Emagine announces retirement from CS:GO
Chris "emagine" Rowlands, a 28-year-old Australian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro has announced retirement from the competitive CS:GO scene earlier this Monday, thus ending his successful career after almost four years.
Emagine declared his retirement earlier this Monday, February 17, with a Twitlonger post, where he explained that time has come for him to hang up the mouse and focus on other things in his life.
"The time has come for me to hang up the mouse – It’s been a wild ride and I’m forever grateful to everyone who’s been involved with my journey," said emagine.
"It has become increasingly difficult, however, to balance my personal responsibilities in addition to playing full time."
Emagine went on to thank his teammates, with whom he had a pleasurable time playing over the years, while also claiming he has gained experiences and moments he will always cherish.
Emagine started his CS:GO career back in July 2014, when he joined Team Immunity. During his time with Immunity, the Australian pro saw a fair amount of success, as he made an appearance at a few international CS:GO events, including ESL One Cologne Major, where Immunity finished 13th-16th.
In August 2016, he left Australia for North America where he joined Winterfox. Unfortunately, the new project failed to make a breakthrough due to ongoing internal issues, which eventually led to the disbandment of the team. The entire roster left to play under Animal Squad name, while emagine left America to return back to Australia, where he signed for Kings Gaming Club – a team that later disbanded, with its core joining ORDER on January 8, 2018.
At ORDER, emagine played alongside Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas, Joshua "INS" Potter, Alistair "aliStair" Johnston and Jordan "Hatz" Bajic and quickly established himself as one of the best In-Game-Leaders. He led ORDER to four Big Events, on top of winning several national tournaments, including ESL Pro League Season 8 – Oceania, Gfinity Elite Series AU – Season 2, ESEA Season 30: Premier Division – Australia and ESL AU & NZ Championship – Season 9.
Despite ORDER's success in 2018 and early 2019, the team slowly started to fall apart in late 2019, when coach Chris "Elmapuddy" Tebbit left for Cloud9, while their star players Joshua "INS" Potter and Jordan "Hatz" Bajic left for Grayhound and Renegades respectively.
Towards the end of 2019, ORDER also won ESEA Season 32: Premier Division – Australia, finished second at ESL Pro League Season 10 – Oceania and pocketed fifth-sixth place finish at ESEA Season 32: Global Challenge. In January, ORDER also took a swing at Intel Extreme Masters XIV – World Championship: Oceanic Qualifier, but fell flat against Renegades and ex-Genuine to finish third.
While emagine declared his retirement as a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, he will still remain involved in the scene by helping ORDER from "behind the scenes", as revealed by the team in their Twitter post. With that, emagine is departing the competitive scene, leaving behind a legacy as one of the best Australian IGLs.
Emagine career numbers:
Maps Played: 749
Rounds Played: 18879
Total Kills: 12807
Rating: 1.01
CS:GO Major Appearance: 1
CS:GO "Big Event" appearance: 4
