vanity: "A lot of things would have to line up for me to go back [to CS]"

Since switching to VALORANT, Anthony "vanity" Malaspina has enjoyed success in Riot's tactical FPS, playing on Version1, Shopify Rebellion, and notably, almost two years on Cloud9, one of the franchised partners for VALORANT's Americas League. Now freshly out of his contract with Shopify Rebellion, he has announced that he is looking for offers in both VALORANT and Counter-Strike, where he was part of North America's favorite teams in Chaos, EUnited, and Swole Patrol.

In an interview, Daniel "Scoobster" Khurgin asked vanity about his time in Cloud9, experiences with previous organizations, his decision to potentially return to Counter-Strike, and general takeaways from his lengthy career thus far.

You said you were looking for options in both VALORANT and CS for the future, why have you decided to look towards CS once more?

I think I just like playing both games. I don't know how deeply I'm looking at CS. I'm considering it, but I think that a lot of things would have to line up for me to go back. It's pretty up in the air and I don't really know what I'm going to do to be honest.

So your first priority is still VALORANT?

Yeah, probably. I'm definitely interested in playing CS, but I'm not going to come back unless it's a good opportunity with an organization around me and players that I'm pretty confident in. I don't really care which game I play, I'm just looking to find people and an organization I can trust and have faith in, and we get time to fail since we're not going to win instantly. That's just not how it works. That's the biggest thing I'm looking for. I think I'm pretty capable of competing at a high level in both games. That's moreso where I'm at, I'm not really worried about which game I play. I think that it's just an FPS, obviously, they're different games, but I have the capability to improve in both and being at a high level.

You want to be with an org that gives you time to fail. Did you get that with Cloud9?

I think we got given chances in Cloud9. I was on the org for almost two years. I wish we had more time with recent iterations of the roster with me and yay, but I do think they gave us a lot of time in the past. It sucks we didn't get that this year when VCT started, but I don't think it was as bad as it might have seemed. We did have almost two years roughly. We should have had better results. If we had better results it wouldn't have happened. Do I wish we had more time and chances to play with that roster? Yes, but I do think we got given time on C9 and we could have had better results. I do also think that we should have been given more time with our roster this year.

How did it feel being part of an established, franchised, tier-one organization and the support that came with it?

It's definitely nice. It's a lot of peace of mind since even when I was benched, I still received a small salary. It's not like I'm cut and I have no income. There was severance in our contracts and things like that, so that's definitely a little safer and feels better. I think that C9 did a lot of things right, and they did a lot of things weird. That's how I feel about most orgs I've been on. I think most orgs are somewhere in the middle. I don't think any org does esports perfectly, but I think for the most part, my time on Cloud9 was pretty good. It was definitely levels above what I was offered on V1 (Version1) and Chaos in the past. They understand esports very well. I think that was something cool to experience.

Could you expand on what Cloud9 did well versus not so well?

I think the biggest thing I liked about Cloud9 is that we had all the support we needed. We had a sports psychologist, we had bootcamps and stuff. At Chaos, I guess it was during COVID, but we had housing and stuff. I think the sports psychologist was someone I really liked working with. His name is Gary. He's like, one of the smartest people I've ever met in my entire life. He's a really nice guy. I definitely wouldn't have the chance to meet him without Cloud9, so I'm thankful for that.

I think that things are a little more professional, I wouldn't say a ton, but they know a little more about esports and things are a little better but I wouldn't say it's anything too significant, like night and day. They do some things like understanding players and how personalities interact. V1 I think was too traditional, and treated it too much like a traditional sports team. I think that it didn't lead to issues, but I think it was weird. Esports just aren't the same [as sports]. Off-seasons aren't really a thing in esports. Sort of there, but it's not the same.

You don't just wait until the off-season to make moves if you need to make a move. In esports, it's pretty much at any time, especially back then; with franchising, it's a little different now, but on V1 I was trying to push a roster move and it was just weird. They're trying to act too traditional and you need to realize that esports is its own entity and it's not the same. It's not the same level of money, it's not the same level of anything. Things are a little different. They would listen, but it would take a little more pushing back on my side than it did on C9. If I asked for something on C9, it was pretty easy to convince them that we need X because of Y, or they would offer me things I didn't even think of before. I think the sports psychologist was something I push for in all my teams since I like them a lot. I like working with them. But it isn't something we had on V1 even though we asked for it pretty early on.

And on C9, if you asked for something it was provided readily?

Yeah, I think that C9 was really good. I think when crypto died, and sponsors left, with the money, that was a bit of it towards the end. I loved Cloud9, obviously, it sucks how it ended, but they treated me really well for most of my time there. There's not a lot of bad blood. I wish I got more time, but we could have also got ourselves more time if we had better results, so some of it's on me.

On that Cloud9 roster, you played with leaf and Xeppaa, two players who you played with before on Chaos. How was it to relive that bromance?

It's nice. They're the reason I went back. They're two of my best friends in and out of the game. They're some of my favorite teammates. We tried to switch together at first but leaf went to C9, so we went our separate ways. Then Xeppaa went to CS, and thankfully we got back together at some point and got to try again. Didn't go as well as we'd hoped, but I wouldn't trade my time with them for anything.

Do you think your Chaos roster with leaf and Xeppaa could have gone further if you have more time with the team?

I think it was possible. Near the end, we won three events in a row. We beat EG, FURIA, the only team in NA we didn't have a good record against was Liquid. Everyone else we had an even record with or were positive on. Liquid was the only team we couldn't beat which makes sense since they were the best team in NA by far at that time. We had some close games against them but I think our map pool was really bad against them. I think we could have been pretty good internationally. I don't know how good, I would say top fifteen probably is where I would place us. I think we could have gotten better potentially. At the time, I would say top fifteen was pretty realistic.

In VALORANT you've largely kept to playing with North American players, in your future in either CS or VALORANT, would you be willing to move to Europe to compete?

Oh yeah, of course. I'd be willing to go anywhere. I don't really care where I live, I just play video games. I'm not too worried where I'm at. Obviously, I want decent living conditions and stuff like that, but I'm not too concerned with what region I'm at.

In terms of selling yourself, what are some of the things you think you can bring to any top team in either CS or VALORANT?

I don't like selling myself. If you want me, I'll be there. If not, I don't need you. I think I'll figure out something on my own. I'm not a big person on selling myself to others. I think what I've done in the past should tell you, and then we can talk if there's more stuff you need. Pretty much all the teams I've joined have gotten better and we've always had pretty good consistent results, so I think my resume should speak for itself.

With VALORANT Ascension ending, we're heading into a pretty dry offseason. With the non-franchised tier going through a bit of a tumultuous time, do you think we'll see very many VALORANT players switch over to Counter-Strike?

I don't think many players who were good at CS are going to go back. I'd be very surprised, cause I don't think there were many that switched that were very good at Counter-Strike to be honest. There was a handful, but I think all of the ones that switched from CS had a fair amount of success in VALORANT, and I don't think there are many players in tier two VALORANT who were good at Counter-Strike. There's a handful at most, maybe they can learn it, but it would be surprising. I don't think most of them played CS at this point cause I think a lot of the older CS guys are out of the game. Maybe there will be some, but I'm not sure.

Vanity has revealed that a few organizations have reached out at this point, but so far, he has not signed any new deals. While Counter-Strike remains an important part of the player's history, the current climate does not seem to give a path back into the title for the IGL anytime soon.