Falling in Love With Esports Again: The Story of Snax
The Golden Hour is a window of time where colors become warmer and features become softer. For some, the Golden Hour is a moment of peace and tranquility, while for others, it is an opportunity to capture moments in time at their best. In esports, The Golden Hour could be compared to the best moment of a professional Counter-Strike player’s career. For Janusz “snax” Pogorzelski, the Golden Hour became the Golden Years.
For over half a decade, snax and the Golden Five core stood atop Counter-Strike as one of esports’ longest-standing teams before crashing down to earth, burning out, and forcing Snax to redefine his identity as both a professional esports athlete and a human, alike.
Yet, its these moments, when darkness takes the forefront, that make The Golden Hour that much sweeter. And if you persevere long enough, darkness can give way to light once more. This is the story of a Counter-Strike legend that has learned to adjust to the natural highs and lows of being a professional esports athlete to experience the Golden Hour once more.
PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 will be snax’s first opportunity to try his hand at the in-game leader role at a Counter-Strike major. The first CS2 major will take place from March 17-31, 2024 where it will take place at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark. The CS2 Major will bring together 24 of the best Counter-Strike 2 teams for a lion’s den share of $1.25 and bragging rights of being named the first CS2 Major champion.
Sage got his start in esports as a volunteer writer in 2016 for esports organization, Dignitas. Since then, he has continued to work on his craft as a journalist and reporter for a number of established esports publications, such as esports.gg, Unikrn, Akshon Esports, Howla, The Player’s Lobby, Nerd Street Gamers, and most recently Dot Esports. Now, as a member of Esports Illustrated’s content team, Sage’s primary duties are centered around creating groundbreaking written and video content about the esports industry that impacts the community in a meaningful way. Sage graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics. There, he was a member of the Rutgers Esports Executive Board, both as the head of the fighting game community and a videographer/photographer for the Content team.