Back to Content Creation: Eggsterr Confirms Plans to Retire from Professional Play

Back to Content Creation: Eggsterr Confirms Plans to Retire from Professional Play

ENVY player Evan “Eggsterr” Grady has unofficially announced his retirement from professional play. The 23-year-old content creator turned professional player confirmed on-stream that he would play the upcoming MIBR series while also implying that will be his final series with the team.

“I am officially retiring from professional play. I’m not trying to play other agents. I think people forgot that I’m a content creator that went pro. I’m not a pro player. That’s not where my soul lies.”

No Room for Yoru in 2026

It seems Yoru’s time in the sun has at last come to an end in this 2026 season. Earlier targeted nerfs to the agent back in March has seen a sharp decline in the Japanese agent’s use in pro play – and an equally sharp increase in the number of Neon comps.

And possibly no player has felt the sting of the nerf as sharply as Eggsterr, self-proclaimed Yoru-main content creator who rose in infamy on first the RANKERS roster and then on ENVY for only playing Yoru, such was his mastery of the duelist.  

Across the entire 2025 run, Eggsterr could be found on his signature Yoru, posting a total of 200 official games on the agent to date. Contrast that with his Stage 1 run where he now has a further 8 new agents played, all varying between 1-3 times deployed, and spread across all 4 roles (duelist, controller, initiator, sentinel).

It’s clear Eggsterr and ENVY have been struggling to find Grady’s identity post-Yoru nerf. Despite his best efforts to pivot into a more traditional pro player with an arsenal of different capable agents, ENVY has found little success still.

“I’ll talk more about it, but basically all of Stage [1], my head has been in the clouds. I will be playing against MIBR. I’m not officially retired yet. I’m going to go out there and leave my heart and soul on the field – and give that game everything I’ve got. I’m going to give that game 130%.”

Death Knells for the ENVY Project

Less than 7 months after following their momentous victory at VCT Ascension back in October, the ENVY project is in shambles. The expected departure of Eggsterr is only the latest blow in a long line of setbacks this roster has faced in their first ever year of VCT.

Following their victory in Ascension, the roster had to say goodbye to Alex “canezerra” Banyasz and Ayan “ion2x” Rastogi, both pivotal pieces of the team’s firepower, due to both being under the age limit for VCT.

A month into VCT, in February, the ENVY roster said goodbye to another of their core founding members – Hunter “inspire” Schline. Back in April, canezerra, who is currently 17-years-old and awaiting a birthday in June, was hardware-banned for 12 months by Riot Games, closing any potential comeback for the success formula for ENVY. With the expected departure of Eggsterr following the match on May 10th, only Matteo “P0PPIN” Weber will remain from the original 5 that had ascended.

It’s not as if the ENVY roster is currently finding success as well. A 9th-10th place finish back in Kickoff and currently sitting 1-3 with one last match to go against group leader MIBR. The troubles for ENVY only seem to continue to multiply as they look towards one final run in Stage 2 for any hopes of qualifying for an international event in 2026.


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Featured Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Read More:

VALORANT Shares First Look at Neon and Shotgun Nerfs Coming in Patch 12.09

The Valorant Community Mourns the Loss of Tyler "sym" Porter

Riot Games Brings Back Shotcall for VCT Stage 1 Playoffs

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