British CSGO player Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield showed his emotions on stream today after being benched by Movistar Riders.
Dexerto’s Richard Lewis broke the news of smooya’s benching yesterday and it was confirmed by Movistar Riders and smooya himself today.
Movistar has made some changes to its CSGO roster, outlined in this announcement post. They now have an all-Spanish starting roster, with Alejandro ‘mopoz’ Fernández-Quejo and Alejandro ‘alex’ Masanet being joined by new signings Álvaro ‘SunPayus’ García , Raúl ‘DeathZz’ Jordan and David ‘Dav1g’ Granado.
“As a result of this rethinking, player Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield is left off the starting roster, becoming a substitute until the end of his contract,” Movistar said in a statement. “The English player, whom we thank for these six months of dedication and work with us, is now open to hearing offers from other teams.”
21-year-old smooya said in a Twitlonger: “No hate towards Movistar for making this move, for the direction they are wanting to head going into 2022 and further, it makes the most sense to make this move now and not in the future. I would make the exact same decision if the roles were swapped, so please don’t be negative in anyway towards them for me.
“To the new roster, you guys will be the perfect team to represent the amazing fans of Spain, I’ll be cheering you guys in all the events you have coming up.
“That leaves me with my never-ending unpredictable future, for now I will continue to stream and fight for the FPL championship because I’m not willing to lose the form I showed over the last season. Status is benched but I won’t be going anywhere, you’ll see me live everyday @ twitch.tv/smooyacs. My contract ends at the start of next year, Movistar won’t be expecting a big buyout for me.”
“I really thought Movistar would be my home. When I first signed with them, I really wanted to stay there long-term. And I don’t hate them for this at all. I want to be able to wake up every morning and play Counter-Strike – that’s the only reason I haven’t gone to Valorant.”
smooya
When he was talking about his Twitlonger on stream, smooya welled up and had a little cry from around the 58-minute mark on his Twitch channel today.
“I did not want that to happen on stream!” Smooya said about crying, before laughing. “I just hope people can see that I give a fuck. I was writing this [Twitlonger post] last night crying my eyes out.
“I just want nothing else than to play in a team I can make my home. I really thought Movistar would be my home. When I first signed with them, I really wanted to stay there long-term. And I don’t hate them for this at all.
“I want to be able to wake up every morning and play Counter-Strike – that’s the only reason I haven’t gone to Valorant. So it looks like I’ll be streaming [CSGO going forwards].”
He also said he’s still getting paid by Movistar while benched, ‘but only 50%’.
smooya has played for a number of teams over the years including Endpoint, Epsilon, BIG and Chaos, and from his own words clearly wants to be a part of an org for the long-term now.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
