Vanity Open to Counter-Strike Return

Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, who left competitive Counter-Strike in 2021 to pursue a professional Valorant career, has hinted on Twitter that he is open to a Counter-Strike return

Following his release from Shopify Rebellion's Valorant roster, Anthony “vanity” Malaspina took to Twitter to declare his availability. In his announcement, he expressed his desire to receive offers from both Valorant and Counter-Strike teams, indicating he is open to a return to competitive Counter-Strike following his transition to Valorant in 2021. 

Exploring offers for VAL & CS

Willing to relocate pic.twitter.com/I9j3bEYXb2

— Anthony (@Vanityxz) June 17, 2023

Vanity actively participated in competitive Counter-Strike from 2017 to 2020. He achieved notable success during his time with various teams, including Team Singularity, where he secured a victory at WESG 2018 USA. Subsequently, he joined Swole Patrol and eUnited before ultimately joining Chaos Esports Club in early 2020. With Chaos, he played a pivotal role in their triumph at DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 NA and the IEM Beijing Online NA, contributing to Chaos' ascent as one of the top teams globally. Despite their achievements, the organization decided to disband their CSGO roster. 

Credit: Riot Games

After a month of staying in limbo, vanity announced that he will be switching to Valorant. He made his Valorant debut with Version 1 in February 2021. 

Following their qualification for the NA VALORANT Champions Tour Stage Two Challengers Finals, the team demonstrated their prowess by securing a spot at Masters Two Berlin. They achieved this by emerging victorious in matches against Andbox, NRG, Team Envy, and Cloud9 Blue during the lower bracket phase. At the highly anticipated international LAN event, Version1 surprised everyone by defeating Team Liquid but unfortunately experienced defeats against NATURN and Fnatic. The newcomer side achieved a commendable top 6 finish, nonetheless, along with earning 200 VCT points.

Vanity was central to Version 1’s success which earned him a move to Cloud-9 six months in August 2021. The 22-year led his new team to the VCT Champions 2021 Play-Offs, which was a commendable achievement. His run at Cloud9 would end after the team crashed out from the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo Round of 16. Vanity would join Shopify Rebellion afterward, but he failed to make a mark and had to leave the North American side less than three months after joining them.