Damian “daps” Steele has returned to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition by signing with Evil Geniuses. The Canadian stepped away from CS:GO in 2020 to pursue a career in Riot Games’ tactical shooter VALORANT. But, he recently retired from VALORANT, citing a loss of interest in the game. Now, daps returns to CS:GO on a familiar team for him, as he scouted and competed with the original Evil Geniuses roster when it was under the NRG Esports banner.
A familiar face is joining our squad. Please welcome @daps as our new Head Coach for #CSGO! pic.twitter.com/5YjIIV9Qct
— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) June 21, 2021
Evil Geniuses sign daps as their new head coach
The former in-game leader is no stranger to the coaching role in Counter-Strike. Over his career, he has taken a back seat approach to leading teams. But, he usually returns to an active role in the team.
Daps competed with a few of the players on the Evil Genuises’ roster during his time on NRG. He joined NRG in 2017 and was the team’s in-game leader, as well as a coach and talent scout at times. He was a part of the squad during its rise in the North American and world rankings in 2018 and the beginning of 2019. But, he would part ways with the team when they were acquired by Evil Geniuses to join Cloud9 and eventually Gen.G Esports. From the current roster of players, daps has coached and played with Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz, Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte and Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov.
He will replace benched head coach Wilton “zews” Prado. The Brazilian coach was benched in early June.
Regarding recent news…
Sobre as noticias recentes…
PT-BR / EN pic.twitter.com/Nnztq3SENv
— Wilton Prado 'zews' (@zews) June 2, 2021
In their first events of the 2021 season, Evil Geniuses have not finished above top four; only reaching a top four finish in the BLAST Premier spring group stage. In 2020, the team reached the No. 1 world ranking on HLTV.org. They currently sit at the 21 spot.
Daps’ first event as a coach for the team will be at the IEM 2021 Cologne Play-ins starting on July 6.
