He didn’t have to wait long to embark on the next chapter of his career. On June 23,
Rúben "rhuckz" Barbosa officially announced his retirement from professional play to pursue a coaching path. According to sources close to Sheep Esports, the Portuguese former support has reached a verbal agreement with
GIANTX to join the main team in the
LEC as
Assistant Coach. While he has spent most of his career moving between Spanish teams in SuperLiga— Movistar Riders, Fnatic TQ, KOI, Ramboot Club, and others — this will mark his first time joining GIANTX. A new environment awaits him.
GX, despite demonstrating a wealth of competitive potential in the LEC, struggled to live up to the expectations. The team, featuring Fnatic's former bot lane in
Oh "Noah" Hyeon-taek and
Yoon "Jun" Se-jun, was expected to be a top contender off of Adam "J
ackies" Jeřábek's seemingly prodigious growth as a midlane talent. After
Can "Closer" Çelik departed the team ahead of Spring split for personal reasons, however, the roster clearly needed time to adjust to Ismaïl "
ISMA" Boualem's style.