

He was soon approached by Complexity, now known as Cloud9, to join their team. As his skills increased, so did his standing in tournaments. However, he hadn’t considered that it could develop into a career at the time. He began streaming on YouTube soon after he upgraded his internet package in 2012, when he was seventeen.

Shroud used to watch summit1g’s streams when he was in high school and was inspired to attempt uploading his own content. However, it was only when he placed fourth in the North American ESEA Season 15: Main Division in 2014, that he realized that he really had a shot at making it in the pro-eSports scene. Eventually, he realized from the feedback on his streams, especially from pro-players, that he was pretty skilled. Prior to that, he only had a handful of friends, all of whom were fellow gamers. When he began streaming at around 17, he found that it helped him to overcome his insecurities in regards to speaking with others. Over time, he slowly started enjoying CS:GO more as the gameplay gradually improved with new updates. So, he only played it occasionally with his friends, while he primarily played World of Warcraft (WoW) as a teenager. Although he can no longer play with him, his father is very supportive and watches every tournament match that he participates in.Īlthough originally unimpressed with the CS:GO beta was release in August 2012. It was also his dad who initially introduced him to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS). This was why is father was happy to supply his son with the latest consoles and gaming equipment when he was growing up. Shroud inherited his love of gaming and technology from his father, who would play video games with him from a very young age, and who built every computer that they own. However, when he joined CS:Go, ‘Eclipse’ was already taken, so he chose mEclipse, which he later changed to the synonym ‘Shroud.’ He saw the handle ‘eclipse’ being used by another player in a different video game, liked it and stole it. Shroud’s parents are divorced, but he maintains a positive relationship with both parents.
