As reported by Sheep Esports, and then officially announced by the team, is heading to ’ bench in favor of . But with eXyu’s latest post online, it seems that after this split on the bench concludes, his time as a professional LoL player is reaching its conclusion. EXyu posted that “this chapter of my life is coming to a close” referring to his plans to return to college for the Spring semester and devote himself to other competitive Riot games like TFT and Riftbound.

He recounts the six years spent since he first dropped out of college to pursue this career. It was indeed six years ago that eXyu left UC Berkeley’s team, and only months later, had made it into the Tier 2 space by joining Dignitas Academy as a hyped rookie with an agressive jungling style. It was with Dignitas that his career would be defined: the team where he would debut in the LCS only a few more months thereafter, only to be sent back to Tier 2, and back up again. Then, he went back to Tier 2 in the new NACL space, leaving Dignitas after a controversial choice to replace him with right before the split, by surprise, that left him stating “nothing in esports is guaranteed” and that he was removed from the roster despite being reassured he was “a lock” for the split.

This caused eXyu to leave Dignitas, and after a year in Tier 2, he was back, this time on a different struggling team, Disguised. Unfortunately, like Dignitas, Disguised had difficulties that year, and for the next, eXyu made the surprising decision to return to DIG. And after two more splits of similar results, Dignitas has now made this choice to bring in Dardoch, while eXyu’s elected in turn to re-prioritize towards college and other games.

The LCS is certainly a difficult field to succeed in, with countless players eager to take each spot and rookies rarely given a chance. EXyu managed to make it in, but with the difficulties of making deep playoffs runs on teams like Dignitas and Disguised, couldn’t fully develop as a player where his potential might’ve otherwise taken him. Now, he may realize that potential in his studies, his TFT-ing, and his Riftbound play.