Chengdu Hunters’ tank player Wenjie “ELSA” Luo has officially retired from the Overwatch League this week.
The announcement was made via the Hunters’ official Twitter profile this morning, Thursday, July 1, at 6:56 a.m. ET. After “friendly communication and negotiation” and “based on respect and willings of [ELSA],” the Hunters are saying goodbye to one of their tank players. This decision comes after “944 days that ELSA fought as a ‘Hunter’,”—nearly three years on the roster.
“Today we say goodbye to our Tank ELSA! We respect every decision he made and wish him all the best whatever way he would choose,” the tweet read.
THANK YOU ELSA!
Today we say goodbye to our Tank ELSA! We respect every decision he made and wish him all the best whatever way he would choose.#ChengduHunters #LetsGoHunt pic.twitter.com/knEtMJ5XxA— Chengdu Hunters (@ChengduHunters) July 1, 2021
“ELSA is a founding member and key part of the team,” the announcement read, “He acted as the mainstay of the team with his reassuring performance, and was called ‘treasure boy’ by fans.”
Though it appears that some fans aren’t thrilled with his retirement performance. On a Reddit post in the official Competitive Overwatch subreddit board, featuring a screenshot of the announcement cross-posted to the Chinese social media site Weibo, fans voiced shock and disappointment.
“Elsa was having a career year wtf,” wrote user Dizzy_Spend5052.
“I need players I like to stop retiring please,” fusionslut wrote.
Some blamed the infrastructure of the competitive scene entirely. Charliewoodhead called professional Overwatch “so sad,” noting the prevalence of “burnouts, toxic relationships, orgs treating really bad their players and massive retirements” every year.
“I love OWL but honestly, the teams and players’ stability is miles away from traditional sports…” They wrote.
ZebraRenegade replied, “Or just like, less stability than even traditional esports.”
Rumors suggest that Menghan “Ameng” Ding and Hu “JinMu” Yi are also considering leaving the team. However, DBLTAP cannot confirm this speculation at the time of writing.
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