Shroud’s Old Guys Club fights for a Major Spot

Whilst Shroud formally stepped down from playing CS:GO competitively on the Cloud9 roster to focus on streaming full time, recently he has partnered up with some old buddies to rekindle their fighting spirit and they are doing surprisingly well together.

Shroud’s mix team is called Old Guys Club and it includes some familiar faces, as well as some well known streamers. Recently, the Old Guys Club miraculously fought their way through ESEA Open qualifiers to earn their spot in the qualifier for the Americas Minor. Here is a look at their journey to where they are and what challenges lie ahead for a now legendary set of players.

Shroud, n0thing, Skadoodle, [email protected], and SileNt fight for a Major spot

Shroud’s Old Guys Club team features n0thing, Skadoodle, [email protected], and SileNt. If you’re a longtime Cloud9 fan, you’ll recognize all of these names besides the latter. They have all played together and played competitively in the past, so it’s no wonder they breezed through the ESEA Open qualifiers to get a spot in the Americas Minor.

© HLTV

Because ESEA Open is designed for amateurs, the Old Guys Club started by going easy on their opponents, buying on the first round, pulling off crazy economy strats or going full SMGs for the majority of games. Despite using tactics that would get them crushed against any other pro team, they still pulled out, moving on to the next stage.

The next stage started on November 28 and Old Guys Club had to fight through a playoffs style event to get a spot in the America Minor. It started with the quarterfinals where Old Guys Club dominated a team called Hysteria in a 16-5 match. In the semifinals, Old Guys Club then went 2-0 against LiviD. It seems the Grand Final of the event won’t be played as Old Guys Club, and the other team, Test Takers, will automatically qualify for the closed qualifiers for the Minor spot.

The closed Americas Minor qualifier will see just four teams qualifying for the next Minor tournament, but a total of 16 well known American teams will be fighting for those spots. Old Guys Club may have to fight against teams like NRG, Mythic, Rogue, and Luminosity, all of which have been staying active in the scene for longer than Shroud and his buddies have.

The Old Guys Club started as a bit of fun and it ended up going far further than anybody originally planned. I’d love to see Old Guys Club make it into the Major, but it’s an unlikely event. Either way, I cannot wait to watch the America Closed Minor qualifier and I hope that Old Guys Club at least qualify for the full Minor.

If they do qualify for the Minor, Old Guys Club will then have to put up yet another show of strength to finally qualify for a spot in the IEM Katowice 2019 Major. What are your thoughts on the Old Guys Club? Are you excited to see some old faces step back into the scene or do you think they should leave up their spot for rising talent?