Flame Retires from League of Legends

Following eight years at the highest level in the League of Legends scene, Lee “Flame” Ho-jong has announced his retirement. The former DAMWON Gaming top laner broke the news via a stream on his Twitch channel, with it remaining to be seen what the 28-year-olds next move will be.

Why Flame Has Announced His LoL Retirement?

Flame parted company with DAMWON Gaming back in November following a mutual decision between the two, however the South Korean star having acted as a substitute for the team for the most part, this came as no surprise. Ho-jong has now joined a host of other veterans in retiring from League of Legends, with TSM’s Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and Yiliang “Peter” “Doublelift” Peng having made their exit after the season ended. Elsewhere, former world champion Crown and ex-Sandbox Gaming support GorillA are two others to have hung up mouse and keyboard recently.

Flame’s professional career got underway with the Azubu Blaze back in Season Two, with the top laner having also competed for the likes of LGD Gaming and Longzhu Gaming, in the LPL and LCK respectively, with the latter having been renamed Kingzone DragonX. Flame made the switch to North America for the Spring Split in 2017, where he played for Immortals.

What is Next for Flame?

Whilst struggling initially, with Immortals having only managed a seventh-place finish at the Spring, they did improve, reaching the Finals of the Summer Playoffs, before eventually coming unstuck against TSM. Flame would ultimately leave Immortals to join FlyQuest, where he again failed to live up to expectations in the colours green and yellow.
The top laner would eventually return home in 2019 in order to join DAMWON Gaming, however he found himself on the bench from the off. DAMWON went on to win the World Championship earlier this year, however Flame failed to make a single appearance at the Finals, with Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon having excelled instead.

Flame is unlikely to be short of options following his retirement from professional League of Legends, with the popular figure having been known as the “Pilot” during his career, due to his ability to carry teams. Meanwhile, Flame is widely considered as being the best Korean now to win an OGN event. The fact that Flame speaks Korean, English and Chinese will also undoubtedly benefit him, with the veteran having amassed over 60,000 followers on Twitch to date.