Rossi announces retirement from Esports

Following Gods Reign's announcement of parting ways with their CS2 roster, the 26 year old Indian rifler, Rossi, has announced his retirement from esports through a post on X. In the announcement post, Rossi has thanked his teammates, opponents, supporters, and his former teams Reload gaming, WingsUp, BL4ZE, Asking Questions, Artisan Esports, Medal Esports, True Rippers, Gods Reign.

Rossi's early footsteps on HLTV started in 2019, playing ESL India Premiership 2019 Summer Finals, where his team WingsUp reached the semi-finals. The veteran then played several qualifiers as part of BL4ZE, playing alongside Raph, Marzil, SkRossi, and cara. The roster emerged victorious at the WESG 2019 South Asia, ESL India Premiership 2020: Fall 2020, Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup 2020.

After the Indian Counter-Strike scene experienced a rebirth in 2023, Rossi debuted with Marcos Gaming. The team clinched their first trophy at Dreamhack Hyderabad Invitational 2023. The roster then transferred to True Rippers, after which Rossi and co placed second at BLAST: The Draft Season 1. In November 2024, Rossi got signed by Gods Reign, which led him to a first place finish at Skyesports Souvenir 2025 National Championship.

My journey started really well, where I got a chance to play with Bangalore ex-1.6's best players. They invited me to their team after they noticed my potential in the gaming cafe I was playing in. While I was playing with them in local tournaments, a team called Wings picked me up because of my potential once again; that's when my REAL journey began.

After Wings, we got into an org called "BL4ZE Esports." I was really happy because that was my first salaried team with BL4ZE. Coming in, we made changes and added Raph and Cara from SEA. With this team, we managed to dominate the Indian scene pretty well, but we were failing to reach the top 5 in SEA, so I decided to leave the team after playing for 1.5 years. I joined Asking Questions and played under quite big names.

With the AQ lineup, we managed to win 1 SEA tournament and 1 Indian tournament. I decided to leave AQ due to financial issues, then joined Artisan, another SEA org-based team. After playing in Artisan for 8 months, I decided to switch to Valorant. Well, Valorant didn't work out very well, so I made a comeback to CS in 2023. I joined Medal for Skyesports Masters 2023. After Medal, I got an offer from Marcos Gaming. But Marcos struggled financially, so the whole lineup joined True Rippers Esports. After playing in TR for 1 year, I later got an offer from "Gods Reign." I played for 6 months in Gods Reign and managed to represent India 2–4 times internationally.

Then things were not working out, so I decided to part ways. My journey at the end was AMAZING. I really want to thank everyone who made my career wonderful by being my teammate/friend/manager/owner. The decision to retire was already on the way for me because I wanted to quit in January 2025, after Zowie. But eventually, when I heard about the MRQ Opportunity & ACL, I decided to stay with the guys and give it another shot.

The major reason for me to retire is that esports in India is not going to be a stable field. Financially, these orgs don't pay you well and won't pay on time either. So the financial condition was getting worse for me because I'm the sole guy who's responsible for everything in my home. The second reason is I was completely demotivated about my recent performances from the last two months, so I decided to give a chance to young talents rather than me staying and not being able to give the best for India.