Stewie2K
Jake "Stewie2k" Yip (born January 7, 1998) is a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) player from the United States. He has played for SapphireKelownaDotCom, ex-eLevate, Splyce, Cloud9, SK Gaming, MIBR and is currently on the roster for Team Liquid.
| Stewie2K | |
|---|---|
| Jake Yip | |
| Personal information | |
| Born | January 7, 1998 |
| Nationality | American |
| Nickname(s) | Stewie2K |
| Career information | |
| Status | Active |
| Current team | Team Liquid |
| Games | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| Role | Rifler (entry fragger) AWPer |
| Career prize money | $1,000,000+[1] |
| Career history | |
| 2016–2018 | Cloud9 |
| 2018 | SK Gaming |
| 2018 | MIBR |
| 2019–present | Team Liquid |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Life
Yip was born in 1998 and raised in San Francisco. 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. Yip described his parents as the stereotypical Asian parents who disapproved of video games.
Yip stopped playing Counter-Strike 1.6 for a time in favor of other games such as RuneScape, MapleStory, League of Legends 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 affecting his schoolwork and relationship with his parents. 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
Yip had garnered attention for his competitive PUG performance and flew out to Los Angeles at the age of 17. 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 a Team Leader. He signed the Cloud9 contract a few hours after his 18th birthday.[2][3] His addition was met with criticism from some veteran players. Esports journalist, Duncan "Thorin" Shields, questioned Yip's addition to the Cloud9 roster as well as Yip's abilities.[4]
Yip played for 2 years with Cloud9 and won several tournaments with the team including ESL Pro League Season 4, DreamHack Open Denver 2017 and iBUYPOWER Masters 2017. Yip won his first major with Cloud9 in January 2018 at the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018.[5] At the end of March, Yip left Cloud9 for SK Gaming.[6] He tried out to replace Epitacio "TACO" de Melo's spot on SK Gaming's active lineup.[7] After a three month period, Made in Brazil (MIBR) signed the SK Gaming roster to play under MIBR's name.[8]
MIBR traded Yip to Team Liquid for Epitácio "TACO" de Melo and head coach Wilton "zews" Prado in December 2018.[9]
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 in the ECS Season 8 Finals.[10] Team Liquid's CS:GO team earned $2.31 million in 2019.[11]
Notable achievements
| Place | Date | Tournament | Team | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2020-04-12 | ESL Pro League Season 11 North America | Team Liquid | $90,000 |
| 1st | 2019-07-21 | Intel Extreme Masters XIV - Chicago | Team Liquid | $125,000 |
| 1st | 2019-07-14 | BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019 | Team Liquid | $125,000 |
| 1st | 2019-07-07 | Intel Grand Slam Season 2 | Team Liquid | $1,000,000 |
| 1st | 2019-07-07 | ESL One Cologne 2019 | Team Liquid | $125,000 |
| 1st | 2019-06-23 | ESL Pro League Season 9 | Team Liquid | $250,000 |
| 1st | 2019-06-02 | DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 | Team Liquid | $100,000 |
| 1st | 2019-05-05 | IEM Sydney 2019 | Team Liquid | $100,000 |
| 1st | 2019-01-19 | iBUYPOWER Masters 2019 | Team Liquid | $100,000 |
| 1st | 2018-08-26 | ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Grand Finals | MIBR | $200,000 |
| 1st | 2018-01-28 | ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 | Cloud9 | $500,000 |
| 1st | 2017-11-11 | iBUYPOWER Masters 2017 | Cloud9 | $50,000 |
| 1st | 2017-10-20 | DreamHack Open Denver 2017 | Cloud9 | $50,000 |
| 1st | 2016-10-30 | ESL Pro League Season 4 | Cloud9 | $200,000 |
References
- "Jakey "Stewie2k" Yip - CS:GO Player". esportsearnings.com. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- "Cloud9 sign Stewie2k". HLTV.org. 11 January 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- Nairn, Vince (3 June 2017). "Stewie2k to return to IGL spot for Cloud9". Slingshot. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
- Shields, Duncan (2016-11-27). "The Thorin Treatment: Everybody Loves Stewie". Dot Esports. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Erzberger, Tyler (2019-02-18). "Counter-Strike star Stewie2K wants titles, not accolades". ESPN.com. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Striker (2018-03-31). "SK CONFIRM STEWIE2K ADDITION". HLTV.org. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Villanueva, Jamie (2018-03-30). "Stewie2k leaves Cloud9 to try out for SK Gaming". Dot Esports. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Rosen, Daniel (2018-06-23). "SK Gaming roster to play under Immortals-owned MIBR brand; signed to 'what we believe to be the longest contracts in Counter-Strike'". thescoreesports.com. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Wolf, Jacob (2018-12-11). "Liquid trades TACO and zews to MIBR for Stewie2K". ESPN.com. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Kulkarni, Shreyas (5 December 2019). "Stewie2K becomes first NA CSGO player to reach $1 million in prizes". TalkEsport. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
- Hitt, Kevin (2019-12-25). "Top 10 Esports Teams of 2019 by Total Prize Winnings". The Esports Observer. Retrieved 29 December 2019.