Shroud (born Michael Grzesiek) is a Canadian YouTuber, streamer, and former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He is best known for playing first-person shooter and battle royale games like Valorant, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Escape from Tarkov, and Apex Legends among others.
Spending very long hours each day playing video games isn’t viewed as a waste of time any longer as it was by most parents in the late 20th century. Thanks to new technology, gamers are able to stream their gameplay and compete with various other gamers from around the world to the delight of viewers who are willing to tune in or attend competitions to watch it happen.
Big players like Michael Santana who have extensive competitive experience and massive following on Twitch have become a household name among League of Legends enthusiasts. The likes of Michael Grzesiek, Another Twitch streamer who is better known by his online alias Shroud, discovered this quite early and have been able to make a good living out of it.
Shroud, who at one point in time went by the name mEclipse, acquired huge fame on the Twitch streaming service. His videos on the platform have garnered millions of views from fans all over the world. Among the many games he is known for playing are PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Call of Duty Black Ops 4: Blackout, and Fortnite Battle Royale.
Summary of Shroud’s Biography
Full name: Michael Grzesiek
Nickname: Shroud
Gender: Male
Date of birth: 2 June 1994
Place of Birth: Toronto, Canada
Shroud’s Age:29 Years Old
Ethnicity: White
Nationality: Canadian
Zodiac Sign: Gemini
Famous for: Playing first-person shooter and battle royale games like Valorant, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Escape from Tarkov, Apex Legends, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds among others.
Shroud’s Instagram: shroud
Twitter: Michael Grzesiek
Facebook: Shroud
Shroud’s Fact Sheet
Shroud’s Early Life and Career Beginnings
Michael Grzesiek, who is of Polish descent, was born in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on the 2nd of June, 1994. He spent a huge chunk of his childhood in his hometown before relocating to the United States (Orange County, California), where he began playing video games on a full-time basis.
Shroud learned how to play video games and with time passing, he became passionate about it. He soon started his gaming career as a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) player. He played with several E-Sports Entertainment Association League teams, particularly with Diablo III’s Witch Doctor minor weapon team, Manajuma, before joining CompLexity gaming as a stand-in. Shortly after, CompLexity was acquired by Cloud9 in 2014 and he signed with them.
In June 2015, Shroud ensured his name was heard across the gaming world as he participated in the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 – North America competition where he emerged winner, carting away with $18,000 in prize money. He has since then gone ahead to play in various other competitions, winning tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars along the way.
By April 2018, the gamer had become the second longest-standing member of the Cloud9 team as he announced he was retiring and ending his playing of the multiplayer first-person shooter video game.
His Time on Twitch and Subsequent Move To Mixer
Shroud opted to focus on a full-time streaming career after putting a halt to his competitive CS:GO playing career. On Twitch, he played a wide range of video games that included PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, CoD Black Ops 4: Blackout, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, Minecraft, Battalion 1944, World of Warcraft Classic, Escape from Tarkov, and Fortnite Battle Royale. Videos of him playing these games, which ran into thousands of hours, became very popular on the platform as he soon amassed millions of followers while his views were even higher.
But while spending most of his time on Twitch, Shroud occasionally played CS:GO with the Old Guys Club. In October 2019, after his Twitch account had amassed a total of 7.05 million followers and 365 million views, the streamer announced to his fans on social media that he was leaving Twitch for another live video game streaming platform known as Mixer. He joined a slew of Twitch streamers who signed with Microsoft’s growing streaming platform where he hopes to continue to entertain viewers around the world.
Same shroud. New home.https://t.co/eZV2GBBSsY pic.twitter.com/AHaajkjees
— Michael Grzesiek (@shroud) October 24, 2019
How Much Has Shroud Made From Playing Video Games?
Shroud began earning big right from his days as a competitive CS:GO player. As earlier stated, his first big payday came in June 2015 when he took home $18,000. A month later, he placed 2nd in the ESL ESEA Pro League Season – Finals and took home $60,000. In November of that same year, he placed 1st at the iBUYPOWER Cup to win prize money of $65,000. The gamer won various cash prizes in 2016 and 2017, with the highest prize money he won being $200,000 by placing 1st at the ESL Pro League Season 4 – Finals in October 2016.
Following his move to Twitch where he was able to attract a huge number of followers, Shroud became one of the top earners on the platform as he was reported to take home around $3 million a year.
What We Know About His Love Life
While video games appear to be the only thing that Shroud thinks about, it is important to note that he does have a life away from the internet. This is evident through the fact that he has a girlfriend.
The streamer is reported to be in a relationship with Jessica Rago, a fellow video game enthusiast and Orange County native. While not much is known about her, it is known that like her boyfriend, she streams video games under the alias Dachhei. It is also reported that Rago works as an Esports Marketing Manager at HyperX.
