Wrist injury forces Hai Lam to retire from Cloud9

League of Legends and eSports star Hai Lam has been forced to retire after failing to recover from a wrist injury.

He’ll be hanging around at Cloud9, however, where he will serve as chief gaming officer.

I’m very thankful to have had this opportunity to pursue my dreams and become a professional player,” Lam stated. My wrist injury is something that I simply cannot ignore. It limits my ability to play as much as I need to and my ability to improve. At best, my wrist injury would have only allowed me to play for another split and that wasn’t even certain.

I want to make this clear to everyone. 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. Over time, my teammates started to lose confidence in my abilities as a player and a shotcaller. That’s what really hit me hard.

Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne added: "I’d like to announce that Hai is stepping down from competitive play. This is not a goodbye to Hai but a welcome to Cloud9 management staff. Building Cloud9 with Hai the last two years has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life and I’m thrilled that he has accepted this new position at Cloud9. Hai will play a critical part in the expansion of Cloud9 as we continue to branch out into new and existing games."