23-year-old professional player Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao is considered one of the best players of all time in League of Legends. Now, at just 23, he announces his retirement from professional gaming. His body can no longer keep up. The stress of being a LoL pro and his lifestyle have apparently been too much for his health.
This is Uzi: The Chinese player is regarded as the probably mechanically best player in LoL history and one of the top players overall. Many only see Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, the legendary mid-laner before him.
Although Uzi has never won the World Championship in League of Legends, he has long been regarded as an outstandingly strong ADC with flawless “mechanics”. This is the skill that allows the champion in LoL to do exactly what you want. Uzi could perform difficult maneuvers faster than anyone else, where every click had to be perfectly timed to the millisecond.
Uzi is also seen as hot-headed and uncontrollable. During the LoL World Championship 2018, he received a fine of $2000 for allegedly feeding intentionally as a professional player.
Since his debut for the team “Royal Club” in October 2012, Uzi has played:
- 683 games
- won the Chinese league LPL twice
- won MSI, the international mid-season tournament, once
- competed in the World Championships 6 times – in 2013 and 2014 he finished second with his teams behind the then-dominant Korean teams SKT1 and Samsung Galaxy White
Stress and Obesity Led to Diabetes
Why is he retiring? Although Uzi is only 23 years old, he suffers from a variety of injuries and illnesses that are now leading to his retirement.
In 2019, he stated that a doctor had told him he had “arms like a 50-year-old,” when he was only 22. He complained that his legs were too weak and that he had no feeling in them. The right shoulder was the worst spot.
In recent years, he has taken breaks more frequently. In the last split, Uzi did not play at all.
Now, his team Royal Never Give Up states that the doctors have advised him to rest because he has accumulated several injuries over the past 8 years of intense LoL training. Therefore, he already took a break in the LPL in Spring 2020. Now that the Spring round is over, Uzi has made his decision, and they respect it.
In a Weibo post, Uzi now says he is retiring from professional eSports due to his declining health. This includes type-2 diabetes and the original hand injury (translation via reddit).
He says that the diabetes came from chronic stress, irregular eating habits, staying up late, his obesity, and other causes.
Uzi has been on a diet for the past six months, changed his daily routine, and taken medication to lose weight. But things have not changed. The doctors have now told him that serious complications will arise soon, and his hand injury is also worsening – his physical condition does not allow him to fight longer.
Uzi must end his career at 23 because of physical problems. In recent years, some players from the first generation of LoL professionals have retired.
The then 22-year-old Heo “PawN” Won-seok, a former LoL world champion, had to end his professional career due to a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
