UK Counter-Strike personality Owen ‘Smooya’ Butterfield says he wants to return to the higher echelons of CS esports once again.
The former pro player turned full-time streamer has been without a traditional esports organisation since leaving UK org Into the Breach in 2022. He signed to them on a one-month trial in early 2022 before winning the i68 CSGO tournament with them.
Prior to this, he had stints with various teams over the years , but nothing truly long-term. Smooya was benched by Fnatic in early 2022 and showed his emotions on stream after being benched by Movistar Riders in 2021.
In August 2022, Smooya qualified for the IEM Road to Rio 2022 European RMR, but his CSGO mix team missed out due to visa issues.
“This time I won’t rush by joining already broken projects. I will keep developing with the help of my teammates to become a better person/teammate each day.”
Smooya
There’s no denying he has talent (his esports high perhaps being his second-place finish at ESL One Cologne 2018 with BIG), and his entertaining personality has earnt him 269,000 followers on Twitch and 162,000 on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Now it seems he is interested in joining an esports organisation once again.
“For those wondering, yes I am aiming to work my way back into the higher tiers of Counter-Strike again,” Smooya said on Twitter this evening.
“This time I won’t rush by joining already broken projects. I will keep developing with the help of my teammates to become a better person/teammate each day.
“If any agencies are interested in working with me please reach out via this email or dms. Searching for the best help to reach the top again.”
Smooya also spoke about his org-less international mix team called The Witchers.
“Our first CS2 season is over. I’m very happy with what we managed to do – winning the first and last HLTV event of the season! It’s a very beautiful way to end it. Now to focus on the RMR Open Qualifiers.
“$35,000 won which is a nice late Christmas bonus.”
He also gave a shoutout to his teammates fear, synyx and Sdaim, and others.
Can he reach the heights of CS2 esports? Fellow Brit Mezii has shown what hard work, discipline and a professional attitude can get you.
Smooya’s future is still unwritten – let’s see where he can go from here in 2024 and beyond.
Related article: UK CS players call out cheating in ESEA matches
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.
