RUSH retires as CS pro player

31-year-old American esports athlete William "RUSH" Wierzba has officially announced his retirement as a pro Counter-Strike player. William wrote about this via his X social media account, adding that he does not plan to completely leave the scene.

I am officially retiring from playing CS. It may not come as a surprise considering the extended breaks I’ve taken from competing over the last year. Those breaks were an attempt to reignite my passion for playing. I did find it for a time when CS2 came out, but that spark eventually faded.

I told myself years ago that I would stop competing if one of two things happened:
1. My individual skill degraded significantly, or
2. I simply stopped enjoying playing professionally.

If either happened, I knew it would be time to walk away. I never wanted to be the kind of player who gets contracts based only on name and past accolades. That would be a disservice to the fans, the orgs, and especially the teammates I’d be playing alongside.

That said, I still absolutely love everything else about CS. Over the last few years, the main reason I kept playing was the fulfillment I got from working with younger, up-and-coming players, mentoring them and helping them grow both in and out of the server.

Right now, I have nothing lined up career-wise, and after 12 years of competing, I’m actually enjoying it a lot. But I’m very interested in the prospect of coaching in CS2, and I believe I would excel in that role.

I’d also be open to working an event as talent. My DMs are open to any interested orgs or parties.

Wierzba began competing on the Counter-Strike pro scene in 2012. Over the course of his career, he has earned $642,000 in prize money, representing clubs such as Evil Geniuses, Complexity, Cloud9, OpTic Gaming, and many others. His last team was Nouns – he played for it from May 2024 to May 2025.

Origin: x.com