Even though Wildcard surpassed expectations at CS2’s Perfect World Shanghai Major and advanced to the Elimination Stage, co-owner Amouranth has seemingly started a beef with one of its players, Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek.
Amouranth has been a co-owner of Wildcard since June 2024. The famous streamer acquired a “significant ownership stake” at the time, which transformed Wildcard from an unknown tier-two organization into a recognizable name in North American esports. With that, it became common for pundits and fans to refer to Wildcard simply as “Amouranth’s team.”
Sonic, one of the Wildcard players, doesn’t seem too happy with this. The South African rifler took umbrage with this on Twitter on December 2 after his team pulled off an upset victory over Virtus.pro. This led to Amouranth calling Sonic out in a public reply on X.
LOSER IS OUT! Wildcard vs Virtus.pro – HIGHLIGHTS – PWE CS2 SHANGHAI MAJOR 2024
Amouranth seemingly warned Wildcard’s Sonic after he voiced frustration over her association with the team.
“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Journos dropping my name to reach a wider audience is part of my value add,” Amouranth said on Twitter.
For Amouranth, there’s no issue with the media referring to Wildcard as her team. The streamer thinks her name adds value and reach a broader audience. Amouranth’s reply got loads of impressions very fast and Sonic tried to make amends, telling Wildcard’s co-owner that he didn’t mean no offense.
“You didn’t see their post before they edited it, they didn’t even mention wildcard. It wasn’t a jab at you so don’t take it as such,” Sonic wrote.
The apologies, however, had no effect on Amouranth. The famous streamer replied to several other posts to try proving her point of view.
Retired Counter-Strike pro turned analyst Jacob “Pimp” Winneche tried replied to Amouranth that maybe Sonic just wanted some recognition after Wildcard eliminated Virtus.pro from the Shanghai Major, but the streamer refused to step back.
After putting up several replies, Amouranth seemingly ended the discussion with a couple of pieces of advice to esports teams and players. She defended referring to Wildcard “Amouranth’s org” as this gets press for the team and wrote that esports shouldn’t fight the clout.
“If esports want to survive, it has to learn to not shoot itself in the foot. Don’t fight the clout,” Amouranth said.
CS2 fans do hope that none of this drama affects Wildcard. The team have been on a surprisingly strong run. The team qualified for the Shanghai Major when nobody expected and has secured a top-16 finish after incredible victories against Virtus.pro and Passion UA in back-to-back elimination matches.
Sonic and the other Wildcard teammates also showed true admiration for Amouranth before. After they qualified for the major, Wildcard shouted “Amouranth” several times.
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