Having served the scene for roughly 10 years, and amassing a list of accomplishments that few are able to boast, especially for a North American player, Matt “Warden” Dickens has announced his retirement from Counter-Strike.
From his humble professional beginnings amongst teams such as Forsaken and Green Berets, eventually rising to fame amongst our very own compLexity organization, Dickens had an impact that few people really took seriously; his ability to change the emotional state of his fellow teammates has been overlooked for many years, along with his relatively gentle personality and demeanor.
Also acquiring some stock as an elite entry fragger, he was pivotal in clearing the way for his teammates to effectively execute the taking of bomb sites. The most obvious benefactor to this strategic ploy was Danny “fRoD” Montaner, who had been alongside Dickens for an immense amount of time.
Reflecting on Dickens, Montaner had this to say on the Evil Geniuses website:
Matt was one of the first people I ever met in gaming and became friends with before we even joined a team together,” said fRoD. “His friendship is one in a million and something that I will always cherish. It’s hard thinking of not playing without Matt because throughout my career, I have grown as a person and as a player with his help. I know the success we achieved as teammates would never have come or happened without him being a part of the team we had.
I know I should be able to talk more about how it will be to play without Matt, but the whole concept hasn’t totally sunk in yet, and honestly I’m not trying to think about it because that’s a very sad day not only for me, but for the whole community. Matt is the best thing that happened to our team, and filling his void is something that I simply can’t describe or think about. And on that note, I want to wish Matt and his family the utter best of luck forever and I know he will be just as successful in anything he decides to do.
Clearly, sentiments are running high for those close to him, and EG will clearly be facing a daunting task in replacing such a player.
And as for Dickens himself, he leaves with his own statement upon the EG website, saying “I’d like to thank all the fans of me over the years and supporters of the teams I’ve been on … You have truely made this experience one worth doing. To my teammates: I love you guys. You have been there for me and made this all worth while. I will never forget what we have done together.”
It’s not currently known whether Dickens will stay on with EG in another capacity, or who would be in the running to fill his shoes. What we can say for sure is, good bye Warden and good luck.
Stay locked on compLexitygaming.com for all the updates.