Belgian legend Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom has returned to aggressive Counter-Strike after six years away from the professional scene, signing with Clutchain to affix a Franco-Belgian roster that features his youthful brother Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom.
The 31-year-old “Headshot Machine” final performed professionally for GamerLegion in 2019 earlier than stepping away from competitors. He first introduced his intentions to return on the HLTV Awards Present 2025 in January, signaling his comeback to the scene.
The Clutchain roster
ScreaM joins a mixture of acquainted French-speaking expertise and rising prospects on the Clutchain lineup. Alongside his brother Nivera, the roster options former Vitality participant Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen, Jordan “Python” Munck-Foehrle, and rookie Frenchman Hugo “SHOGU” Lopez.
ScreaM’s street again to aggressive play started in 2025 when he joined FUT as a sixth-man and streamer alongside the group’s short-lived French lineup. Since then, he’s been streaming and competing in smaller French occasions whereas working to regain his aggressive kind.
Clutchain has been actively constructing its CS2 presence in latest weeks, buying this roster alongside the previous Imperial Valkyries/Pigeons lineup in early April.
The staff will make their debut in Conquest of Prague 2026: On-line Stage when the web league kicks off on April twelfth.
Older gamers staying aggressive changing into a pattern
Counter-Strike has traditionally been a sport the place some older gamers can grasp on for a very long time. From Brazilian gamers like FalleN hanging in there, to gamers like JW nonetheless main squads, to karrigan at 31 nonetheless dominating along with his strategic IGL expertise. CS is a sport the place there’s nonetheless hope for knowledgeable veterans in-game main squads.
However there’s a rising pattern in esports that older gamers can nonetheless compete on the highest stage. Dota 2 has maybe the perfect instance with Puppey, the Estonian legend who at 36 years previous continues to be actively teaching and enjoying. The previous Na’Vi champion received The Worldwide 2011 and has attended practically each TI since, proving that management and drafting potential can preserve you related whilst reflexes fade.
League of Legends has a number of examples too, with legendary esports participant Faker speaking about in a latest interview that we wrote about from Korean media. Over in Europe, there’s a challenge with SK Gaming taking a number of the older gamers with the likes of Wunder and an getting old MikyX, who had been at their primes in 2019, with an unconventional roster and rookie in tow.
Even VALORANT is seeing crossover success from CS veterans — Potter (Christine Chi), a 7x world champion in CS:GO, now captains Evil Geniuses’ Valorant roster, proving that sport sense and expertise translate throughout titles.
Positive, age catches up and eats your reactions and hype. However with age comes expertise, and which will translate into video games the place you may lead and name. We want ScreaM’s new challenge the perfect, as it could work for the appropriate participant with the appropriate mindset and micro-intensive work concerned in esports.
It’s a pleasant pattern seeing older gamers nonetheless stay aggressive, serving to the longevity for profession manufacturers, and likewise to dismiss the parable that esports careers may be extraordinarily quick.
It’s additionally fairly humorous to be speaking about veterans and retirement, and these dudes are simply 31 years previous. However esports is a distinct animal.
