Retiring, Gauntlet & my future in esport

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------------------ Retirement & Gauntlet -------------------------------

My retirement has been thought through and isn't rushed in any way.

The best way to explain it is to share my goal with pro play, which has always differed from the regular path to pro.
During my time as a player I cared less about being spotted for OWL, and more about finding a real team in Contenders. A team where players would have strong bonding with each others and try their very best and succeed to perform as a 6 men unit.
This way of thinking made sense to me, because playing was never my ultimate ambition, as I will explain in the rest to come.

I reached this goal with HSL, and now feel like I have nothing else to push for as a player.
Playing without full motivation should never be an option, so now is the perfect time for me to stop.

Overall these last two years of being a pro player have been a wild ride. I'm grateful to the danish boys for giving Txao and I a chance to redeem ourselves after our catastrophic season with Paris.

Going to korea with these fellas was a blast. I had the chance to play on the Apex scene, this alone, to me, was a dream come true.
Sadly the meta didn't fit our slow playstyle, and our « self-coaching players » structure that allowed us to be #1 in Contenders EU kinda reached it's limit.
I'm not ashamed of our results, we faced strong teams, but I do hope that people take into consideration how far behind we are in EU in terms of ressources compared to NA/KR teams.

My only regret is to not have traveled and meet people enough through LANs, GH or other events.
Playing in a room alone sucks and shouldn't be the standard for top T2 competitors.

------------------ Transition into a coaching position -------------------------------

As I said before, playing wasn't the ultimate goal for me. Going from player to coach has always been part of my project regarding esport.
My take on being a pro player was to try and bring structure & cohesion to all my teams, aswell as leadership when it was needed.
This way of playing is an easy transition into coaching, as I will be able to find ways to structure and deepen my impact on my future teams.
I have no regrets transitioning, and I'm excited to start coaching next season.
It will be for sure a fun challenge to take more motivated and skilled players than I was, and help them becoming better teamplayers and all around top tier gamers..
I already gathered tons of idea on coaching philosophy and methodology from my experience as a player, and by conversing with good coachs. Will still try to improve as much as I can before the start of Contenders, and even after.

In the long run, I likely will start a sport psychology master next year, but I will still look to coach in the meanwhile.

Time for me to move on, I will still be involved in the overwatch scene, only not as a player.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

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