Smooya sticking to CS:GO: \u201cI\u2019m here to be a household name for a long time\u201d DreamHackOwen \u2018Smooya\u2019 Butterfield says he has rejected big-money offers in Valorant as he still wants to prove himself in Valve\u2019s shooter. The British AWPer\u2019s future is currently up in the air after he was moved to the bench by Movistar Riders, a move first reported by Dexerto and confirmed by the Spanish organization on August 12. His stock had been on the rise during his eight months with the team, but with results remaining undistinguished, Movistar Riders decided to use the off-season to rebuild their roster with Spanish players only. Smooya says that he holds no ill-will towards Movistar Riders following his benching, even though he admits to being frustrated by the timing of the decision, which could leave him without a team for the rest of the year. \u201cI found out about it on the 9th of August, one day before the roster lock,\u201d he told Dexerto. \u201cSo it wasn\u2019t the best time to find out. \u201cIt\u2019s a very smart business decision [on their part] because they knew I probably would not stay there when my contract ended anyway. So it makes sense for them to plan for the future. They can get a really good Spanish team, something that they haven\u2019t had in a really long time. I would have made the same decision if I were in their shoes, it makes a lot of sense. I wish them the best and will be supporting them.\u201d Read More: How ALEX can lead Fnatic Back to the top – Even though he is out of a team, Smooya says that he will do his best to stay in shape, stressing that he doesn\u2019t want to lose the \u201cworld-class form\u201d he has shown in the last six months. He will focus on streaming and playing in FPL until his future is resolved, with his contract due to expire in a few months. Smooya has often been linked with a move to Valorant, which has offered career opportunities to many disgruntled Counter-Strike players looking for a fresh start. But the 21-year-old isn\u2019t thinking about switching anytime soon, revealing that has turned down lucrative offers from teams asking him to make the transition to Riot Games\u2019 FPS title. \u201cI\u2019m here to be a household name for a long time,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I haven\u2019t moved to Valorant. I had Valorant offers to make five, six times my salary on Movistar. But I said no because I don\u2019t play this for the money. I mean, it\u2019s nice to get compensated for your time, no one wants to do anything for free, but my love is Counter-Strike and not VALORANT. So that\u2019s the reason I\u2019m still here.\u201d Toxic reputation Smooya is mostly known for his time with German side BIG, whom he helped to reach the grand final of ESL One Cologne 2018 and the quarter-finals of the FACEIT Major, later that year. He has excelled for the teams he has played for since leaving BIG, but he continues to find tier-one opportunities hard to come by. The British AWPer laments that his past reputation is still being held against him by some, saying that he should no longer be judged by what he did several years ago as he has matured a lot since those days. \u201cI think that people really have to take a look in the mirror and realize that I was 18 years old and I\u2019m turning 22 in four days,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that I\u2019m Jesus Christ or anything, or that I\u2019m the most respectable, livable innocent person ever. I would never claim to be. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s weird to hold a kid that you\u2019ve watched grow up online accountable for actions that took place four years ago, because the people that call me toxic don\u2019t know me and most likely never will. Generally speaking, if you take 10 people off the street, eight of them probably would never want to speak to their 18-year-old version of themselves. You don\u2019t want to be that person. And I also don\u2019t want to be, but because we\u2019re in an online world, I constantly get reminded of how I was and of what happened as if it\u2019s me now. \u201cPeople think you can have a 1.25 rating over two years of your career while sitting on your phone in practice and being a toxic teammate. That doesn\u2019t happen. There are only three people rated higher than me in the last two years: sh1ro, ZywOo and s1mple. \u201cI can\u2019t think of any professional athlete in any sport who did something that wasn\u2019t even deemed that bad at a young age and it hindered their career for this long.\u201d Fnatic have been mooted as a possible next destination for Smooya after they revamped their roster with the signings of two other British players, Alex \u2018ALEX\u2019 McMeekin and William \u2018mezii\u2019 Merriman, and a British coach, Jamie \u2018keita\u2019 Hall. His addition would signify an upgrade in the AWP role \u2013 which has been one of Fnatic\u2019s weaknesses in recent years -, but the 21-year-old is refusing to be drawn on such speculation. \u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m not in a position where I can say that I\u2019d prefer to play on any team,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve kind of done everything that is within my power. I\u2019ve played in any team that\u2019s accepted me. And I\u2019ve over-performed in every situation possible. Every team that I have joined has got drastically better. The only thing that I had was attitude issues. \u201cI\u2019m not claiming to be absolutely perfect, but for me right now, all I care about is winning at a high level. I have an ego, like every single good player, but I\u2019m more than willing to put it aside to win. I will give no less than 110 percent, and I will make sure that once my foot is in the door of tier-one or tier-two in Counter-Strike, I won\u2019t leave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Smooya sticking to CS:GO: \u201cI\u2019m here to be a household name for a long time\u201d DreamHackOwen \u2018Smooya\u2019 Butterfield says he has rejected big-money offers in Valorant as he still wants to prove himself in Valve\u2019s shooter. The British AWPer\u2019s future is currently up in the air after he was moved to the bench by Movistar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}