The Counter-Strike career of North American veteran Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella came to an end today at IEM Dallas—and NA itself is subsequently done at the hometown event. The story is over for now, and while the ending isn’t exactly what was envisioned, the journey is still something we can look back upon and smile at.
Nitr0’s career came to a close against a familiar foe and longtime teammate in Twistzz, now with FaZe Clan, as did Team Liquid’s run in Dallas. Liquid join their NA counterparts in the stands for the playoffs as themselves, Complexity, Evil Geniuses, and Nouns all finished shy of the playoff stage.
Both EG and Nouns failed to secure even a single map while competing in the IEM Dallas group stage, while Liquid’s only map wins came against Grayhound. Coincidentally, one of the best map wins for NA at the event came against a team regarded as one of the most successful in the region’s history as Complexity took Cloud9’s map pick of Ancient. But Complexity couldn’t follow up on that small victory and were booted by C9 via a blowout loss on Overpass.
Outside of some playoff runs for Liquid at IEM Katowice and the BLAST Paris Major, it’s been a rough 2023 campaign for North America as a whole, with few significant results to write home about.
Related: Live Counter-Strike 2023 roster tracker: CS:GO signings and rumors ahead of CS2 release
Following today’s result, nitr0 spoke to the desk before saying goodbye, saying he felt the “skill floor” had been raised in CS:GO since his return from VALORANT and admitting it took some time to find his ground again.
For now, nitr0 said he’s focused on streaming and being a father, but the door to competition (in any FPS) isn’t completely closed forever.
