How a Banned CSGO Prodigy is Looking for Redemption in Valorant
Braxton ‘Brax’ Pierce, formerly known as Swag, was once one of the most promising young talents in the North American CS:GO scene.
He skyrocketed through the NA scene with CompLexity, as well as iBuyPower, and it looked like he was going to be the future of Counter-Strike for the region. But in January 2015, Brax and his teammates were given a permanent ban from all Valve tournaments in the midst of a match-fixing scandal.
In an instant, Pierce’s young career was gone. While many will have agreed that the iBuyPower players deserved some kind of punishment, most people thought that a lifetime ban was very harsh, especially in the case of the 17-year-old.
Four years went by before tournament organizers started to allow Brax and his former teammates to compete at non-Valve events. The damage had been done, though, and while Brax dived back into competition, he still had no hope of being picked up by any team hoping to compete at Majors.
With Valorant releasing, the competitive player has a new opportunity to cement himself as the star he was destined to be in CS:GO. While he will never be able to erase his mistake from the past, he now has a shot at redemption.