Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek went from a quiet kid from Ontario, Canada, to one of eSports’ and Live Stream Gaming’s hugest stars. Born in June of 1994, Shroud spent the first twenty years of his life in relative obscurity, until joining Cloud 9 in 2014 and being catapulted to eSports superstar status.
Shroud hasn’t been in the industry for as long as some like Ninja or FaZe Banks, but became one of the industry’s top players and top streamers in a mind-blowingly short amount of time.
Shroud started his career as a CS:GO player, playing with minor teams Slow Motion, Exertus and Manajuma in 2013 and for part of 2014. Shroud had attracted the attention of Cloud 9, who recruited him in late 2014 and started a three-year streak as one of CS:GO’s most legendary pro-players.
Shroud’s teams won an estimated $613,000 in prizes during his time with them, taking home title after title:
| Date | Placement | Tier | Tournament | Prize |
| 2017-07-09 | 2nd | Premier | ESL One: Cologne 2017 | $40,000 |
| 2017-06-25 | 3rd – 4th | Premier | Esports Championship Series Season 3 – Finals | $65,000 |
| 2017-06-11 | 1st | Major | Americas Minor Championship – Kraków 2017 | $30,000 |
| 2016-10-30 | 1st | Premier | ESL Pro League Season 4 – Finals | $200,000 |
| 2016-09-18 | 2nd | Premier | DreamHack Open Bucharest 2016 | $20,000 |
| 2016-07-21 | 5 – 8th | Premier | ELEAGUE Season 1 | $50,000 |
| 2016-06-25 | 5 – 6th | Premier | Esports Championship Series Season 1 – Finals | $65,000 |
| 2015-11-15 | 1st | Premier | iBUYPOWER Cup | $65,000 |
| 2015-07-05 | 2nd | Premier | ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 – Finals | $60,000 |
| 2015-06-22 | 1st | Premier | ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 – North America | $18,000 |
In August 2017, Shroud decided to step down from Cloud 9’s pro CS:GO team and became a full-time streamer for the team. Then, in April 2018, he announced he was leaving the organization and retiring from pro CS:GO to pursue full-time streaming independently and on his own.
Since then, Shroud’s popularity as a Twitch streamer has been phenomenal. At the time of writing, he has almost 6.5 million followers and almost 40,000 subscribers; clearly placing him in “Twitch Royalty” territory.
While he no longer plays in pro leagues and tournaments, Shroud’s presence in eSports and Live Stream Gaming is undeniable.
Shroud is estimated to be making a minimum of $150,000 a month on Twitch subscription revenue alone, based on February 2019 figures.
This would be in addition to personal donations, Twitch bit contributions, revenue from his YouTube channel, merchandise revenue, or corporate sponsorships. It isn’t currently known what the total monthly sum of his multiple revenue streams is, but we hear he’s doing alright.
Shroud and CS:GO will forever be synonymous, and his impact on the CS:GO competitive scene will definitely be his legacy.
In terms of betting, CS:GO has a varied and thriving online betting scene. Lots of eSports betting operators have limited amounts of titles that you can bet on, however, CS:GO is available at pretty much all of them. Many operators even offer live betting for CS:GO events. Check out our CS:GO rundown to get more info on the game and the best places to bet!
While it was CS:GO that skyrocketed Shroud to success, he mostly favors Battle Royale and MMO titles as of late. Shroud can mostly be found playing PUBG, Fortnite, Apex Legends, World of Warcraft, and Elder Scrolls Online nowadays. PUBG is a clear favorite of Shroud’s, accounting for over 40% of the content he’s streamed so far.
Head to each title’s game review using the links below to get more info on the games and how to bet on each of them:
While betting on Shroud’s stream itself doesn’t seem to currently be possible, be sure to check out Unikrn and GLHF.GG for more on live stream betting.