maleK, a former professional CS:GO player, has passed away

Malek “maleK” Benouia, a former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, has passed away at the age of 37.

Hiro, the moderator of maleK’s Twitch channel, announced his death. He shared that the French esports player was particularly fond of Counter-Strike and meeting members of his community at LAN tournaments. The cause of death was not disclosed.

maleK competed on the professional scene from 2012 to 2018. He represented teams such as Quality-Serveur.com, webSPELL Gaming, beGenius ESC, Platinium-eSport, Winter is Coming, Red Instinct Rising Stars, and Epsilon France. With the latter, he took third place at Gamers Assembly 2017 and DreamHack Tours 2018 BYOC, as well as second place at Epsilan 14 and Orléans Game Show 3. The player’s total career prize money amounted to approximately $2,304.

Photo: Malek “maleK” Benouia.