One of the most popular and talented FPS streamers is leaving the company where he first gained notoriety. The organisation where Brandon “aceu” Winn first made his name as a pro in Apex Legends before going viral as a streamer of Respawn’s battle royale, as well as VALORANT and a number of other shooters, has virtually become synonymous with NRG.
As of today, aceu is no longer with NRG, the org announced. In a farewell message to the streamer, the org thanked aceu and reflected on his accomplishments while competing and streaming under its banner.
The video released by the organization recounts aceu’s origin story as a player struggling to make ends meet and needing to get to 400 subscriptions on Twitch to keep playing video games professionally. Of course, it wasn’t long after that aceu hit that goal and skyrocketed up into thousands of subscriptions and daily viewers tuning in to see some of his audacious plays.
As a pro Apex player, aceu won Twitch Rivals at TwitchCon San Diego in 2019, one of the first major LAN events for Apex. It soon became clear that competing in Apex wasn’t his full calling, however, and the player soon transitioned to streaming full-time and trying out different games. His background in CS:GO and experience in Apex naturally lent itself to VALORANT, where he quickly gained a reputation as a player to fear on the ranked ladder.
In a full-circle moment, one of aceu’s last major events under the NRG banner was the Apex Twitch Rivals tournament at TwitchCon San Diego 2022, in which he placed fifth with Cloud9 pro Zach Mazer and former Sentinels pro Nathan “retzi” Telen.
It’s unclear if aceu will seek out a new organization to represent or simply keep streaming as an independent content creator since he’s no longer in a place where he necessarily “needs” an org. But for now, NRG supporters and fans of multiple games will have to adjust to a world in which aceu is no longer an NRG member.