South Korean professional Valorant player Son “xeta” Seon-ho has revealed that he has parted ways with T1 and also effectively retired from Valorant. Xeta revealed this to the esports community on social media on Thursday.
Xeta’s exit has shocked the Asian Valorant scene as he is a prominent figure in the Asian Valorant scene as a veteran. He started his professional career in 2016 and grew into Counter-Strike.
He moved into Valorant late 2020 when he joined Cloud9’s Korean division, and also later joined the NA core in Cloud9 Blue. With Cloud9 Blue, he achieved success in their first year, getting a victory in the 2021 VCT NA Last Chance Qualifier and reached the quarter-finals at VALORANT Champions Berlin. Xeta carried C9B, making them one of the best NA teams, before he and Autumn left for T1 in mid-2022.
During VCT 2023, T1 and VCT Pacific Team went into partnership with xeta and Autumn as part of that arrangement. The Korean T1 ended up making the top 3 in VCT Pacific Playoffs, but when they got to the international stage, they failed to qualify for the International stage playoffs.
Meanwhile, Xeta mentioned mental and physical health as some of the reasons he’s retiring.
“So first of all, I’ve been played for 8 years straight from CSGO and VALORANT, and I gave all of my passion and love to these two and got a lot of memories and happiness with everything that happened during my time. But recently, I also realised my mental and body health is not like before when I started, even though with the help of org, I could get to talk to a sports psychologist for help; I felt it went so deep, all ready now to go back to recover, and I’ve been recently started to have stacked stress. It’s not like usual of me since I have low energy compared to before, so I thought I couldn’t help the team with the circumstances.” Xeta said.
Furthermore, Xeta will, as a Korean, have to go serve in the National Military Service, although he hopes to come with a refreshed mindset, energy, and passion.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
