Edward announces end of playing career

The Ukrainian veteran hangs up his mouse after spending over two decades on the server.

Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev has retired from playing professional Counter-Strike and brought an end to a decorated career that spanned more than two decades, during which he won a myriad of the biggest trophies in CS 1.6 and CS:GO and was thrice named a Top 20 player in the world by HLTV, peaking in 2010 at No. 5 in the former title.

The Ukrainian rifler spent the early years of his career playing LANs in Russia and Ukraine with pro100 alongside Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko, and made his first notable international appearances at World Cyber Games in 2005 and 2006.

He began his rise to prominence in 2007 when he and Zeus joined Virtus.pro and secured title victories at medium-sized international LANs, but it wasn't until 2010 that he truly hit his stride and became known for his excellent rifling ability and otherworldly proficiency with pistols.

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He reunited with Zeus on Natus Vincere and they dominated the scene, becoming the first team to win IEM IV World Championship, ESWC, and WCG — the three events unofficially considered the Majors in 1.6 — all in the same year.

They also won Arbalet Cup in Dallas, where Edward produced one of the most legendary highlights in history with a USP pistol ace on Tuscan, as well as took home trophies at four other tournaments and placed among the top three in a handful of others, breaking the record for most prize money won in a single year at the time.

Natus Vincere added another "Major" victory at IEM V World Championship the following year, their fourth in a row, and won a few more medium-sized titles, but started to struggle after that and often finished as the runners-up for the remainder of 1.6.

Edward and Natus Vincere's title fortunes didn't improve much upon the release of CS:GO, and the lack of consistent trophies led to his removal from the team mid-way through 2013. He spent a few months with Astana Dragons before returning to Natus Vincere near the end of the year, but notably missed out on playing at the first Valve-sponsored Major, DreamHack Winter 2013, with either organization.

He remained in NAVI for the next six years and attended every subsequent Major after DreamHack Winter, thrice making the grand finals at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015, MLG Columbus 2016, and FACEIT London 2018, but never claimed a CS:GO Major championship win for himself.

The team made the playoffs at almost every other Major and positioned themselves as strong title contenders at most Big Events from 2015-2019. Edward's abilities in the new title didn't match that of his 1.6 level, however, and he often was the team's third or fourth-best player, playing a supportive role to back up the likes of Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács, Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev, Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov, and Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev.

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Edward: "In CS 1.6 I wanted to become the best player; in CS:GO I put the team first"

Still, he helped the various iterations of the roster take home a deluge of Big Event trophies over those years, most notably at ESL One Cologne 2018, ESL One New York 2016, IEM San Jose 2015, and StarSeries & i-League Season 5 & 7.

The Ukrainian rifler was eventually replaced by Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov on Natus Vincere in 2019, and never returned to the upper echelons of the pro scene after that.

He spent the last four years as a journeyman playing in mixed rosters and lower tiers, most recently for ESC. He took to X on Sunday to announce he is no longer on the team's starting roster and will move to a different position within the organization ahead of the birth of his first child.

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Edward: "After three consecutive tournament victories in 2018, we could have become the best team in the world, but we chose to hang out"

Reached for comment by HLTV, Edward confirmed the move to a new role meant he was retiring from competition as a player, but said he may return in the future as a coach.

"CS will always have a big place in my heart and I'll try to make time to stream over the next year to stay connected to one of the most important parts of my life," the 36-year-old added in another post on X.