Sean Michael Gares, better known as sgares or Seang@res, is an American professional retired ''
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' player, esports commentator and the former head coach of
100 Thieves
100 Thieves, LLC is an American lifestyle brand and gaming organization based in Los Angeles, California, founded in 2017 by Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag and Dan Gilbert. The organization competes in several video games, including ''Apex Legends'', ...
'
Valorant
''Valorant'' is a free-to-play first-person tactical hero shooter developed and published by Riot Games, for Windows. Teased under the codename ''Project A'' in October 2019, the game began a closed beta period with limited access on April 7 ...
roster. In December 2016, he was released from
TSM over a player rights controversy and played for
Misfits
Misfits or The Misfits may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Misfits'' (1961 film), a film starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift
* ''The Misfits'' (2011 film), a Mexican film
* ''The Misfits'' (2021 film), an American ...
between January 2017 and January 2018.
Early life
Gares graduated from
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
with a
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in
medical biochemistry
Clinical chemistry (also known as chemical pathology, clinical biochemistry or medical biochemistry) is the area of chemistry that is generally concerned with analysis of bodily fluids for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. It is an applied ...
. He joined his first professional team Emazing Gaming in 2009.
Career
Starting from local Arizona teams before 2010, when he joined Ruins, Gares distinguished himself for being one of the most aggressive AWPers in North America. During his tenure in Ruins, the team was undefeated and won ESEA-M, moving up to ESEA-I.
Gares and his mates played at Arbalet Cup in Dallas placing in Group B with SK Gaming, mTw and lions. Ruins began to have internal problems after the tournament, so Gares moved to Loaded in early August of that year, whose captain and in-game leader (IGL) was ex-
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Dota 2'', ''Fortni ...
Nazar "steno" Vynnytsky. Vynnytsky's would introduce IGL'ing to Gares's life.
In October of the same year, the roster was acquired by Damage Incorporated (DiNC). Composed by Sean Gares, Steno, Paul "pauLy" Guerboyan, Scott "evolution" Cavallero and Liridon "quas" Ademaj, the team's first challenge was IEM V NYC. The team did great, and finished 3rd losing to EG in the semi-final. In early 2011, Nazar "steno" Vynnytsky left the team and Gares went on to join Full Gaming as an IGL with his former teammate from Ruins Kory "Semphis" Friesen and the new talent in NA, Braxton " swag" Pierce.
They would play together ESEA Invite Season 9 with Full Gaming where they would finish 2nd. Gares then joined Back2Back in 2012, with Kory "Semphis" Friesen, Brennan "ele1Nt" Webster,
Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert and Braxton "swag" Pierce. With Gares being the IGL, this team won ESEA Invite Season 10 and would win ESEA Invite Season 11 under the name Maximum Effort.
Gares gained fame when ''
Counter Strike: Global Offensive'' came out in 2012. He joined Area 51 in early August 2012 with Sam "DaZeD" Marine, former CS: Source player; Spencer "Hiko" Martin, Semphis and Josh "PineKone" O'Connor. They would win the ESWC 2012 Na Qualifier, the first CSGO tournament they played. After swapping Pinekone with Trey "tck" Martin they would play ESWC 2012 where they would lose to VeryGames and finish 3rd. They would later win ESEA Invite Season 12. Gares and his teammates moved to team 4Nothing for 1 month and then to Lurking and Working. After 4 months and some roster changes, in May 2013 they were acquired by Quantic Gaming and in August they moved to
Complexity Gaming
Complexity Gaming, formerly stylized as compLexity, is an American esports franchise headquartered in Frisco, Texas. The franchise was founded in 2003 by Jason Lake and is co-owned by Lake, real estate investor John Goff, and Dallas Cowboys ow ...
with a roster including Spencer "Hiko" Martin, Braxton "swag" Pierce, Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert, Kory "Semphis" Frieson. This team had many impressive finishes, including a 3rd-4th-place finish at
Dreamhack Winter 2013
The 2013 DreamHack SteelSeries ''Counter Strike: Global Offensive'' Championship, also known as DreamHack Winter 2013, was the first '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship. The tournament was organized by DreamHack and sponsor ...
, the first ever ''CS:GO'' Major. Complexity was then considered the best Counter Strike team in North America. However, losing Pierce cost them that title. He was replaced by Todd "anger" Williams. This team remained a close second. In the summer of 2014,
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 ...
acquired the Complexity roster. They dropped Williams and acquired Mike "shroud" Grzesiek. Martin was disappointed with the team's lackluster results and left the team in January 2015, replaced by
Shahzeb "ShahZam" Khan
Shahzeb Khan (born October 8, 1993), better known as ShahZaM, is an American professional ''Valorant'' player for G2 Esports. He was a former '' CS:GO'' professional player before announcing that he would be officially making the switch to Riot G ...
.
Things went pretty poorly until iBUYPOWER was banned in March 2015. This left Cloud9 as the best in North America. Cloud9 replaced Khan and Friesen with Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir and Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham. This was Gares' most famous lineup as in game leader and captain of Cloud9. With his strong ability to read the enemy and
anti-strategize, he led his team to the ESL ESEA Pro League Season Finals, Faceit 2015 stage 2 and the Electronic Sports World Cup 2015. Cloud9 then won almost every event in North America, acquiring a huge fan base. The team's performances dropped off over the year until Gares left the team in November 2015, announcing that he would take a break. However, in January 2016 he returned to the game with his new team
Echo Fox
Echo Fox was an American esports organization. It was founded on December 18, 2015, by retired basketball player Rick Fox, who created Echo Fox after he purchased the NA LCS spot of Gravity Gaming. The organization had expanded into various g ...
made up of A2z, Moe, Tck, and Ryx. In April the roster would improve by swapping A2z, Moe and Tck for Freakazoid, ShaZham and Roca. This team qualified for the 2 million dollar
E-League
''ELeague'', shortened as ''EL'', and stylized as ''ΞLEAGUE'' is an esports league and American television show that airs on TBS. It was announced in September 2015 as a partnership between Turner Broadcasting and talent agency WME/IMG. Th ...
on
TBS. Later that year in October EchoFox showed a poor performance at ELeague Season 2 and got offered to leave the organization and pursue other offers. In December 2016 Gares signed with TSM but got kicked from the team just a week later over a players rights movement.
However, in the beginning of 2017, Misfits would acquire Gares, ShaZham, Skyler "Relyks" Weaver, Russel "Twistzz" Dulken and Hunter "SicK" Mims. The team would play a lot of qualifiers and would play DreamHack Las Vegas where they didn't pass the group stage, and IBuypower Invitational 2017- Spring.
In April they swapped Twistzz and Relyks for AmaneK and Devoduvek, 2 players from France, chosen by Gares mainly because of stats in HLTV. The team saw a lot of improvement, finishing 10th in ESL Pro League Season 5, qualifying for the Eleague Boston Major in 2018 and finishing in the top 4 in ESL Pro League Season 6.
In 2018, Gares competed as a member of team Old Guys Club,
Tournament results
compLexity Gaming
* 3–4th —
2013 DreamHack Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Championship
Cloud9
* 9–12th —
DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015
DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 was the seventh '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship that was held from October 28–November 1, 2015 at the Sala Polivalentă in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was organized by DreamHack with help f ...
* 5–8th —
ESL One Cologne 2014
Electronic Sports League One Cologne 2014, also known as ESL One Cologne 2014, was the third '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship. The tournament was held during Gamescom 2014 from August 14–17, 2014 at the Cologne Exhibitio ...
Echo Fox
* 17th–22nd —
ELeague Season 1
* 17th–22nd — ELeague Season 2
References
{{Reflist
American esports players
Echo Fox players
Cloud9 (esports) players
Misfits Gaming players
Team SoloMid players
Counter-Strike players
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering alumni
Living people
Sportspeople from Chandler, Arizona
1988 births
Esports commentators