Annie, who played on Cloud9 White’s team for almost a year and a half, is recently stepping down from competitive VALORANT and will instead focus totally on content creation.
During her playing lifetime with Cloud9 White, Annie has had huge success in the VCT NA Game Changers tournaments. While playing with her team, she’s won four Game Changers tournaments and dropped very few games during those events, something fantastic to watch.
Nevertheless, Annie shared in a TwitLonger that the announcement might definitely come as a surprise but said she has been thinking about stepping down from the team and competitive Valorant. She explains how long work days and burnout are the reasons for making this decision, something we see in an every day basis around the world of esports.
Annie shared via Twitter:
“I think it’s obvious where this goes, working obsessively over 70 hours a week was destroying my mental health and motivation as time went on until eventually I got very sick of playing”
“I also feel like because of this, I was plateauing as a player and not making any improvements which just made me feel worse and added further mental deterioration.”
This has definitely been a taboo within the esports scene for quite a while now, where due to community scrutiny players keep pushing more than what their mind and bodies should handle. However it is a true situation that currently happens within the esports ecosystem, where time is the separation from talented and obsessed players.
Further than that, being in an organization like Cloud 9 can definitely be stressful. As results are expected day in and day out from one of the biggest North American organizations in the world.
Annie is now included and going to be streaming under the C9 organization. She said that there is a possible return to streaming a variety of games and will create entertaining content while she works on her physical and mental health, after the hardships of playing competitive Valorant.
The team won’t be left without a fifth member however. Bob Tran, formerly of Soniqs Team, will be taking Annie’s previous spot within Cloud 9 White. Bob is a talented player and a lot of analysts thought that she might be signed directly to a men’s roster or league, but she’ll be taking Annie’s open position on Cloud9 White as of the moment.
Bob recently played and showcased her abilities for the Susquehanna Soniqs based out of Philadelphia. There had been some speculation as to where Bob would go after she became a free agent in March, as a lot of teams definitely were looking for her services. Now, she has a home with one of the most successful teams in women’s VALORANT league and her signing will ensure that Cloud9 White remain as the best team in its environment.
Excited viewers and fans of Bob and Cloud9 White will get to see them battle it out later this month. The second VCT NA Game Changers tournament of 2022 begins on June 30th.
