Bang officially retires from League of Legends
Bae “Bang” Jun-sik, former Afreeca Freecs ADC, will be retiring from competitive League of Legends after playing for almost 10 years. We will no longer see the two-time world champion jump on Summoner’s Rift again.
Bang has officially retired to serve its military duties
Bang has announced his retirement from League of Legends on social media, as he chose to fulfill his mandatory Korean military service (which is compulsory for male citizens between the ages of 18 and 28 in South Korea). In his last year of competitive experience, the marksman played for Afreeca Freecs. The results, however, weren’t very successful.
AF earned a 0-4 record in KeSPA Cup 2020, and a disappointing 5-13 record in LCK 2021 Spring. During the LCK 2021 Summer Split, Bang was replaced by Han “Leo” Gyeo-re and moved to the substitute position, until his recent announcement.
“Walking in one direction of a professional gamer with my experience in League of Legends, I was able to form many valuable relationships, accumulate precious memories and make various achievements in my lifetime,” Bang stated in the Instagram retirement post. “These experiences are something that I feel blessed and most grateful for.”
Many professional players, aside from Bang, all have retired for different reasons. The competitive scene has lost a lot of important personalities and fans can’t seem to find their new superstar to cheerfor. But Is LoL dying? Check out our answer!
Taking a Look Back at Bang’s League of Legends Career
Bang kickstarted his competitive career back in 2012 when he joined NaJin Shield as the team’s starting AD carry. His stint on that team was brief, and Bang was later signed at the beginning of 2013 with SKT’s main team, SK Telecom T1 S.
While Bang was technically on SKT’s main team with which the organization planned to win Worlds, Faker’s entrance in the League scene completely warped the goals. SK Telecom T1 S slowly became the sister team, as they were constantly being outperformed.
Nonetheless, when the two teams merged following a rule change in the league at the end of 2014, Bang was promoted to the team’s main roster, becoming SKT T1’s starting ADC. With him, Faker and the rest of the team, SKT T1 went down in history. They became one of the most dominant teams ever to exist in League of Legends, winning back-to-back World Championships in 2015 and 2016. Up until today, SKT is the only organization to have reached such a historic record, prolonging Korea’s dominance in LoL until 2018 alongside Samsung Galaxy.
Following 2018, Bang made the decision to move to North America to join 100 Thieves. The move, however, proved to be disastrous, as 100T finished dead last in Spring and only 8th in Summer. His transfer to Evil Geniuses did improve the results, but it wasn’t enough to fight for a Worlds spot. For those reasons, Bang returned to Korea in Afreeca Freecs where he ended his career.
“I know that in the future, there will be new things and experiences that are going to be totally different from the world I have been but will take my past experiences and achievements as a cornerstone in moving forward,” Bang said.
Bang, back in the SKT T1 days, was one of the best LoL players of all time. He might not have given that much spotlight due to Faker’s presence, but the partnership with support Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan made them one of the best bot lane duos to ever step on Summoner’s Rift.
