consistant aim, so sick
As an Indian I've been watching CSGO when I was like 13-14 years old. Basically I can say that I'm a boomer who even watched the first CSGO major. I remember watching shroud coming to Cloud9. He wasn't that great and I wasn't a super fan of him but he had insane mechanics from the very beginning. Also the fact that coming from a country where PC gaming isn't so huge even till this date and people generally plays games like PUBG-Mobile and other mobile games everyone knows who shroud is. No matter what game you play most of them know who shroud is. So I'd say that not only what he has done for CSGO but for esports in general is quite an achievement. I'd rate him as someone who is so fucking adaptive and you can literally give him any fps games, give him few weeks and he'd play better than majority of people.
incredible video launders
Obviously I am no big pro, but I can absolutely credit my 3k hours in CS to shroud.
I watched him destroy in PUBG, then got recommended some VODs of Shroud-C9 matches. I was watching those pro games for a few months before ever touching the game myself. While I didn't know anything about the game, hell I remember googling whether the players can see the outlines through the walls, they were just so fun to watch xD
This was a really good video mr lau
10:24 Shroud did win EPL Season 4 in 2017, which I would consider a big tournament win. In the grand scheme of things though, it’s a pretty minor detail that doesn’t affect the point of the video.
Really good take on the situation.
Great vid bro! Can you share the link to the background music? It's so damn good!!!
He was at least a top 50 player at one time, that is NOT EASY. He deserves some credit
Top 30 easily. In 2015 he had period where he was just going ham.
give ur editor a raise right now
You're underrated bro
I’m gonna need more mayonnaise analogies my dude.
Dude can frag, but fragging isn't the only thing that wins. It looks good in casual games, but when the games get real he fades out. Raw aim can't beat a full team working together during the length of a match.
Inbefore I watch: HERESY!!!
Great video!
I LOVE THIS, LAU. Please post more like these
shroud was good af and it was csgo best time when he was on c9 i miss thoes days so bad
launx dropping beats
Coach lau is the smartest and the best
ill never turn on the Shroud and Tarik they made NA CS great i hope we can get another major one day
My thoughts exactly! My favorite cs players back in 2015 😍
Shroud fanboys are hilarious 😂 get a life
As a diehard CSGO elitist I definitely don't hate shroud and to a certain extent I understand why he shits on CS as much as he does. But I do think it's hilarious when people who started playing video games with Fortnite and Call of Duty try to argue that he's the best FPS player of all time. Anyone who's a pro in CSGO would be better than any most FPS players, that's just a fact, and if s1mple focused more on his stream than being a pro he'd look even crazier than shroud. As for people like tarik, I respect them because 1. they don't constantly shit on counterstrike and 2. he won a MAJOR, FOR NA! At least he's actually qualified to speak on the game and still showcases the pro scene to his Valorant viewerbase and supports the scene
I think people don’t notice that shroud is not really a competitive person like that imo. He’s actually not the right type of human being that fits the scenario of being a CS pro for 10 plus years. Just because he has insane mechanics people presume it goes hand in hand with being a competitor but I don’t think his heart was ever really in being just a CS pro hence why he quit to do other things. I guarantee even if he didn’t start getting big in streaming he would of still quit around the same time to play other games And there would never be just one game he sticks to indefinitely.
I really enjoy this new format but i kinda miss the old demo review