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Jacky "Jake" Yip (born January 7, 1998), better known as Stewie2K, is an American streamer and a professional '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' and ''Counter-Strike 2'' player. As a member of
Cloud9 Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...
, he became the first North American (along with four of his teammates) to win a
Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...
–sponsored major in CS:GO.


Early life

Yip was born on January 7, 1998. Raised in
San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, he picked up '' Counter-Strike'' 1.6 from his older brother, Jason. Yip grew up with his brother and sister. His parents were often on business trips in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Yip described his parents as "stereotypical Asian parents" who disapproved of video games, wanting him to take up a "common" career such as a lawyer or a doctor. His draw towards video games ultimately created a rift between him and his parents, with Yip recalling his mother believing he was going to be a failure. Her disdain for gaming made Yip feel that his mother had failed him and ultimately drove him out of his own home. At the age of 17, Stewie flew to LA to pursue his own interests in gaming. Yip stopped playing ''Counter-Strike'' 1.6 for a time in favor of other games such as ''
RuneScape ''RuneScape'' is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. ''RuneScape'' was originally a browser game built with the Java (programming language), Java progr ...
'', ''
MapleStory ''MapleStory'' () is a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game, developed by South Korean company Wizet. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, published by var ...
'', ''
League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL'', commonly referred to as ''League'', is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for ''Warcraf ...
'' and '' Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2''. He eventually picked up ''Counter-Strike'' 1.6 again, but would only play surf maps and mods. Yip began playing ''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' in the summer of 2014 after a friend gifted him a copy. He was inspired by videos of Cloud9 and would play many hours of the day. He played matchmaking for 5 months before making the switch to ESEA. During this time, Yip was falsely accused of cheating by several players, further motivating him to pursue a professional CS:GO career.


Career

Spontaneously flying to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
at the age of 17 kicked off the competitive career of a young "Stewie2K." Yip had garnered attention for his competitive
PUG The Pug is a breed of dog with the physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face, and curled tail. An ancient breed, with roots dating back to 400 B.C., they have a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most ...
performances and heard rumors of a certain player's professional career soon coming to an end opening the door for Yip. He bided his time and waited for said player to relinquish his spot on the team. After Sean Gares announced he was leaving Cloud9, the team decided to pick up Yip with Gares' personal recommendation. Yip joined Cloud9 on January 11, 2016, as an In-Game Leader. He signed the Cloud9 contract a few hours after his 18th birthday. His addition was met with criticism from some veteran players. Yip played for 2 years with Cloud9 and won several tournaments with the team including
ESL Pro League Season 4 ESL Pro League Season 4 (shortened as EPL Season 4) was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. It was the fourth season of the ESL Pro League, and had an overall prize pool of $750,000 . For the first time, the Finals took pl ...
, DreamHack Open Denver 2017 and iBUYPOWER Masters 2017. Yip won the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 with Cloud9 after defeating FaZe clan in double overtime on map 3 of the grand final, the first and only major win for a North American roster. At the end of March, Yip left Cloud9 for SK Gaming. He tried out to replace Epitacio "TACO" de Melo's spot on SK Gaming's active lineup. After a three-month period, Made in Brazil (MIBR) signed the SK Gaming roster to play under MIBR's name. MIBR traded Yip to Team Liquid for Epitácio "TACO" de Melo and head coach Wilton "zews" Prado in December 2018. In December 2019, Yip became the first North American CS:GO player to earn over $1,000,000 in tournament prize money after finishing runner up to
Astralis Astralis is a Danish esports organization. Best known for their ''Counter-Strike 2'' team, they also have teams representing other games, such as ''FIFA'' and ''Rainbow Six Siege.'' The parent group of Astralis is the Astralis Group, who prev ...
in the ECS Season 8 Finals. Yip would go on to win 7 total tournaments with Liquid in 2019. Team Liquid's CS:GO team earned $2.31 million in 2019. After being removed from Team Liquid's active roster in late 2021, Yip signed with
Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty (series), Call of Duty'', ''Counter-Strike ...
in January 2022. In July 2022, Yip announced he would be stepping away from competitive ''Counter-Strike'' to focus on streaming ''CS:GO'' and ''
Valorant ''Valorant'' is a 2020 First-person shooter, first-person tactical shooter, tactical hero shooter video game developed and published by Riot Games. A free-to-play game, ''Valorant'' takes inspiration from the ''Counter-Strike'' series, borrow ...
'' for the Evil Geniuses Creator Collective. In May 2024,
G2 Esports G2 Esports (or simply G2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in ''League of Legends'', ''Valorant'', ''Counter-Strike 2'', ''Hearthstone (video game), Hearthstone'', ''Rocket League'', '' ...
in-game leader, Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen, was unavailable for IEM Dallas for personal reasons. To replace him, G2 recruited Yip as a stand-in. The event marked Yip's first LAN event in two years. G2 advanced to the final of IEM Dallas, achieving victories over
MOUZ Mouz (stylized as MOUZ), formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its '' CS2'' team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. H ...
,
Team Liquid Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. They signed their first professional players with the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty''. In 2012, Team Liquid acq ...
, and
FaZe Clan FaZe Clan, or simply FaZe, is a professional esports and entertainment brand. Founded on May 30, 2010, as FaZe Sniping, the organization has professional players and content creators from around the world, across multiple games. In October 20 ...
. In the final, G2 defeated Vitality 2-1, securing the championship.


Notable achievements


References


External links


HLTV profile
{{Professional Counter-Strike competition Living people 1998 births American esports players People from San Francisco Counter-Strike players Cloud9 (esports) players SK Gaming players Team Liquid players