Annie Dro steps down from Cloud9 White Valorant roster
On Wednesday, Annie “Annie_Dro” Roberts announced that she is stepping down from Cloud9’s competitive women’s Valorant roster Cloud9 White. She will continue streaming and making content under the organization’s banner, however.
Roberts explained her choice in a TwitLonger post, largely attributing her decision to burnout and the resulting competitive plateau she experienced.
“To keep things short, the reason I’m leaving is: I am not as happy competing and haven’t been in a bit. People meme about playing video games for a job, but it’s incredibly demanding and at times can be quite gruesome,” she wrote. “The first year of the team I had played 8 hours a day or scrims and review, then streamed for 4+ more hours because I really wanted to make content. But I also wanted to ‘catch up’ to the other players who had been playing tac fps since they were babies and decided that playing the game constantly would be the way to do that.”
“I think it’s obvious where this goes, working obsessively over 70 hours a week was destroying my mental health and motivation as time went on until eventually I got very sick of playing. I also feel like because of this, I was plateauing as a player and not making any improvements which just made me feel worse and added further mental deterioration. At that point I started to look towards leaving the team because I feel like it would be unfair to my teammates if I was coasting, they deserve someone who is going to give 100%.”
Cloud9 White have reigned over the North American Valorant Game Changers circuit since its inception, claiming the championship title four consecutive times. The team made history together with their dominant runs, history Roberts was firmly a part of, despite the toxicity she sometimes faced from the community.
The organization has already announced her successor, Australian player Bob “Bob/Queen Bob” Tran. Now Roberts will be following her passion for content creation, still under Cloud9’s umbrella.
“For my future plans, I’m going to stream under C9 and do the things I love to do, which is streaming variety games and creating entertaining content while I improve my physical and mental health. I have short term goals and long term goals that involve me creating, I want to make high production youtube videos and films one day, psychedelic music, collaborative content, I’m currently designing clothing and merchandise that I’m releasing soon, lots of things to keep me busy for a couple years at least.”
Roberts stated that she’s still interested in participating in the Valorant scene in a more spectator-focused role, and commended the production and casters involved. And, of course, she shouted out the teammates she made Game Changers history with.
“Super blessed to have my cracked teammates: Mel, Lexi, Jazzy, Kat, I’ll miss y’all a ton and I’ll be screaming your names when you pop off just like old times. Also shoutout to the staff, Moon, Noukky, Lindsey were incredibly kind to me and it feels good knowing C9 White is in good hands (especially with picking up Xotek).”
About The Author
