N0thing is one of NA’s biggest CS:GO players. (Casting) But what does it mean to be the best in NA? To be perennially at the top of a region that can’t compete with the scene’s top international talent? (Casting) What becomes of your legacy when winning is almost always just out of reach? (Casting) What becomes of your legacy, when the team you helped build finally wins without you?
Across a decade of playing CS professionally, N0thing saw it all. The highs, the lows, and every crushing loss in between. And yet, his legacy has remained untarnished. This is his story. Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert was born on October 25, 1990 in San Diego, California, and was the youngest of three brothers. Like many of today’s esports pros, n0thing got his start in his game of choice by watching his brother, Jared, play Counter-Strike. But even before that, n0thing always had a flare for competition, and wasn’t going to let other kids walk all over him https://dbaoncall.net/apollo-on-college-esports-i-dont-think-if-youre-going-to-collegiate-you-should-look-for-lcs/. "We joined this little roller hockey league, kids were kinda picking on him a little bit so I went over to kind of protect him a little bit and he pushed me back and he goes "I got this."" But at home, n0thing was obsessed with video games, specifically, Counter-Strike 1.6. "I home schooled Jordan for the 12 years he was in school, on his off time he wanted to play video games. How could I say no when he was doing all of his work. When I saw how effortlessly he was improving and growing so fast, I just decided that I was going to go as far as he wanted to go with it." He was playing 10-12 hours of CS a day, nonstop, and then going out to small LAN tournaments and rolling people. The only problem was that n0thing was much younger than his adult opponents. "A lot of the older kids that were playing did not like the fact that they were getting waxed by a nine or ten year old player so his older brother stood by to make sure things didn't get out of hand, which they did a few times." N0thing knew that the only way to make it big was to play as much as possible in front of as many people as possible, so he leaned on his mother, who drove him to LAN after LAN, all on n0thing’s quest to become the best. "So one of the biggest things for me, succeeding in the local scene and probably getting the opportunities I did. "Was getting notoriety from competing in tournaments in LA and Las Vegas. And my mom was a key factor in getting me there." And it t all paid off a few years later, when N0thing signed with Evil Geniuses at just 18 years old. "So at that point Amazing Gaming won the KODE5 qualifier and got picked up by Evil Geniuses. And that was my first pro contract that actually had a salary and they gave me gear and stuff." For the next four years, EG were the best North American 1.6 team. They won the ESEA Season 3 Finals, the IEM IV American Finals, the ESEA Season 5 Finals, ESEA Season 6 Finals and the Beat It! 2010 Finals. But when it came to international competition, EG always faltered. (Casting) All the while, n0thing was developing a reputation. He had an aggressive, high-octane style that made him thrilling to watch, and his young age made his Wunderkind status all the more impressive. "I'm gonna be showing you guys today a bit about M4 gun control and just showing you the different aspects of it and basically all the different battling techniques, you'll need for the different distances, and situations you'll encounter." But after so many years atop NA, EG finally crumbled in 2011. The team fell to 9th-10th at IEM Hannover, then failed to make it out of groups at IEM VI Global Challenge New York, and capped off the year by placing third at the WCG Pan-American tournament. During that same time, N0thing was pretty uncertain about his life. EG was paying him a salary, but it wasn't enough to live off. So he started going to college and even got a marketing internship at Gunnar. But the internship, just made him jealous. "It was kind of a weird blow to me ego because I was like dealing into the gaming industry but in like this behind the scenes way, I was like helping other pro gamers from League and StarCraft do cool stuff. I remember being jealous, like "Man I wish my game had more traction." Evil Geniuses left Counter-Strike in January 2012, disbanding their team after months of rumors and speculation. That left n0thing in the lurch. 1.6 was on the way out, and CS:GO, the game’s sequel, was quickly becoming the game of choice. But GO wasn’t perfect and, when it came out, n0thing wasn’t even sure if he liked it. "I hate how in CS:GO, they made it more about "strategy"." "And less about f*cking just easy, like in 1.6 the recoil was obviously easier to control, But the strategy was much more prevalent cause you could actually hold angles, you can't just f*cking run up like an idiot by yourself. This game, f*cking pure idiot bait, just works everywhere." But what n0thing didn’t realize at that time, was that CS:GO was perfect for him. "Very early on there was a clip of him like, actually kind of criticising certain aspects of the game And while he's talking and having a conversation, he's just casually getting four kills in a round. Just running forward you know, it just seemed so effortless to him.
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