HLTV Confirmed guest profile: seang@res

Former Cloud9 in-game leader and current analyst Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares will guest HLTV Confirmed on Wednesday, November 28. We took a look at the 30-year-old's storied career ahead of the show.

Widely regarded as one of the sharpest minds in Counter-Strike, seang@res took in-game leading to a new level in the North American scene by placing a heavy focus on anti-stratting, preparation and structure to improve the teams and players under his leadership.

After parting ways with his latest team, Misfits, with whom he reached an impressive semi-final showing at last year's ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals, the 30-year-old hailing from Phoenix, Arizona started appearing as an analyst at big events such as DreamHack Masters 2018, StarSeries S5 and The FACEIT Major.

seang@res turned to the analyst desk after his time in Misfits

seang@res started his CS:GO career in Area51 alongside later North American stars such as Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin and Kory "⁠SEMPHIS⁠" Friesen. After a break from the game, Gares starting making waves in the scene when the trio joined Complexity alongside Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert and Braxton "⁠swag⁠" Pierce, as the team reached 3rd-4th place at the first Major, DreamHack Winter 2013. The following summer, the roster was acquired by Cloud9, which became the team Gares is most famously associated with, going head-to-head against the mighty NIP in the quarter-final of the ESL One Cologne 2014 Major with Mike "⁠shroud⁠" Grzesiek in the lineup.

The organisation eventually signed Tyler "⁠Skadoodle⁠" Latham and Ryan "⁠freakazoid⁠" Abadir and, with this lineup, the then-26-year-old would show his ability to successfully turn hours of demo reviewing and anti-stratting into victories, as the squad won a string of North American events while also reaching second place at the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 Finals, ESWC 2015 and FACEIT League 2015 Stage 2. His then-teammate freakazoid praised his tactical leadership and said in an interview with HLTV.org that he considered seang@res a "wizard, in terms of strats and understanding how teams play."

After a decline in the team's form, Gares stepped down in November 2015, with the squad's then-manager Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus calling him "one of the most charismatic figures I've ever had the pleasure of working with in esports", a sentiment often repeated by reporters and colleagues throughout the American's career.

Gares became very popular in the Cloud9 jersey

In January 2016, seang@res came back to competitive play in Echo Fox after having made his analyst desk debut at The ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 Finals in December. The squad would not make much of an impact, though, and was shut down in November that same year, with Gares joining TSM.

His ten-day tenure in the squad would be the source of much drama and controversy, as he was released immediately after co-signing a letter with 24 other North American players that protested an attempt by an organisation called PEA to prevent players from partaking in the upcoming Pro League Season 2. TSM's owner argued that Gares had not communicated with him during the time around the creation of the letter, and that this was the reason for his release, an accusation that Gares denied.

As his teammates vowed to continue playing with him, the lineup was signed by Misfits and would play a string of qualifiers and managed a showing at DreamHack Open Las Vegas. After bringing in the two current LDLC members François "⁠AmaNEk⁠" Delaunay and David "⁠devoduvek⁠" Dobrosavljevic, Misfits soared in the rankings after impressive results such as reaching the semi finals of the ESL Season 6 Finals in Odense, Denmark and qualifying for the ELEAGUE Boston Major Main Qualifier in January this year. True to his stats-based way of approaching the game, seang@res told HLTV.org in an interview at the former event that he had scouted devoduvek after looking at the HLTV statistics page.

seang@res at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018

As the core players' contracts expired while in Boston, Gares would immediately join the analyst desk for the Major's New Champions Stage, revealing in an interview with dbltap.com that he had received several offers from event organisers while still playing competitively which he had been forced to decline because of scheduling.

During 2018, the 30-year-old has been a part of several panels while playing in the semi-serious Old Guys Club with his former teammate n0thing, the team recently reaching the quarter-finals of ESEA MDL Season 29 North America.

Tomorrow, seang@res will undertake his most important panel work to date, as he joins HLTV Confirmed regulars Lars "Yossarian" Esmarch, Milan "Striker" Švejda and Lucas "LucasAM" as a special guest.

The 13th episode of HLTV Confirmed airs on Wednesday, November 28 at 20:00 tw You can find our Twitch channel and watch the show right here: