End of a fanTaZtic career

That’s all folks! That’s all TaZ had to say this Friday, when the Polish legend ended his illustrious career.

If you only recently got into CS - and judging by recent player numbers there are a fair few of you - you might not know why TaZ retiring is a big deal. So let us enlighten you.

TaZ has been on top of the Counter-Strike world since 1.6 when he won “World Cyber Games 2006” with Team Pentagram together with another Polish legend, NEO. A man TaZ ended up sharing 5400 days with on various teams. That’s longer than most marriages last.

Let’s fast forward a bit to CS:GO, by now TaZ has won 7 elite events (all with longer names than the last) and showed no signs of slowing down.

In 2014 TaZ really found his footing in Global Offensive, doing so with the Virtus.Pro team that went on to become the longest-standing 5-man roster in CS:GO history. They kicked off their success by winning EMS Major Katowice 2014, beating the Legendary NIP roster (GeT_RiGht, f0rest, Xizt etc..) in front of a Polish home crowd.

A dream start for the soon-to-be-nicknamed Virtus.Plow.

That Plow took home 11 big trophies in 4 years, including 1 major. But these stats don’t even do the team justice. They went the distance in almost every major they attended, a shining example of the longevity this roster had. They’re firmly amongst the greats.

But nothing lasts forever, the plow’s engine eventually gave in. Their last trophy was in 2017 at DH Masters Las Vegas, despite attempts to “fix it” by benching TaZ and adding Michu in 2018.

TaZ went on to multiple smaller projects culminating at Honoris, an org he and NEO founded. Like we said, longer than some marriages.

This stayed his home for the last 3 years as he sought to develop the Polish scene with his experience. Unfortunately, this week the org announced that they’re closing its doors due to financial constraints. That same day, TaZ announced his retirement and we’ve come full circle.

18 Notable trophies, 2 different Counter-Strike versions and a total of 22 years is a career most can only dream of. It’s also very hard to TL;DR.

We wish TaZ the best at whatever he decides to do next.