Anthony “vanity” Malaspina, the former in-game leader for Chaos, has announced his retirement from professional competition, bringing an end to his eight-year career that included time in both Counter-Strike and VALORANT.
At 26 years old, vanity was one of North America’s promising in-game leaders, gaining prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic when his team, Chaos, earned a spot in Flashpoint 1 and claimed two significant online titles, DreamHack Masters Winter NA and IEM Beijing NA. After Chaos exited Counter-Strike and was unable to secure new organizational support, vanity transitioned to Riot Games’ FPS, VALORANT.
He spent nearly four years playing VALORANT, with stints on teams like Cloud9 and Version1, before retiring from the game in November 2024. In the following year, vanity made a return to CS, joining Getting Info for a fresh start.
Reports linked Getting Info to TSM, with significant interest and ties to the organization, according to Dust2.us. However, despite talks, HLTV confirmed that no deal was finalized, though TSM continues to explore options to build an NA roster in 2025.
During his time with Getting Info, vanity posted a 1.06 rating across 15 official matches on HLTV, helping the team secure 3rd-4th place in both CCT Season 2 NA Series 4 and ACE NA Masters Spring. He was also set to compete in ESL Challenger League Season 49.
Reflecting on his decision, vanity explained, “After everything that happened with Cloud9 in 2023, I initially thought my frustrations were just about the formats in VALORANT or being jaded by that experience. But after giving CS a try again for a few months, I’ve realized that I’ve simply outgrown this chapter of my life, and it’s time to move on.”
