Guardian “ready to return” to professional Counter-Strike

Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács is undoubtedly one of Counter-Strike’s most seasoned competitive snipers. After bouncing between teams such as 3DMAX and Virtus Pro in 2013, he found a long term home in Natus Vincere

The first tenure at Na’Vi lasted 4 years before being sent to Faze Clan in replacement of Aleksi “allu” Jalli. That endeavour lasted roughly 2 years before rejoining Na’Vi to replace the retired in game leader Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko

GuardiaN didn’t see the same success with Na’Vi his second time around. “The squad didn’t have the synergy we expected to have by the end of the year,” Coach Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskly explained. As a result, GuardiaN was benched and eventually released from the team

A new development

In a columnist piece with Dexterto, GuardiaN opens up for the first time about the past, present, and future of his fruitful Counter-Strike career

I have unfinished business in Counter-Strike. After a string of poor personal performances following my return to Natus Vincere in September 2019, I knew that I needed to take a step back from competing at the highest level. - GuardiaN

While it's pretty obvious GuardiaN is still an elite player worthy of a professional roster spot, it's also refreshing to know the talent market wasn't forcing him into an early retirement for whatever reason

"After watching the ‘online era’ of Counter-Strike unfold before me, I’m seeing mistakes being made at the highest level. Mistakes that I know I wouldn’t make, GuardiaN wrote. "With the right team, I know that I can fill the void as a top-tier AWPer and grind to become one of the best snipers in CS:GO again."

A true competitor will never lose the inherent itch to compete. The tick that's been developing within GuardiaN has become too much to handle as he looks to make the next foray back onto a Counter-Strike roster

GuardiaN went on to discuss breakthroughs within his solo play with the help of FPL. Equating his current mechanical form to the dominating IEM Katowice 2018 performance, GuardiaN is now winning his psychological battle with the game

"Unfinished business" puts things tamely as GuardiaN is on a 3x grand finals loss streak. Referring to himself as "Hungrier than ever," the only thing standing between GuardiaN and results at this point is a solid supporting cast

While GuardiaN's next destination is ultimately a toss up, we already know Cloud 9 is in the rebuilding process. As notable players like Olofmeister hit the free agent market, both players and organizations will have options as we move into the last quarter of 2020