The world of esports can be cruel to its inhabitants: one day you're at the top and everyone talks about you, but the next, everyone has forgotten you. Many champions have gone through this path, and only a few remain working in the industry. In this article, let's remember the legendary captain of Natus Vincere in CS:GO, Daniil "Zeus" Teslenko.
Currently, there are former pro players on the professional scene who, after a short break, are trying themselves as coaches, analysts, or create their own organizations: NEO, TaZ, B1ad3, kuben, JW, flusha, and others. All of them have had certain successes in their new endeavors. They live esports and strive to contribute to the industry even after retiring as players.
You may have forgotten that among all the personalities mentioned above, there was a man who for a long time embodied the entire CIS region in CS:GO. Any other CIS personalities involved in CS simply faded into the background compared to him. That's why we shouldn't forget about Zeus: a Major champion and legendary captain of NAVI.
Career Retrospective
Zeus began his esports career playing CS 1.6 in computer clubs. In 2004, he signed his first professional contract with the organization pro100. After 2.5 years, Daniil moved to Virtus.pro. In 2007, he won his first major tournament — the Intel Challenge Cup 2007. Thus, Zeus became a strong player who could shoot well, but nothing more.
Everything changed in 2009 when the NAVI organization was created. It was then that Zeus began to fulfill the role of the in-game leader (IGL). He didn't really like it, but since there was no one else in the lineup of markeloff, ceh9, Edward, and starix capable of fulfilling the role, he took on the burden. Fortunately, everything went well, and a couple of months later, the team started performing well.
In 2010, they won all three major tournaments — Intel Extreme Masters IV, ESWC 2010, and WCG 2010, which were considered Majors at that time before the introduction of the Valve Majors in CS:GO. Then there was the transition to CS:GO, for which the roster was not ready. After another failed event, the team began to fall apart. Everyone gave up, but not Zeus.
After the reconstruction, Daniil managed to lead the teams to two Major finals but without winning them, and even secured a place in the top three of the world rankings. However, the atmosphere in the team was, to put it mildly, not very good. It was all because the demands on the individual form of tier-1 teams were constantly increasing, while Zeus's performance was getting worse and worse. As a result, he was benched.
Daniil took a short break to rest from the professional scene. Next, he planned to devote himself entirely to the pro100 club, either as a player or as a coach. At the same time, he received an offer from Gambit Esports. Zeus didn't rush to sign the contract. He decided to get to know the team better first. As a result, he liked everything, and he was ready to move, but there was one condition — Kane had to join the team with him. The club agreed, and a new story began.
Several months later, Gambit won their first LAN — Acer Predator Masters Season 3. The main difference between Zeus in Gambit and Zeus in NAVI was his individual form. Daniil decided to prove that he was not to be written off yet and started training a lot. As a result, the team developed very quickly and won several more events.
The Major was approaching, and Gambit gathered for a lengthy boot camp. It is still unclear what happened during that period, but the team played terribly and lost to everyone. They arrived at the Major completely unprepared. Nevertheless, Zeus managed to pull himself together and invigorate the entire team, which eventually led to victory at PGL Major Krakow 2017.
Despite this, Gambit decided to exclude Kane. Zeus disagreed with this decision and followed him. They didn't stay without work for long. NAVI were going through tough times, and taking advantage of the situation, they brought back Zeus, along with Kane, as a coach. The team immediately began to develop slowly but steadily.
After his return, NAVI under the leadership of Zeus won several championships and again reached the Major final, where they lost to Astralis. Then Daniil began the gradual process of ending his professional CS player career. A young captain, Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov, was signed to the team, to whom Zeus passed on some of his experience and calmly went into esports retirement.
What is Zeus doing now?
Initially, Zeus planned to create an esports academy where young players would learn to play CS without unnecessary pathos. In other words, to train players of tier-1 level. However, unfortunately, this venture did not go beyond talks.
In early 2021, Daniil returned to the media space with the announcement of a major project around the pro100 organization and Brazil. At that time, Zeus himself went to Brazil and held a meeting with representatives of the ruling party at that time. Despite such a grandiose plan, as before, nothing came of it beyond talks.
After that, he went to Bali, where he focused on self-improvement. But already in 2023, some madness began. Strange video clips started appearing in Zeus's Telegram channel, after watching which it seemed like he was under the influence of prohibited substances. Zeus was smeared with ketchup, cream, or poured various drinks over his head. His speech was disjointed, and the stream of thoughts seemed like nonsense. This simple way, Daniil turned away some of his fans. Of course, he later deleted those videos, but the community remembers everything. The internet remembers everything.
Next, Zeus announced the revival of the pro100 club. He planned to assemble a lineup of young players from which a tier-1 team could be created and even win a Major in the future. Later, information appeared online that Kane had lured away players chosen by Zeus to the organization of footballer Alexander Zinchenko — Passion UA. As a result, pro100 was never revived, and Zeus disappeared from the media space again.
During his 17-year career, Zeus went from an unknown boy to a contender for the title of the best captain in CS history. After that, questionable decisions and behavior greatly tarnished his reputation. Zeus could have become a very cool coach or organization leader, but he somehow took the wrong turn.
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