From humble Counter-Strike beginnings to becoming an esports jack-of-all-trades and loved content creator. Who is Jordan Gilbert, also known as n0thing, and what is he up to today?
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Who is Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert
If you’re a fan of the competitive side of Valve’s premier First-Person Shooter, CS:GO, chances are you’ve heard the name of a once-feared American legend. Jordan ‘n0thing’ Gilbert was the face of the North-American scene for many years, and he’s still one of the most iconic Counter-Strike players of all time. The 32 years old is still remembered as one of the best North-American professional players ever, and especially a Cloud9 legend, although he has been involved in multiple esports ventures after his retirement.
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Known as soft-spoken and down-to-earth, Gilbert has always been an extremely likable personality which endeared him to massive waves of fans. He rapidly became one of the most popular players in the professional scene, amassing hundreds of thousands of followers and even appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. n0thing has even managed to be immortalized in the game through his ‘Flashbang Dance’, available as a music kit.
Furthermore, n0thing is also remembered as one of the original ‘short kings’ of Counter-Strike. According to the former player himself, Gilbert is 5’7’’, or about 1.71 meters tall. n0thing’s height is mostly remembered for the infamous box incident at IEM Chicago 2019, an event Gilbert worked at as an analyst for the international broadcast. The American was seen standing on a box during the desk segments, a traditional TV technique used to make commentators stand out less in case of height differences. After this fact was revealed by a Reddit post, the box was removed the following day, leading to much amusement among the fanbase for ESL’s excessive reaction.
n0thing’s Counter-Strike beginnings
n0thing began his professional career in Counter-Strike 1.6 in 2007 and played for Evil Geniuses for four years starting in 2008, earning his first professional contract at the age of 18. His impressive mechanical talent helped Evil Geniuses climb to the upper echelons of the international scene, and it wasn’t long before n0thing made a name for himself. Gilbert was named Best Newcomer of 2008, and North American eSports Player of the Year in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, HLTV.org named n0thing as their 11th best player of the year, ahead of legendary names like Richard “Xizt” Landström and Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko.
After a year spent jumping from team to team after EG’s disbandment, n0thing joined Complexity in August 2013 alongside Spencer “Hiko” Martin, Kory “semphis” Friesen, Mike “shroud” Grzesiek and Sean “sgares” Gares in the first attempt at an American super-team. The team would stay with Complexity for almost a year, developing a strong rivalry with iBuyPower in the States and achieving solid results in Europe. In August 2014, the quintet joined the now-legendary Los Angeles-based organization Cloud9, which would be n0thing’s home for the rest of his professional career.
A young n0thing was one of NA’s greatest ever talents.Image credit – Fragbite | Pontus Eskilsson
n0thing’s move to Cloud9 and the Hiko controversy
n0thing played for Cloud9 for over three years, becoming the face of the franchise as players came and went. His time in LA was however not free of controversy. Hiko left the team at the end of the year in a controversial fashion, venting his frustrations on a Twitch live stream some months after. Martin lamented ‘a weird dynamic’ in the team and confusion about roles and playstyle, combined with a general unwillingness to fix mistakes. Although Hiko didn’t hate n0thing, as many would claim, it was an open secret that Gilbert was the target of his accusations. This came down to alleged motivation issues, but the rest of the team stuck with Gilbert and forced Hiko’s hands.
Cloud9 finally found their definitive form in April 2015, with the signings of Ryan ‘fREAKAZOiD’ Abadir and Tyler ‘Skadoodle’ Latham. Led by sgares and strong performances by n0thing and shroud, the tanktop-wearing quintet would become everyone’s favorite underdogs and give life to the ‘Cloud9 summer’. In one of the most iconic runs of the early years of CS, throughout the summer of 2015, n0thing would amass three second-place finishes and a top-four in premier events, despite being unable to secure a title. Gilbert started building his legacy on those hot summer days, playing with an ice bag on his head at ESWC 2015 to fight the heat and fever and simultaneously leading his team in individual performance.
Struggles at the end of 2015 meant sgares left, leaving a place open for young star Jake ‘Stewie2k’ Yip, and fREAKAZOiD followed soon after to be replaced by Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta. Once a rising star in the region, n0thing was now a mentor to a team of young American talents aiming to challenge elite European teams. Thanks to the changes, in October 2016 n0thing finally won his first big international event, helping his squad to the ESL Pro League Season 4 title. Around this same period n0thing’s knife collection started attracting the attention of the community, with the American amassing over fifty different knives through fan donations and his personal income.
n0thing kept his cool at ESWC to lead Cloud9 to a second-place finish.Image credit – ESWC.
The end of n0thing’s career
Unfortunately, n0thing’s time on the roster was coming to an end, as the American rifler’s performances got progressively worse as he made space for his talented teammates. Cloud9 stumbled for months, failing to replicate the form that saw them triumph in Pro League, and eventually found themselves challenged by OpTic and Liquid for the top spot in NA. ESL One Cologne was n0thing’s swan song: Cloud9 recovered from a 0-2 start to make playoffs and subsequently eliminated NiP and NAVI. Gilbert won the decisive 1v1 to send his team to the Grand Final, celebrating in iconic fashion.
Ultimately, Cloud9 was unable to beat a dominant SK to the title and fell outside the playoffs at the Krakow Major. n0thing was subsequently kicked for his disappointing performances alongside shroud. Gilbert was replaced by Tarik “tarik” Celik, who took over IGL duties, while the Canadian left his place to William “RUSH” Wierzba. The decision to sign the OpTic duo would end up a resounding success, as Cloud9 beat FaZe to the ELEAGUE Major Boston trophy less than six months later, remaining to this day as the only North-American team to do so.
n0thing would not play professionally again, featuring as a stand-in for NRG, Complexity, and MOUZ and playing in ESEA and open qualifiers for fun in the following years. Even though he ended his career with no MVP titles and just one big event win, Gilbert is still considered one of the most influential players of his time, as his Cloud9 rosters put North America on the map at a time when non-European CS:GO was considered little more than a joke. Furthermore, according to esportsearnings.com, n0thing made almost 300.000$ in prize money over the course of his career.
What is n0thing doing now
Since retiring from CS:GO, n0thing has been involved in multiple forms both inside and outside of the server. In 2020 he took his talents to VALORANT for a series of invitationals and charity events, despite never pursuing a professional career in Riot Games’ shooter. Following his benching in 2017, Gilbert started working as an analyst and commentator for multiple international Counter-Strike events. In 2018 he was one of the founding members of the much-criticized CSPPA (Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association), alongside his Cloud9 replacement tarik.
Today n0thing can be found streaming almost every day on Twitch, trying his hand at both CS:GO and VALORANT with a community of passionate fans who have been following him since his Cloud9 days. It’s also not uncommon to see Gilbert grinding FPL or FaceIT Premium matches alongside fl0m, fREAKAZOiD, and other old teammates. Furthermore, n0thing is also a frequent appearance on Cloud9’s socials, with the former rifler following the adventures of the organization’s new Russian lineup at IEM Dallas 2022.
n0thing at IEM Chicago.Image Credit: ESL | Carlton Beener
n0thing’s crosshair settings
In CS:GO, n0thing uses the following crosshair settings:
- Draw Outline – 1
- Alpha – 255
- Color – 1
- Blue – 50; Green – 250; Red – 50
- Dot – 0
- Gap – 1
- Size – 3.5
- Style – 4
- Thickness – 1
n0thing’s keyboard and mouse
n0thing’s keyboard of choice is the HyperX Alloy Elite, although he also tried the ROG Strix Scope RX in recent months. For what concerns his mouse, n0thing uses a custom-made Logitech G100S with a customized sensor, weight, motherboard, and added paracord. The settings are:
- DPI – 1600
- Sensitivity – 0.50
- eDPI – 800
- Zoom Sensitivity – 1.00
- Hz – 500
- Windows Sensitivity – 6
- Raw Input – 1
- Mouse Acceleration – 0
n0thing’s monitor and video settings
n0thing’s monitor is an Alienware AW2521H, with 75% Digital Vibrance. Although he spent most of his career playing 1024×768, his in-game video settings are currently:
- Resolution – 1920×1080
- Aspect Ratio – 16:9
- Scaling Mode – Native
- Color Mode – Computer Monitor
- Brightness – 100%
- Display Mode – Fullscreen
Furthermore, his graphical settings are:
- Global Shadow Quality – High
- Model / Texture Detail – High
- Texture Streaming – Disabled
- Effect Detail – High
- Shader Detail – Very High
- Boost Player Contrast – Enabled
- Multicore Rendering – Enabled
- Multisampling Anti-Aliasing Mode – 8x MSAA
- FXAA Anti-Aliasing – Disabled
- Texture Filtering Mode – Trilinear
- Wait for Vertical Sync – Disabled
- Motion Blur – Disabled
- Triple-Monitor Mode – Enabled
- Use Uber Shader – Enabled
