Gaming
Gaming
Acend's cNed on his 14 year journey to the top of the VALORANT scene
Mehmet Yağız 'cNed' İpek is one of the most well-known VALORANT players in both the Turkish and international scene. During this episode of Unfold, we take a closer look at the man behind the mouse.
cNed was quick to make an impression on both Turkish fans and those abroad, finishing as a runner-up in the European Region at the Twitch Rivals VALORANT Showdown 2020, and qualifying with his team nolpenki for the VALORANT First Strike European Finals in the same year. Since then, cNed has joined Acend, a team with which he appears to be going from strength to strength. Their incredible performance at the inaugural VALORANT Champions 2021 meant that they took home first place in front of an international crowd of fans.
In the latest episode of Unfold (below), we take a look at cNed's journey from childhood Counter-Strike enthusiast to world-famous VALORANT star.
7 мин.
Mehmet Yağız 'cNed' İpek
This is the story of one of the best VALORANT players in the world, Mehmet Yağız 'cNed' İpek.
Family ties
cNed's career can be traced back to the influence of his older brother, a professional Counter-Strike player, and someone he has always looked up to. As a child, cNed would watch his brother, who plays with the tag deNc, play video games on the household laptop. As he grew older, he was given his own, something that – at the age of six – allowed him to really find his feet in the world of gaming.
The Unfold video shows his brother reminiscing about the first time he spotted cNed's talent. "He was six or seven years old, sitting on the corner of the couch playing games on his laptop. One day I heard him present himself as a 16-17-year-old and I asked him why he would do something like that. 'They don't believe a seven-year-old can play like I do, they will think I'm cheating' was the answer."
The two are still incredibly close, spending their free time together playing basketball, gaming and going out for food. "He's very hard-working," says his brother, "and very ambitious."
cNed has rapidly established himself as a strong Valorant player
© Jianhua Chen / Riot Games
A lifelong goal
Starting off with Counter-Strike 1.6, cNed quickly moved to CS:GO and has recently switched to VALORANT, showing his ability to be a sure-fire shot in any FPS he turns his hand to. As he has progressed, so too has his playstyle, although he feels his preferred character choice of Jett represents him best. "I'm practical," he says, "I learn fast and I think it fits my character accordingly."
cNed states that the way he proves himself during games is his ability to do the unexpected. He feels he can do things that not many other players can, and this has been proven repeatedly by his incredible competitive performance. The main thing driving him is his desire to win above all else – "besides playing games and having fun… I like winning. If you ask me what I don't like: naturally, it's losing." The path to greatness wasn't always easy for him though, and he struggled at first to get his esports career off the ground. "They wouldn't let me join a team for tryouts… so I went for it. Worked hard. Played constantly. Then I became the World Champion," he says with a shrug. "I want to be the best at anything I do".
Fighting fit
That's not to say that playing games for a living isn't just as fun as it looks. "My aim is to have fun and enjoy gaming," He says, "I don't want to be a part of something I don't enjoy, I think that's true for everything I do." In fact, a lot of his free time is spent practising boxing, a sport which he says uses a similar part of the brain as VALORANT or CS:GO. "You have to react fast," he explains, "you need to think about your opponents' moves, and above all: you must work hard."
"I practice a lot," he says of his training schedule, "our regular scrims last six or seven hours, and then I stream for about three or four hours." But he has a lot to work for. At the end of this Unfold, cNed says his ultimate dream is to be champion back-to-back three times and to become "unforgettable" in the VALORANT scene.
Discover esports legends in Unfold
