C9 Xeta: “With Cloud9, I finally have that support I always needed to become the best version of myself.”

Berlin, Germany – The setting is the StarLadder Berlin Major Qualifiers. Four teams are fighting for three final slots as Team MVP, the Korean representative motivated to qualify for their first CS:GO Major. It didn’t happen.

Instead, MVP PK embarrassingly fell out of the tournament fourth, unable to take a single game off their opponents. For the team, it was devastation, and for Xeta, the dream of qualifying for the biggest event slipped right out of his hands.

But how do you get better when you are stuck in an environment that is actively working against your goals and desires. This is a problem that many run into. And for C9 VALORANT player, Xeta, it was a notable issue for Korea.

Back in CS:GO Xeta’s goals were much simpler. Back then, the only goal he had was centered around being able to make the CS: GO Major.

Korea is known globally as one of the leaders in esports, but a game the region is suboptimal in is CS:GO.

In Korea, FPS support is sparingly low compared to League of Legends or its popular counterpart. Compared to a major region like Europe, being a great CS:GO player in Korea was never good enough. Many of the FPS player bases in Korea would default to Sudden Attack, a popular South Korean first-person shooter.  As a result, it was difficult being able to find ways to even improve at the game. Yet, it is actually the hardships he faced in CS:GO that makes him appreciate every single moment in his new path in VALORANT.

For Xeta, CS:GO was filled with a number of hardships. While Xeta was one of the top CS:GO players in the Korean region, receiving any type of support was just impossible. 

“I was making part-time money working full-time hours with MVP PK,” Xeta shared. “It was really tough when there was no support available.”

Xeta, who spent two years as one of the rising stars of MVP PK from 2018-early 2020, resents his time with the former organization.

“The organization was a bunch of scammers and treated us like disposable pieces. What sucked, even more, is that contractually, we were locked to play under the organization,” Xeta said. “For a long time, I just needed to keep my head down and focus on trying to move forward, but it was so hard.” 

He remembers the regularly late payments from the South Korean organization as he tries to stay focused on playing his best. But in the back of his mind, he knew that he needed to do well in the tournament to make up for the lack of money.

“That goal of being able to qualify for a CS:GO Major meant so much to this team,” Xeta exuded passionately. “Even making it to the Major meant we would be able to get bigger South Korean organizations to look at CS:GO as even a possibility.”

Unfortunately, it never panned out. And after failing to qualify for StarLadder Berlin, Xeta briefly joined the Asian superteam Tyloo before officially retiring from CS:GO due to the pandemic. And what was meant to be a death sentence for his career, a stroke of luck came his way once Riot Games released VALORANT.

When Xeta officially retired from CS:GO to pursue a career in VALORANT, he was signed by Cloud9 Korea. And immediately, he noticed some big changes.

“It honestly sounds troll, but the first thing that I really noticed was how good Cloud9’s jerseys were,” C9 Xeta laughed while continuing on. “In MVP, the jerseys were so much cheaper looking. I was not used to this type of quality. I felt so out of place.”

Cloud9 Korea eventually disbanded after just a few months of play. And while Xeta had many opportunities to join top-tier Korean teams, he had other plans.

“Even though I had opportunities to join top Korean teams like Vision Strikers, my goals changed from CS:GO,” Xeta continued. “With Cloud9, I saw an opportunity to achieve an even higher level I never thought was possible back in CS:GO.”

For some, the idea of playing a game in a new country can be scary, but for Xeta, it was a renewed mindset of hope. It was hope that for once, he was in an environment where he could achieve new goals.

A dream that dates back all the way to his days as a CS:GO player for MVP, Xeta finally is beginning to find his footing as a mainstay in esports through VALORANT.

After enduring what he called “hell” with MVP, Xeta is finally at a happy point in his career. Now, given the true support to make an esports career a reality, Xeta is not taking any moment for granted because he never wants to go back to the low points of CS:GO career.

Xeta is redefining the preset expectations placed on him. Now he is a mainstay on the Cloud9 Blue lineup as he looks to take Cloud9 deep at VCT Champions in December.

But even though he can proudly say he is at the happiest point in his esports career, there is still so much more he wants to achieve.

Cloud9 Blue is the final team qualified for VCT Champions 2021 and will head to Berlin, Germany for the event later this week, starting December 1.

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