vanity eyes return to CS2 after stepping away from VALORANT
Anthony "vanity" Malaspina has called it quits on his competitive VALORANT career, and the former NA CS in-game leader is now looking to eventually compete in Counter-Strike 2 in 2025.
In an X post from November 4th, vanity stated that he was not finding any enjoyment in playing the Riot shooter's ranked mode, adding that it wouldn't be fair to future teammates or organizations "to compete when I can’t put in time outside of practice."
vanity played in NA CS for years, playing for the likes of Swole Patrol and eUnited before landing his big break with Chaos. vanity took over the IGL reins from Joshua "steel" Nissan at the start of 2020, leading the team to its best year ever alongside other future tier one VALORANT players like Erick "Xeppaa" Bach and Nathan "leaf" Orf.
Chaos was unable to afford to continue competing in CS:GO though, and the lack of opportunities in NA CS led to many players including vanity leaving to pursue VALORANT. During his time competing in VALORANT, vanity reached the first ever international Masters event with Version1, then reached playoffs of the first Champions tournament later that year with Cloud9.
He also competed with Shopify Rebellion in the NA Challengers league in 2023 before returning to Cloud9 for the 2024 VCT Americas season. Should be make his return to CS official, vanity will return to a scene that is navigating the transition to Valve's 2025 VRS circuit which promises more events next year albeit with concerns that NA will be lost in the shuffle with limited qualifiers for the region.
