by In November 2020, former League of Legends professional Lee “Rush” Yoon-jae revealed that he would be going on mandatory military service. After 18 months, the South Korean has announced his return to the esports scene.
“This will be my first and the last photo of me in 2020. I am joining the army on November 30. Thanks for all the support, and I wish you all the best,” he said via Twitter.
On Monday, Rush took to his Twitter page to make his return public, giving insight into the time spent undergoing military training.
He said: “I just have finished mandatory military service. I have changed a lot!
“Things i got from military: Toxicity, Fat, 8000$ (18 months total)
“Things i lost: Humanity, league skills (gold 2)
“Also i lost an ability to speak English. So all these tweets are helped from google. Please understand. ty”
Meanwhile, the streamer has gotten back to work and climbed the ranking ladder. Although he stated he was at Gold 2, his solo queue account shows that he has now reached Diamond 2.
Rush gave up competitive play in 2019 and has since been a streamer. While his return is celebrated in the esports industry, he will only be creating content for Counter Logic Gaming.
Although the organization has teams competing at different levels globally, Rush is only on board as a streamer. CLG’s LoL team, which is the oldest existing League of Legends side, finished eighth in LCS Spring 2022 and will be looking for a top-three finish in the summer for a chance to compete at the 2022 LoL World Championship.
Rush started his career with LMQ but joined Team Impulse a month later. He had a somewhat successful run with Impulse, reaching the playoffs of the spring and summer splits in 2015. Although they finished fourth in the 2015 summer split, he was awarded the MVP award for his efforts.
Rush’s best run as a professional player came during his short stint with Cloud9. They finished third in the 2016 summer split and had a better run in the playoffs. They came close to clinching the top spot in the event but fell to Team SoloMid 3-1 in the finals. The loss also translated to them missing the 2016 LoL World Championship.
The 29-year-old officially retired from competitive gaming in 2019 after a disappointing season and has since been a streamer for CLG. However, that was not his first shot at retirement.
In 2016, he hung his boots and opted to focus on streaming. After 18 months, he returned to competitive play for KT Rolster.
