If you like watching or playing online video games then the name “Shroud” should be familiar to you. He is a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) player from Canada. He is known for his accuracy and precision in aiming. He is undoubtedly one of the most talented video gamers on the internet. He streams consistently and his channel attracts thousands of viewers daily. He has millions of subscribers on Twitch and YouTube.
He was born Michael Grzesiek in 1994 in Canada. Although he became popular for playing CS:GO, he is known for playing other games like Call of Duty Black Ops 4: Blackout, Fortnite Battle Royale, Valorant, and several other games. He started his career in 2013 with Slow Motion and retired from Cloud9 in 2017 to become a full-time streamer.
How did he get started?
Shroud can either be said to be born to be a gamer. Or can we perhaps say he inherited gaming from his daddy-o. His father, who loved anything and everything technology, introduced him to playing video games. He would play video games with young Shroud and from there he developed a keen interest. He would use most of his free time to play game and from there he began to improve on his skills.
His dad got him all the latest gaming equipment he could when he was growing up. His dad also introduced him to CS:GO. And just as you thought, his father is very proud of him and he is one of Shroud’s biggest fans. Shroud never liked CS:GO at first. At least not as he liked World of Warcraft. However, he started enjoying CS:GO over time as new features were being added to the game.
First, he wanted to be called ‘Eclipse’ after he saw the username from another video game. He wanted to make it his own but unfortunately, the username already existed when he wanted to join CS:GO. So he settled for the name ‘mEclipse’ instead. How clever? He finally changed the name to ‘Shroud’ which is a synonym to ‘Eclipse’.
He always loved to watch other professional gamers streaming online. From there he got the idea to start streaming his own games too. He would streams daily from anything 7–12 hours playing Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Call of Duty. He did this for a long time but finally came to limelight when he started playing CO:GO.
As a shy kid, he never had a lot of friends. Just a couple of people who were gamers just like him. But he soon realized that streaming his games and receiving feedback from others helped him with his shyness. The feedback also made him realize that he has the skills especially the feedback from pro-players. He finally believed he had what it takes when he came fourth in the North America ESEA (E-Sports Entertainment Association League) and that was what he needed to know that he could perform well at the esport scene.
He started with Slow Motion in 2013 and later moved to Exertus esport and Manajuma. His biggest break was when he was approached by a team called Complexity which later became Cloud9. He remained with them until 2017 when he resigned to focus on his online streaming full time.
Think you have wait it takes to be as good as Shroud? Get the training to become the best at Flap.gg. Learn more and register at www.flap.gg.
