On League of Legends, professional player Pavle “Yoppa” Kostić passed away on November 23, at the age of 23. The Serbian top-laner last played for the youth team of Schalke 04 in LoL. According to a Balkan e-sports league, he died from complications related to the viral illness Covid 19.
The Esports Balkan League is one of the regional leagues of LoL in the Masters division. The league shared an article from a Serbian news site on November 24, which reported on Yoppa’s death due to complications from the virus “Covid-19”. The Serbian was only 23 years old.
It is said that the death came unexpectedly.
Yoppa was considered the first Serbian to “make it” in LoL
In the announcement, Yoppa is described as “one of the most promising players in our region”; he was the first Serbian to reach first place among the Challengers on the EUW server and one of the first Serbians to make it into international teams.
Player was looking for a new team just 10 days ago
The tragic part is that the league’s Twitter account posted a picture of Yoppa just a week prior, showing him going through all his contract offers to indicate how sought after Yoppa was in the transfer market.
On November 16, Yoppa posted on Twitter that he was looking for a new professional team.
Where did he play? Yoppa was contracted with various lower-tier LoL teams or academy teams over the past years. In 2019, he had a spot on the roster of MAD Lions, the current top team in the LEC, which played in the lower tiers at that time. Last year they became champions of the LEC.
In 2020, he was with Vitality.Bee and in 2021 with Schalke Evolution.
He left the Schalke team on November 16. Schalke sold its professional spot in the league for financial reasons, and is likely to completely rebrand for 2022.
What are the reactions? The former teams of the professional player are shocked by his death:
- Schalke stated that they are shocked and speechless.
- Team Vitality mentioned that they have wonderful memories of Yoppa and the time spent in Berlin.
Many others who knew Yoppa are also expressing their grief and shock on Twitter over the death of the 23-year-old. One person said: He just can’t believe it. He had spoken with Yoppa just a few days ago, and Yoppa said his Covid symptoms were already improving.
In 2019, during the Christmas season, we reported on MeinMMO that a professional female LoL player died at the age of 24:
The first professional female player of the LoL league LCS dies at the age of 24
