Braxton "swag" Pierce, five years after being handed permanent suspension from Valve over the iBuyPower match-fixing scandal, has decided to retire from CS:GO to shift his focus to Riot's Project A.

Announcing his retirement on Twitter, swag wrote: "I have decided to take a step back from competitive CS and although I may still stream CS in the future, my main goal is to await the release of Project A and put my ambitions of being the best in the world to fruition."

He went onto thank fans for their continued support, adding: "I hope you guys will continue to support my journey."

Thank you everyone for your support and I hope you guys will continue to support my journey! It's been a fun 8 years, and 22k hours from 1.6 to GO (yikes, but I don't regret any of it) — Braxton Pierce (@brax1wnl) February 28, 2020

Swag's pro career was cut short just as it was beginning when he was embroiled in a match-fixing scandal with his then teammates at esport organisation iBuyPower.

He was banned for life by Valve, and while this ban was lifted by ESL and DreamHack in 2018 he was never able to compete in Valve-sponsored Majors.

Read more: Project A almost definitely called Valorant as Sage character leaks

Prominent members of the gaming community have come out to wish him all the best in the next step of his career.

Jacob "FugLy" Medina, previously of Team Envy felt the move was the best thing he could do, writing: "think you got a huge opportunity to stream Project A and become a god, Like Seagull did with early OW and eventually get picked up by a team. [Good luck] BRO." A reference to Brandon "Seagull" Larned who moved from Team Fortress 2 to Overwatch.

Think you got a huge opportunity to stream Project A and become a god - like Seagull did with early OW and eventually get picked up by a team. GL BRO — Jacob M. (@fugly) February 28, 2020

Swag isn't the only player thinking of jumping ship. Team Liquid's Lucas "Mendo" Håkansson, who moved from Overwatch to Apex Legends, simply said he will, "see you there".

see you there 😳 — Liquid Mendo (@Mendo) February 28, 2020

In announcing his retirement from CS:GO he also confirmed he has left Swole Patrol - the team he had been playing with since August of last year.