Cybersport player Dima «Dima» Bandurka, who back in February announced his move to Valorant, recently published a video where he elaborated on the reasons behind this decision. According to the player, age was the main factor for him. Nowadays, most organizations prefer to work with young participants to develop their talent, while it has become more difficult for a twenty-six-year-old cyber athlete to find opportunities.
At the beginning of 2020, when Dima played for Espada, he set a goal to reach a high level within a year. After the project was frozen, he contemplated going straight to Valorant or considering offers from other eSports organizations. Although several teams invited him to join their roster, he felt that this was not the level at which he wanted to perform. In addition, Dima believes that the FACEIT administration was biased towards players from the CIS. As a result, Espada did not receive an invitational in the FPL despite showing a high level. In the end, Dima came to the conclusion that in Valorant he is waiting for more favorable prospects.
Recently, several other cybersports players have announced their retirement from CS: GO. In particular, Anton «tonyblack» Kolesnikov, who played for Virtus.pro, TeamSpirit and other top teams during different periods of his career, and Jimmy «Jumpy» Berndtshon, former coach of fnatic and Notrh, decided to move to Valorant.