Hai retires from competitive play
One of the most renowned and veteran professional League of Legends players has decided to step down from competitive play. Hai has revealed, after his many years of playing as the starting role for various teams, that he will finally ‘retire’.
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Hai at his peak
During his prime, Hai was regarded as one of the best mid laners in the North American LCS, able to tackle some of the best pro players on the world stage. During this time, Hai played as Cloud9’s starting mid laner, where he found the majority of his competitive success.
Initially, Hai began his career as the Jungler for nFear Gaming. He then spent half a year with Orbit Gaming, where his display of his excellent mechanical skills prompted Cloud9 to poach him. While he didn’t spend much time with C9 before leaving initially, Hai was later asked to be their starting mid laner on a more permanent basis.
After rejoining Cloud9 in mid 2013, he remained with the team for three years. However, this time wasn’t all smooth for Hai. In 2015 he was moved to a substitute position. Soon after, Hai found himself being pressured to the jungler position, after C9 signed Jensen and decided to prioritize their new mid laner. Subsequently after the 2015 Summer split ended, C9 decided to move Hai once again, this time to the team’s support position. Moving from a primary shot caller to a support proved too big a change; Hai later deciding to leave Cloud9 to join FlyQuest. Due to a lower than expected performance in the Spring and Summer split, FQ opted not to renew his contract.
More recently
A month after Hai announced his free agency, the newly established NA LCS team, the Golden Guardians chose to sign on the more experienced mid laner. Unfortunately for Hai, he was unable to lead the Golden Guardians into victory; the team came in last in the 2018 NA LCS Spring Split.
What will he do now?
It is unclear which direction Hai will head down now, however, it is certain he won’t be in the competitive scene anytime soon. Hai currently has two options ahead of him, either coaching an LCS team and helping them improve with his many years of experience or becoming a streamer and content creator.
Judging from Hai’s recent Twitter posts and online activity, it is likely that he’ll pursue the latter option, as he’s now looking to hire a YouTube editor.
