Atta “crazyarab” Elayyan – the former Counter-Strike pro player and the current goalkeeper for New Zealand’s national men’s futsal team – was one of the 50 victims of the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand lately.
Atta “crazyarab” Elayyan gained success as a pro gamer in the early 2000s. At that moment he won some local and online Counter-Strike: Source tournaments with New Zealand team NewType.
After his short time of fame as a professional Counter-Strike player, Atta “crazyarab” Elayyan took on computer science field. Later on, he managed to establish a quite successful software company in New Zealand.
Although he has stepped down from being a pro Counter-Strike player to focus more for his company as well as his career in New Zealand’s national men’s futsal team, Atta “crazyarab” Elayyan still showed huge respect for this game.
In a post on Gameplanet (a New Zealand Counter-Strike forum), Atta “crazyarab” Elayyan revealed that he had started playing Counter-Strike since 2002, and given credit for the game as this game had been an influence for him to pursue a career in the tech industry.
Both the Counter-Strike community and futsal community in New Zealand have shown huge respect and sadness for this tragedy.
Atta “crazyarab” Elayyan was in the middle of his praying session at the Masjid Al Noor Mosque when he was gunned down and killed. His family has given out confirmation that he was among the 50 people murdered in Christchurch, New Zealand.