Swani retires from Counter-Strike: "I have gradually lost passion for [the game]"

3-4-2024 20:13

The German analyst-turned-coach won't return to activity after departing G2 in December.

Swani stood behind G2 in their Katowice and Cologne victories in 2023

Jan "⁠Swani⁠" Müller has announced his retirement from Counter-Strike, ending a nearly decade-long career as an analyst and coach.

The 29-year-old has been inactive since he stepped down as the head coach of G2 in December, stating at the time that the job had taken "a big toll" on him and adding that "once the passion becomes a burden, it is time to end it."

Swani to step down from G2 after World Final

Those are sentiments he reiterated in his retirement announcement, where he revealed that despite being offered "several interesting opportunities," he decided it was best for him "to focus on other aspects of [his] life."

"I came to the conclusion that I do not want to continue devoting the [vast] majority of my time towards this game," Swani added in his statement. "I have gradually lost passion for it and even though it always sounds amazing from the outside, it was super draining for me to be away from home for over 180 days the past year and not being able to plan anything, which is a huge part of my decision."

Swani's professional Counter-Strike career began in 2015 as an analyst for ALTERNATE aTTaX, and he quickly rose to notoriety in the years that followed with notable stints with Liquid and SK before eventually settling in at G2 in 2019.

The German organization remained Swani's home for the rest of his career as he was promoted from analyst to assistant coach, and later took over as head coach after the departure of Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam at the end of 2022.

He quickly helped break the team's year-long title drought at BLAST World Final to conclude the year, and added the prestigious IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne trophies to G2's cabinet in 2023 before stepping down in December.

G2 triumph over ENCE to take IEM Cologne trophy

"I was fortunate enough to travel the world with my best friends while living our passion together," Swani said about his career journey. "If you would have told me two years ago that we would go on to win IEM Cologne and Kato with me as a coach I would have thought you were crazy, but it turned out to be reality and it was the best part of my life.

"Huge shoutout again to G2 for trusting me in 2023 without any prior coaching experience, we went on to have a pretty decent year and I have no regrets at all while looking back and can be proud about how we handled adversity together."

goat

2024-04-03 20:13

7 replies

goodbye legend !

2024-04-03 20:25

really sad :( wouldve loved to see him replace gob b but it seems cs2 was too cringe for him

2024-04-03 21:12

5 replies

It's too cringe for many tbh... I could hardly watch some matches of this major ngl

2024-04-03 21:14

Swani is still a good champ on league of legends

2024-04-03 23:57

3 replies

get outta here talking about league i dont even know if swani is really a league champion

2024-04-04 00:30

1 reply

its swain

2024-04-04 04:10

long as you don't pick it to go supp

2024-04-04 07:24

noooooo

12 replies

what coaching G2 does to a mf

2024-04-03 20:22

11 replies

niko broke him

2024-04-03 21:16

niko mentally broke jame as well after G2 beat VP

2024-04-03 23:07

he seemed to be not that bothered honestly.

2024-04-03 23:15

2 replies

nah monesy said they mentally broke VP so its true

2024-04-03 23:16

baitF said they're going B so it's definitely not a fake. Oh nvm

2024-04-03 20:37

2024-04-03 20:54

Taz already lost his hair smh

2024-04-03 23:21

LMAO

2024-04-04 06:11

xd so swani actually got off well then... legend

2024-04-04 21:14

Nice 👍

2024-04-03 20:14

He will be missed <3

Thanks niko

cya

strange

writing in a white font to a white&red background,damn master of mind

6 replies

i ain't reading that

2024-04-03 20:16

I'm happy for him though

2024-04-03 20:21

thats why he put a shadow behind the writing genius

2024-04-03 22:24

doesn't help much

2024-04-04 08:03

lul +1

2024-04-04 15:04

Oh no! Anyway

2024-04-03 20:15

this. Rip bozo, won't be missed

2024-04-03 22:21

passion for this game for sure is fading with cs2... like..... there is no more fun in it... but problems we can put a massive list... if you really think about it....

2024-04-03 20:17

9 replies

Cs2 is most funny than csgo.

2024-04-03 20:18

Nah.

2024-04-03 20:32

Cheaters are ruining that fun and valve don't do anything

2024-04-03 20:41

4 replies

how is that different from csgo?

2024-04-03 21:53

csgo if you had prime and weren't reported many times you actually got matched up without cheaters... I had only decent experience in csgo mm... right now no overwatch, no ban waves, literally feels like no one is getting banned at all, prime acc does nothing so as trust factor... cs2 is absolute mess

2024-04-03 22:23

Don't forget about case-hunting bots on DeathMatch, Casual and Arms Race that will kick you if you join "wrong" lobby. Vertigo boost also is still active. Besides that - Prime is dead, MM is dead. Only faceit or go play other games.

2024-04-04 02:08

Amount of cheaters in cs2 compared to csgo is actually crazy

2024-04-04 07:07

ohmygod NO DANGER ZONE CSGO IS BETTER (no) HUGHUHGHU

2024-04-03 21:56

Can you read or are you just deciding not to? It ain't about csgo/cs2. It's about being away from home for more then 50% of the year.

2024-04-04 15:03

Respect to Swani, knows when its the right time to leave CS

Now what does he do?

Like kqly Rent luxury cars

The funny thing is, he talks about this exact topic in the interview with Zonixx... He also mentions that people who think 'He's not doing anything at all' have absolutely no idea.

2024-04-04 16:33

Sad

Nooo he was my favorite German analyst-turned-coach

nice name

2024-04-03 20:23

very respectable career

2024-04-03 20:19

2024-04-03 20:29

rip G2 is where careers go to die

2024-04-03 20:20

who?

0/8

2024-04-03 20:24

Who's reading that?

Best coach G2 had in the last few years

analyst...

2024-04-03 20:31

He won as a coach

2024-04-03 20:38

The coach best known for his "monesy go kill" and "Niko stop choking" tactics.

2024-04-03 20:33

thats my goat

lmao probably fed up with bots team and bots management

2024-04-03 20:34

lmao

2024-04-03 20:36

Coaching NiKo took a toll on him

another career ruined by niko

2024-04-04 00:32

they are actually friends... he Swani said: "At first, I always thought Nico seemed so full-on face, like okay, he kicked off karrigan and all, so he's like totally toxic, needs to assert himself, then he comes along and he's just completely different from how people portray him online. I was really perplexed and thought, wow, okay, he's actually pretty intense and just wants to win." "And we also get along really well privately. We were even together in Dubai for three, four days, just the two of us, kind of romantic, but if you're also a bit closer to the players on a personal level."

2024-04-04 16:49

Goodbye man, you will be missed((

2024-04-03 20:39

Choko strikes again

2024-04-03 20:40

Legend o7

sad news but happy for him. Hes mastermind for sure

2024-04-03 20:47

ggs

2024-04-03 20:48

Swani achieved everything he wanted. No one believed years ago when he joined Attax as Analyst without much experience and look at that journey he had. Nothing but respect for Swani, and good luck in whatever you do next!

2024-04-03 20:49

respect for retiring instead of joining a new team and doing a half-assed job

2024-04-03 20:53

Only respect for him

2024-04-03 20:56

Will be missed; I remember watching g2 in 2023 and seeing how drained he looked; that's a real coach.

2024-04-03 21:03

GO TO VALORANT KING

legend for sure.

2024-04-03 21:06

Being away from your family and home life for half the year isn't for everyone. When the passion is lost and the work starts to become demanding, its very normal for someone to say they dont want to be away from home for 180 days a year. Sure going to see new countries is nice, im sure theres even vacation time in there, but its taxing not being home. From experience, its so difficult not being able to see family, and friends, for multiple months. I wouldn't be able to do what these pro players and coaches do week in and week out.

2024-04-03 21:07

Unlucky, but he needs to do what‘s best for him

2024-04-03 21:09

rip goat

Won't be the first to be back after a few monthes working IRl underpaid overstressful jobs xD

23 replies

Probably and sadly true. Imagine coming from that bubble where you earn tons from a computer game turning into a 9-5 job for ~1.5k :D

2024-04-03 21:47

20 replies

Yeah these spoiler brats lose every sense of reality after a while. A regular job with average compensation will bring them back down to earth pretty fast though

2024-04-03 22:56

pretty sure coaches and analysts aren't making what the players make.

2024-04-03 23:17

14 replies

He was already making good money as an analyst. If he wasn't dumb with his money he will have a couple hundred thousand in investments easily.

2024-04-04 06:58

yes, the point is his compensation wasn't excessive like the compensation tier1 pros get. the amount he's made is probably similar to the amount an average office worker would have made in the same time period.

2024-04-06 01:56

10 replies

And you make that assumption based on?

2024-04-06 02:42

average salaries that you can look up, as well as the lack of talent and demand for coaches. If coaching salaries were so high, coaches would be in high demand and you'd have a lot more people applying to be coaches. Instead, the same names keep getting recycled over and over in different teams.

2024-04-06 21:49

8 replies

Where can I look up average T1 analyst salaries and bonuses?

2024-04-06 22:07

you can lookup average esport coach salaries. you're not going to find specifically CS coach salaries. For those, you can look up swedish/norwegian/finnish coach tax returns (those 3 countries have tax returns publicly available). A lot of pros and coaches start LLCs from which they get paid. Robban, from his LLC, paid himself 80k, 120k, and 90k from 2021-2023. Threat paid himself 33k, 36k, and 28k in the same time period. These are dividends they paid themselves from their LLCs. The amount that their LLC actually received is larger, but since the income isn't broken down, I can't determine if the income was salary from the org or some other business venture.

2024-04-07 08:09

Of course they won't pay themselves more than they need to from their LLC and pay unnecessary income tax. Just what they need to survive and leave the rest in the company for investments.

2024-04-07 11:41

You would think that's what's happening, but it's hard to say for sure. For example, when Robban wasn't coaching in 2019-2020, his LLC still had almost 200k in revenue, but recorded a loss/no profit in those years and he paid himself almost nothing in dividends. I get that they can write some parts of their lifestyle off as business expenses, but then it's hard to understand why they'd take a dividend that they'd have to pay income tax on if they can live just off business expenses. That's why I'm assuming, maybe incorrectly, that the dividend is their base salary. For your info, djl, current nip coach, had 190k in revenue and paid himself 60k in dividends in 2022 (that's the only year listed I could find for him). Revenue wise, Robban made 150k in 2017 up to 930k in 2023. Threat made 44k in 2017 and peaked at 284k in 2022 and is back down to 100k in 2023.

2024-04-07 20:12

How are you going to write of food as a business expense?

2024-04-07 20:25

At least in the US, there's a meals and entertainment deduction for businesses. Like all written off business expenses, you have to show that it was related to your business. For example, a salesperson taking a client out to lunch could be written off.

2024-04-08 02:34

I dont get what point you are trying to make here. They need to pay themselves a salary from their company to pay for everyday stuff and feed their family. You can't write that off as a business expense. But there is no reason to pay yourself more than you need to survive comfortably, because the money would get taxed and end up in a savings/investment account. Both of these can be done inside the company without paying any income taxes before.

2024-04-08 02:59

my point was that Robban paid himself nothing in the 2 years he wasn't coaching, but he still brought in money and incurred expenses. Clearly, he could survive paying himself nothing (he did it for 2 years) but he still pays himself a dividend in the years he was a coach. It's why I'm making the assumption that the dividend is the base coaching salary, which would be equivalent to what an office worker could make.

2024-04-08 07:51

Pretty sure zonic makes more than most players on Falcons.

2024-04-04 08:45

zonic is an exception and even then, it's only on falcons that he makes more than some of the players.

2024-04-06 01:55

i dont think you make that much... and people have their priorities. some people will go back to their shithole countries (respectively) because they have family or because they can't live without being immersed in their own culture. that last point about the shithole was just to emphasize the point btw (my retarded venezuelan friend went back to live in venezuela)

2024-04-04 02:10

1.5 k per month for 8 hours of work per day in Germany is pure robbery, why would one wake up to work for a salary this low

2024-04-04 09:41

It's not just "pure robbery", it would actually be illegal. 1,5K per month with 8h a day (aka. ~160 hours per month) would bring you down to 9,4€ per hour, which is 3€ below minimum wage.

2024-04-04 15:44

The monthly brutto minium wage with a 40 hour work week, as stated by the BMAS, is ~ 2151 Euro. With tax-class 1, church tax, no children this'll would lead to a netto wage of around 1560 Euro. But it was never clarified if we talk about brutto or netto so everyones right *win - win (except for people who work for minium wage)*

2024-04-05 08:39

He earned over 10k a month and also received shares of the sticker money.

2024-04-04 16:51

He'll be back crawling in no time, after enjoying the real world jobs

2024-04-10 01:19

Only german to win IEM Cologne. From Meme to Legend. mad respect to him.

what G2 does to a man

2024-04-03 21:17

Feels bad when someone loses passion for something they used to love... Good luck with retirement

29yo talent noooo

2024-04-03 21:18

enjoy retirement I won’t be toxic

2024-04-03 21:35

what happens after working with N0ko

what CS2 does to a man

2024-04-03 21:48

1yr as Head Coach and got Blast World Finals and both Kato and Cologne, what a career

well same here. cs2 killed it

2024-04-03 21:54

who? I swear they pick the most random coaches and analysts, i'd like to see how one of their CVs looks like

2024-04-03 21:55

Pretty good looking CV liquipedia.net/counterstrike/Swani

2024-04-04 06:59

fraudster niko destroyed more than 2 careers including him

2024-04-03 22:11

literally who

2024-04-03 22:12

sad

2024-04-03 22:17

what color is your dog

2024-04-04 23:59

Seems like many players lost passion too

2024-04-03 22:29

his lost passion was obvious over the last 10-20 matches. thats a good call from him to hang it up

2024-04-03 22:35

what coaching G2 does a mf

I hear that! To travel so much you surely need a lot of passion. A very respectable career in CS, all the best Sir.

2024-04-03 22:55

Rip

2024-04-03 22:57

NAUR

2024-04-03 23:00

As far as a ratio of limited time to number of trophies won, maybe one of the most succesful coaches ever. Retires at the top, props to that!

2024-04-03 23:10

2024-04-03 23:27

who is this mf 0 teams in record except g2

2024-04-03 23:31

Swani river

2024-04-03 23:33

2024-04-04 00:33

only Tribal Wars from now on, LETSGO

2024-04-04 00:50

hopefully he made enough cash

2024-04-04 01:01

One more victim of ToxiKo

2024-04-04 01:07

He was fine until hooxi

2024-04-04 01:28

To be fair, you don't know about that. What we know is he chose to TELL people he wasn't fine after HooXi joined, but he may very well have started being "not fine" before then.

2024-04-04 06:06

2024-04-04 01:40

99swani on csgobetting never forgetti

2024-04-04 02:21

The CS2 effect

2024-04-04 02:32

this happened soon after jks kicked from g2... this cant be a coincidence

2024-04-04 02:58

Another Niko "the cursed" Kovac L

2024-04-04 03:40

This is what G2 does to a person. Disgusting org.

2024-04-04 03:58

goodbye goat o7

2024-04-04 05:20

He was very good at fist bumping.

2024-04-04 05:33

No jks, no passion.

2024-04-04 07:04

+++ best time to retire

2024-04-04 07:14

Understandable

2024-04-04 07:23

How can you have an edited citation as the title :facepalm

Not about him specially but I can't understand why anyone would retire from esports himself. What else you gonna do? Work as waitress? Truck driver as serjei? Dunno bro. Even if someone is burned and need some rest I wouldn't ever announce my retirement.

2024-04-04 07:30

What you dont understand is that there is much more to it than just "esports". In Germany, if you want to build / finance a house and need a credit from the bank there is no way they give you one if you have a contract that is limited --> Esports contracts are always limited to X amount of years and the bank has no security so you are fucked. I am 29, about to turn 30 next year, and want some stability in life. How does it help if I earn maybe 5-6k as an assistant coach but basically throw away 2 more years, which I can invest in having a good future job. When you work in esports you can not plan anything, you only work around CS 24/7 with 6 working days and one day off where you also think about CS again and need to prepare stuff for the next day. There are so many more arguments on why to leave, especially when you lose passion, cause of the huge amount of work that this field brings with it.

2024-04-04 14:35

*Connor McGregor voice* who da fook is that goi

2024-04-04 07:40

sad hope he will return

2024-04-04 07:57

Swani Legend

2024-04-04 08:04

2024-04-04 08:32

Yet, Niko destroys one more career

2024-04-04 09:21

good for swani <3

2024-04-04 09:39

I tend to forget that G2 is a based in Germany lol I am happy for Swani, he left on a high note and it would have been unlikely to reproduce the success he had over the last year in the future. Seems to be the right decision. Best of luck to what ever the future holds for him.

2024-04-04 09:46