Korean League of Legends competitor Lee “Crown” Min-ho has retired, the 25-year-old announced today on Instagram. The mid lane star has played in both Korea and North America, winning one World Championship title with Samsung Galaxy in 2017.

Crown joined the LCK in 2015 while playing under the Samsung Galaxy banner. The Korean player first made a name for himself in the StarCraft world before switching over to League. In 2016, the mid laner finished sixth and fourth in the LCK Spring and Summer splits, respectively, before booking a ticket to Worlds through a Regional Final victory.

Crown’s Worlds debut saw him and Samsung Galaxy quickly secure a play-offs spot after losing only one match to Team SoloMid in the group stage. The team then handily defeated Cloud9 and H2K before narrowly falling to SK Telecom T1 in the Grand Final. Crown and the team got their revenge on T1 in the 2017 World Championship, crushing their Korean rivals 3-0 to win the title.

Crown signed with Gen.G following his World Championship win. The mid laner played with Gen.G for the 2018 season, ultimately leaving the squad after exiting Worlds in 13-16th place. Crown then made a career move to North America, joining OpTic Gaming for the 2019 LCS season, though didn’t find much success in the new region. Crown moved back to Korea after a brief stint with CLG, joining Challengers Korea team OZ Gaming and finishing third in the league’s 2020 Summer season.

Crown now retires from professional League of Legends, saying he is “grateful and thankful for so many acquaintances, all the moments, coincidences, and luck,” according to a translation. “From a certain point, rather than being fun, interesting, and competitive, all my thoughts were filled with negative thoughts and started getting stressful,” Crown explains. “I was dreaming things that I can’t realistically reach and said “this one more time, next one more time”, and endured pathetically up to now. I think it’s finally time to let go.”

Crown’s future plans are currently unclear, as he has not confirmed whether or not he wants to return to the competitive gaming scene. He could take on the role of competitive League of Legends coach or analyst in the future.

Source: Crown/InvenGlobal