Fissure announces surprise retirement from professional Overwatch

Chan-hyung “Fissure” Baek is retiring from Overwatch, the Seoul Dynasty has revealed.

Fissure’s surprise retirement comes in the middle of Stage 3 and shortly after a written statement about taking a break to figure out how to move forward in his Overwatch career.

His options were to take a break and come back in Stage 4, or retire from the game altogether. His statement mentioned burnout and losing his passion for the game.

“I think a final decision will be made soon, but even I’m not completely sure what’s about to happen soon,” Fissure said. “I can tangibly feel that I’ve lost a lot of my passion to work hard or to play hard in anticipation for matches.”

Just two days after his statement, the Seoul announced his retirement.

“We respect [Fissure’s] decision and have mutually agreed to terminate his contract,” the Dynasty said on Twitter. 

In his first season with the Overwatch League, Fissure played with the Los Angeles Gladiators. Fans were surprised when he was suddenly benched in the middle of one of the most important matches of the season, a quarterfinal series against the London Spitfire, which ended in a loss for the Gladiators. 

Fissure seemed to enter into a downward spiral after speculation that the reason for his absence was that the star tank was unhappy with his team’s level of effort. It was also reported that he wanted to leave the team to join an all-Korean roster. 

In between seasons, that rumor turned out to be true, and Fissure was signed to the Seoul Dynasty. No specific reason for this latest sudden departure has yet been released. 

While Fissure was considered one of Overwatch League’s best tanks, he has been partially benched this season in order to experiment with different team compositions. Fissure’s departure now leaves Hwang “Marve1” Min-seo to carry the team through the rest of the season as the only remaining main tank.