League of Legends fans exploded online Thursday as Cloud9’s mid-laner and shot-caller Hai Lam announced his retirement from competitive play.
Cloud9 was the only team that kept its roster since its inception, racking up more than 700 days without a change.
Wednesday night, Cloud9 coach Charlie Lipsie messaged “deeeda,” a twitch.tv user who was streaming about Lam moving out of the Cloud9 house, where the whole team lives together. Chaos ensued as League of Legends fans heard the news.
“Hai moved out of the house today. We weren’t going to cry. He hugged me and started crying, and then I started,” Lipsie wrote to deeeda.
Somebody screencapped the stream and it blew up on reddit, with fans mourning the loss of the iconic player.
Nothing about Lam’s departure was confirmed at that point, but fans gathered enough information from Lipsie’s message to assume Lam was leaving the team. Lam’s former teammate, Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi, was streaming at the time and viewers were hounding him with questions about Lam’s possible departure.
“Sorry – can’t talk about it,” was his only response.
Though Lam’s gameplay has worsened in the past couple splits, he assured his fans that he wasn’t leaving Cloud9 because of his performance.
“I am NOT stepping down due to community criticism for my play or myself. I would be lying if I said I didn’t care about it, but I was able to brush it off thanks to my teammates’ confidence in me,” he wrote in a blog announcing his retirement.
Lam had also been battling a wrist injury and was forced to wear braces and wraps around his wrists. He claimed he couldn’t have played for more than one more split anyway.
As a die-hard Cloud9 fan, I knew this was coming. Lam’s performance was suffering, and he was no longer the best mid-laner in North America. Though the announcement was impending, nobody wanted to consider it because Cloud9 won’t be Cloud9 without him.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tear up at the news. Lam was the one who made me fall in love with watching competitive play. He was a silly personality who — despite his questionable Instagram photos — was inspiring.
When he was upset, he’d write about it on his blog. The fans knew how he felt. He wasn’t hiding anything from anyone. He was one of the only professionals to show his human side. When things got tough, he’d let fans know he was going to try even harder next time. He taught us to never give up.
I remember watching his Kha’Zix triple kill versus LMQ last summer and being astounded that it was even possible to turn fights around the way he did. He was a legend, and though his play weakened toward the end of his career, he’s still an icon. His shot-calling led to beautiful rotations, which led to undisputed victories.
I want this to be a bad dream. When it’s over Lam will be back on the roster playing Zed like he always does. But as much as I don’t want to admit it, his departure is for the best.
Cloud9 announced that they will reveal his replacement soon. Many fans speculate that it could be Nicolaj “Incarnati0n” Jensen; a powerful player like him could help Cloud9 gain their first place positions back.
Lam will be moving on to management positions at Cloud9 and will be scouting and managing players for its teams.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to say, “C9 Hai … C9 bye.” Thanks for all the inspiration you’ve given to us fans.
