Shroud (gamer)

Michael Grzesiek^[3] (born June 2, 1994), better known as Shroud (formerly mEclipse^[4]), is a Canadian streamer, YouTuber, former professional Valorant player, and former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. As of April 2022^[update], his Twitch channel has reached over 10 million followers, ranking as the eighth most-followed channel on the platform,^[5] and his YouTube channel has over 6.79 million subscribers.

Shroud
Grzesiek in 2018
Personal information
Name	Michael Grzesiek
Born	(1994-06-02) June 2, 1994 (age 30) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Career information
Games	Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Valorant Counter-Strike 2
Playing career	2013–2017, 2022–present
Team history
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive:
2013–2014	Slow Motion
2014	Exertus eSports
2014	Manajuma
2014	compLexity Gaming
2014–2017	Cloud9
Valorant:
2022	Sentinels
Career highlights and awards
EPL champion (2016)
Twitch information
Channel	shroud
Followers	10 million[1]
YouTube information
Channel	Shroud
Years active	2014–present
Subscribers	6.82 million[2]
Total views	1.14 billion[2]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2017 1,000,000 subscribers 2018
Last updated: 11 March 2024

Career

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Grzesiek started his Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) career with several ESEA teams, particularly Exertus eSports and Manajuma. He was soon signed by compLexity Gaming as a stand-in, and later by Cloud9 in August 2014 when they acquired compLexity's roster.^[6] He helped lead Cloud9 to a first-place finish at ESL Pro League Season 4 in 2016.^[3] He stepped down from the starting roster in 2017 to move to full-time streaming for Cloud9.^[7]

Streaming and content creation

On April 18, 2018, Grzesiek left Cloud9 and officially retired from professional CS:GO.^[3]

On March 10, 2019, Grzesiek reached 100,000 Twitch subscribers, gaining another 14,000 the next day, making his subscriber count more than double streamer with the second most at the time—TimTheTatman.^[8] He continued to stream full-time on Twitch until October 2019, when he announced his move from Twitch to Microsoft streaming platform Mixer. He would be broadcasting exclusively on Mixer, following the steps of fellow streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, who announced a similar deal earlier that year.^[9] At The Game Awards 2019 won Content Creator of the Year.^[10]

On June 22, 2020, Microsoft announced that it would be shutting down Mixer and instead partner with Facebook Gaming. It was alleged that Grzesiek received an offer from Facebook that would have financially exceeded that of Mixer. Grzesiek declined the offer and received the remainder of the current contract payout.^[11]

On August 11, 2020, Grzesiek announced that he would return to stream exclusively on Twitch.^[12] His first stream back the following day peaked at over 516,000 concurrent viewers.^[13][14]

At the inaugural edition of The Streamer Awards in 2022, Grzesiek won Gamer of the Year and was nominated for Best FPS streamer.^[15] At the February 2024 Streamer Awards, he was nominated for Gamer of the Year.^[16] At the December 2024 Streamer Awards, Grzesiek won the Legacy Award and was nominated for Best FPS Streamer.^[17][18]

Valorant

On July 8, 2022, Grzesiek signed with Sentinels as a player for their Valorant team for the North American Last Chance Qualifier for the 2022 Valorant Champions tournament.^[7] His opening match against The Guard, a 2-1 loss, had over 600,000 peak viewers, setting the record for a non-international level match that was only surpassed in March 2024.^[19][20] In the lower bracket, they eliminated Shopify Rebellion and were eliminated by 100 Thieves, who defeated The Guard in the LCQ finals.^[21]

Personal life

Born in Toronto, Canada with Polish heritage, he has been living in the United States for several years. In 2021 he purchased a $9.4 million house in Los Angeles where he currently lives with his girlfriend, Hannah Kenney, aka Bnans.^[22]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2017	The Game Awards	Trending Gamer	Nominated	[23]
2019	Esports Awards	Streamer of the Year	Nominated	[24]
	The Game Awards	Content Creator of the Year	Won	[10]
2020	10th Streamy Awards	Live Streamer	Nominated	[25]
2021	11th Streamy Awards	Live Streamer	Nominated	[26]
2022	The Streamer Awards	Best FPS Streamer	Nominated	[15]
		Gamer of the Year	Won
Feb 2024			Nominated	[16]
Dec 2024		Best FPS Streamer	Nominated	[18][17]
		Legacy award	Won

See also

• List of most-followed Twitch channels

References

1. "shroud - Statistics". Twitch Tracker. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
2. "About Shroud". YouTube.
3. Tsiaoussidis, Alex. "Shroud officially retires from competitive CS:GO, leaves Cloud9". Dot Esports. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
4. Livingston, Christopher (August 3, 2018). "Ninja becomes the first Twitch streamer to reach 10 million followers". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
5. "Top 50 Twitch users sorted by Followers - Socialblade Twitch Stats …". March 26, 2021. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
6. "Cloud9 HyperX Reloads With Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — Cloud9". August 6, 2014. Archived from the original on August 6, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2024.
7. Robertson, Scott (July 8, 2022). "He's back: Shroud joins Sentinels' VALORANT roster". Dot Esports. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
8. "Shroud surpasses 100,000 Twitch subscribers". Dot Esports. March 10, 2019. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
9. "Twitch megastar Shroud is joining Ninja on Mixer as an exclusive streamer". The Verge. October 24, 2019. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
10. Goslin, Austen (December 13, 2019). "All the winners from The Game Awards 2019". Polygon. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
11. "Microsoft just released top streamers Ninja and Shroud from their contracts as it shutters Mixer, after spending millions on exclusive deals with them". Business Insider. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
12. Park, Gene (August 11, 2020). "Shroud is returning to Twitch". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
13. Lee, Julia (August 12, 2020). "Even Shroud is shocked at his Twitch viewer count after returning". Polygon. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
14. Esguerra, Tyler (August 12, 2020). "Shroud's first stream back on Twitch watched by over 500,000 viewers". Dot Esports. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
15. Alford, Aaron (March 14, 2022). "All the award winners at The Streamer Awards 2022". Inven Global. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
16. Michael, Cale; Taifalos, Nicholas (February 18, 2024). "Streamer Awards 2024: All results and winners for every category". Dot Esports. Gamurs. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
17. DeSena, Gabby (December 8, 2024). "Recap: All 2024 Streamer Awards Winners". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
18. "The 2024 Streamer Awards: All Nominations". Esports Illustrated On SI. November 12, 2024. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
19. Robertson, Scott (August 4, 2022). "Shroud, Sentinels smash NA VALORANT viewership record in LCQ opener". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
20. Robertson, Scott (March 4, 2024). "VCT Americas Kickoff final breaks regional VALORANT viewership record, surpasses shroud debut". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
21. Appleford, Danny (August 15, 2022). "Shroud blames lack of practice for Sentinels' exit from NA VCT LCQ". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 8, 2024.
22. "Shroud's new US$9.4M mansion makes him neighbors with Kanye and Drake". oneesports.gg. September 30, 2021. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
23. Alexander, Julia (December 7, 2017). "The Game Awards crowns The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild best game of 2017". Polygon. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
24. "Esports Awards 2019". Esports Awards. April 26, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
25. "10TH ANNUAL NOMINEES & WINNERS". Streamy Awards. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
26. Spangler, Todd (October 20, 2021). "YouTube Streamy Awards 2021 Nominations Announced, MrBeast Leads With Seven Nods". Variety.

External links

• Shroud on Twitch
• Shroud's channel on YouTube