Vietnamese icon Levi retires from League of Legends esports
One of, if not the greatest, Vietnamese League of Legends players ever, Đỗ ‘Levi’ Duy Khánh, has announced his retirement.
On his 28th birthday, the GAM Esports jungler released a video revealing he is stepping down from competitive LoL esports.
Levi won 10 domestic championships in the VCS and had legendary Worlds performances during his decade-long career.
The jungler attended four Mid-Season Invitationals (MSI) and five LoL World Championships, but missed this year’s Worlds.
Levi revealed that the nature of being a pro player leads to prolonged stress and health issues, and that was taking its toll on him.
The former pro says he has been suffering with stomach issues and, this past year, has had issues with his right hand.
Levi also spoke of the personal sacrifices required for pro play, playing 13-14 hours a day, six days a week, and spending time away from his family.
The jungler revealed he wants to spend more time with his parents and also hopes to settle down and start a family of his own.
Levi reflected on his career with a lot of gratitude, saying:
“League of Legends came to me at the exact moment when I had to face a really tough question in life: ‘What will I do when I grow up?’
“League of Legends was the answer. Since the day League of Legends appeared in my youth, my life has been almost entirely tied to this game.
“Because of that, I’m very grateful for this game… and I want to say thank you to the fans. I truly appreciate all your support.”
Levi has revealed that he now plans to turn to full-time streaming and content creation as the next step of his career.
Levi’s legendary LoL Esports career
Levi will go down as one of the APAC region’s all-time greats.
The jungler was having monstrous international performances back when Vietnam was still a ‘Wildcard’ region.
The most infamous game of Levi’s career came at Worlds 2017 when underdogs Gigabyte Marines (GAM) shocked EU LCS’s Fnatic.
LoL esports veterans will long remember the absurd game, which featured a level 1 lane swap and a unique double jungle strategy.
GAM had two junglers to funnel all the gold into Levi’s Nocture, which levelled up the jungler absurdly fast.
Within the fifth minute, Levi was already ganking with Nocturne’s ultimate while Fnatic toplaner Paul ‘sOAZ’ Boyer still had zero CS.
Despite his legendary international performances, Levi says he still regrets not taking his teams further:
“There’s one thing I really wanted to do, and that is to help VCS go further in international tournaments.
“For example, seeing a VCS team make it to at least the top eight at Worlds. But right now, I have to leave without having achieved that.”
From the same league as GAM, LCP champions CTBC Flying Oyster came extremely close to the Worlds top eight this year after shocking T1.
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