One of the best Asian teams in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is moving to Riot Games' new five-on-five tactical shooter VALORANT. Per South Korean esports website Fomos, the top South Korean CS team, MVP PK, is leaving their organization and game behind to focus their full efforts on the upcoming Riot shooter set for a full launch this coming summer.
Team captain Kim "glow" Min-soo and head coach Pyeon "termi" Seon-ho lead the way for the team, hoping to find success in the new shooter title that has already broken western viewership records during its closed beta period.
In Counter-Strike, although MVP PK were the undisputed top team from South Korea, they failed to make an impact on a global level. During the eXTREMESLAND CS:GO Asia tournament last year which brought together the best teams from around Asia, MVP PK qualified from their regional qualifier without dropping a match but could only make it to the quarterfinals of the overall competition, losing to Japan's top team, Absolute, in the first round of the knockout rounds. Coincidentally, Absolute has also recently announced their retirement from the game, the full team along with the organization setting their sights on VALORANT.
ESPN Daily Newsletter: Sign up now!
While South Korea is not famed for its results in Counter-Strike, they are the winningest nation when it comes to the biggest esport in the world, League of Legends, also produced by Riot Games. SK Telecom T1 first won a League of Legends world championship for South Korea in 2013 and the country has won four more since that victory, their most-recent title win coming in 2017. Riot's premier title is the most popular game currently in South Korea, with almost half of all games played at internet cafes in the country being League of Legends.
Along with MVP PK and Absolute, other players from popular competitive gaming titles have retired to make the switch, most notably reigning Overwatch world champion and league MVP Jay "Sinatraa" Won. Following two years of playing on the San Francisco Shock franchise and winning a title with them, the superstar quit the game that helped him guest star on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, joining the Sentinels organization that houses another world champion in the form of Fortnite's Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf.