JD Gaming bot laner and former world champ Imp announces retirement

Veteran League of Legends player Gu “imp” Seung-bin has announced his retirement, a Korean esports reporter “Kenzi” announced over Twitter.

Imp has been active in the South Korean League of Legends scene since he joined MVP Ozone in 2012. In 2013, the team was renamed to Samsung White, a legendary name to League fans. Samsung White took the crown at the 2014 World Championship with a dominant performance.

Worlds 2014 champion retires

But ever since, imp’s on-stage performance has failed to live up to that high. Samsung White disbanded soon after, and imp, like many of his teammates, moved to China. He joined LGD Gaming. That first season, LGD qualified for the 2015 Worlds event but finished ninth.

Then things started looking down for imp. LGD started doing worse inthe LoL Pro League, failing to qualify for Worlds in the coming seasons. After finishing LPL 2018 Spring East second to last, imp parted ways with the team but remained in China.

He shortly played for Team WE before eventually being picked up by JD Gaming before the start of the 2019 competitive season. But this didn’t do him any good, as with him on the roster, the team placed tenth in the LPL 2019 Summer split and lost the chance to qualify for 2019 Worlds after losing to Invictus Gaming in the playoffs.

imp struggled after move to China’s LPL

In his prime, imp was considered to be one of the best bot laners in Korea. However, those times have long since passed, and he has made a decision to withdraw from the competitive scene as the last few years haven’t been yielding positive results. He never got to prove himself to be as good as he was when he played for Samsung White and was crowned a world champion.

Many of his fans shared that they’re sad to see him go, saying he should’ve never made the decision to move to the Chinese league and that they wished they could’ve seen more of him in Korea. What he might have done had he remained in Korea isn’t important, however, as he has now retired.

If imp will stay in the League environment in a different position, like coaching or managing, or has decided to completely withdraw from the scene hasn’t yet been shared.