In e-sports, League of Legends has a story that reads like a sportsman’s fairy tale. The 26-year-old Trexor “Stixxay” Hyes has, at an older age, turned his career around, which seemed to be over. He has achieved what star player Bjergsen could not: a great comeback. All he needed was a teammate from his golden youth and a 2-month service in the youth team.
This is how Stixxay’s career began:
- At the beginning of his career, in 2015, while Stixxay was still finishing high school, he played for Cloud9’s academy team, where he was banned for 2 weeks for being too toxic.
- Then fate smiled upon the young man: because star botlaner Doublelift left the team Counterlogic Gaming to join the rival TSM, Stixxay was able to step in as ADC for the star-studded team that had previously won the LCS. He played with US stars like Xmithie, Aphromoo, and Huhi.
- In 2016, at just 19 years old, CLG, with Stixxay in the bot lane, clinched the championship in the Spring Split of the LCS. The finals were against TSM and his predecessor Doublelift – a razor-thin match that CLG and Stixxay won. The young man even placed 2nd at the international tournament MSI, where he managed the most kills in the tournament and was already regarded as a future world star.
For years, Stixxay only played for weak teams
What was the suffering period like? This extraordinarily successful first half-year in professional LoL would remain the glorious exception. Now came 6 lean years.
- Stixxay played another 4 years for CLG, who were unable to achieve any notable successes.
- In November 2020, he joined Golden Guardians, who were long considered the worst team in US-LoL.
In a video, the ADC explained: At the beginning of his career, he only trusted his instincts, played freely, and just assumed he was always the best.
But after the great success at MSI, the expectations of him were extremely high.
At some point, he lost trust in himself, stopped following his instincts, and started to doubt. Once, in a match against TSM and their Danish ADC Zven, he looked up and saw that he was at 0-4-0 after 13 minutes. Stixxay said he had a sort of out-of-body experience and couldn’t deal with the fact that it was him who was live sinking in a match.
Previously, a “bad split” for him meant ranking 3rd, but it quickly became ranking 7th, and they missed the playoffs.
Stixxay lost trust in himself, played not instinctively anymore, but overthought. His career was on the decline.
Team sidelined him at 25 – sent him to the 2nd league out of necessity
This was the end of his career: After 2021, Stixxay had actually reached the end. His team told him he would no longer play, and he had no offers to switch. Then the offer from his team came at the right time to continue as a coach.
- In November 2021, he was promoted to Assistant Coach.
- However, in January 2022, he returned to play in the bot lane for the academy team. Due to visa issues, Golden Guardians could not find a young ADC. At 25, this is not exactly what one wishes for in their career. Stixxay resisted returning to the academy team for a long time, only getting persuaded because many young players wanted to work with him.
- But after 2 very successful months in the youth team, Stixxay regained his self-confidence, realizing that he could still keep up with the young players.
Stixxay says that after 2021, the team told him he wouldn’t play anymore but could continue as a coach:
Stixxay returns to the team: “Can’t they find a better one?”
What was the turning point? In May 2022, plans for Stixxay changed again. The supporter “Huhi” joined the team. The South Korean was even 2 years older than Stixxay and had played with him during his golden days at CLG, although back then in the mid lane.
Stixxay had previously considered switching teams, looking for a new team. Now he really wanted to play for Golden Guardians again. And indeed, he was given the starting spot in the bot lane alongside Huhi after he impressed in the development league.
The return of Stixxay as a pro in the LCS was not received with much enthusiasm. An interviewer even told him: When he heard Stixxay was returning, he thought: Can Golden Guardians really not find a better player?
Stixxay can understand this reaction which he received quite often at that time:
If you look at my results from recent years, they’ve truly been awful over the years.
Stixxay says he was in a “low point” of attitude for a while, let himself go.
But in 2023, Stixxay’s career changed again.
The 26-year-old quit coaching, played again in the bot lane, and showed probably the best LoL of his life alongside his old teammate.
Loser team eliminates stars like Bjergsen and Doublelift from the playoffs, reaches the finals
This is how successful he became: The eternal losers Golden Guardians narrowly made it to the playoffs with a 9-9 score and surpassed highly decorated teams like TSM and Team Liquid.
In the playoffs, they then went on a winning streak: They eliminated three of the best current teams in US-LoL one after another:
- 100 Thieves with Bjergsen and Doublelift
- Evil Geniuses
- And FlyQuest had to succumb to the senior bot lane
Only in the finals did it not suffice against the team filled with South Koreans Cloud9, and Golden Guardians lost the final 1-3.
However, it is noteworthy that Stixxay dominated the playoffs again 7 years after his insane debut season. No one had more kills than he did.
What does the player say about this? In an interview after his big comeback, Stixxay said: When you lose, it’s easy to be forgotten:
- Fans did not want to see “bad teams” – they were practically bored with the players and left them out.
- His own girlfriend and mother do not talk about the games.
- But when you win, many old fans come back, tweet again, and enjoy the success.
For Stixxay and the Golden Guardians, it’s now off to London for the MSI. Seven years ago, Stixxay experienced his highlights there and became one of the stars of the tournament. Should he succeed in 2023, it would be a huge deal for US-LoL.
However, there is not much hope for that. If you believe the Chinese Doinb, Stixxay is a perfect example of the USA’s problem:
