Former Quantic Gaming in-game leader Sam "DaZed" Marine has decided to take a break from competitive Counter-Strike and his team Denial to focus on Call of Duty on Xbox.

Marine's Denial eSports currently hold a 10-1 record in ESEA Invite, practically a lock to qualify for ESEA Invite Season 14 finals. In an interview with ESEA News he stated his goal was to finish the season 14-2.

According to Marine he has two reasons for stepping down from Counter-Strike, at least temporarily, to try his luck in Call of Duty, which is expected to have multiple one-million dollar tournaments on the new Xbox.

Quantic Gaming DaZeD

DaZeD takes a break from CS:GO to play Call of Duty on Xbox

As the first reason he cited the lack of support from Valve and the CS:GO developer team, who haven't helped the game grow by supporting it similarly to what Riot and Blizzard are doing.

His second reason was the current state of the North American Counter-Strike scene. Marine stated it's next to impossible to get proper practice, which makes playing both boring and unenjoyable. Below is the direct quote:

"As I said, I’ll evaluate what I’m going to do after my break. The reason though for me taking a break and moving on and trying out console is two reasons, the first being that Valve and the developers of CSGO refuse to support their game, and without their support the game is going to slowly dwindle or stagnant and never really grow. "The other reason is that the current state of the NA scene is basically us getting on at 5PST, waiting for a scrim until about 6PST, realize there is nobody to play, then play some PUG, after that we play an IM team or something and call it a night. To me that is very boring and it is not enjoyable enough for me to play right now."

He will be teaming up with two former Curse members, Michael "Michael3D" Wilbanks and Jeff "emong" Anderson in Call of Duty. He's isn't however necessarily making a full switch as he plans on continuing to play some CS:GO.

Denial have recruited two former Quantic members Carey "frozt" Kertenian and Trey "tck" Martin to replace Marine, and Keith "NAF-FLY" Markovic, who will no longer be a starter.

Denial eSports: Carey "frozt" Kertenian

Neil "MONTE" Montgomery

Trey "tck" Martin

Justin "MOSBECK" Mosbeck

Ricky "sLip" Cohen

Denial should be on show at ESEA Invite Season 14 finals, set to take place on August 16-18 in Dallas, TX. It is unclear whether Marine maybe back from his hiatus in time for the event.