After 10 years, one of League of Legends' superstars has taken his final bow. Bae “Bang” Jun-sik, the AD Carry that played alongside Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok on an utterly dominant SK Telecom (SKT) T1, has officially retired from pro play. He made the announcement on Monday via an Instagram post, departing his position on Afreeca Freecs' roster. Bang will be completing his mandatory military service in South Korea.

Bang's competitive stint did not unfortunately end on the flashy note by which he started it. It was a rocky finish for Afreeca Freecs in the 2021 season, crashing out of the LCK playoffs after a 1-3 defeat to Nongshim RedForce. Prior to that, Bang had also taken his talents to North America, competing on high-potential 100 Thieves and later Evil Geniuses rosters. With the two LCS sides, however, he couldn't quite recapture his former form, though they definitely had some strong showings domestically and hovered around the upper echelon of the league.

Bang's legacy

Despite the ultimately quiet conclusion to his pro career—and he'd much rather have gone out with a bang—the veteran ADC remains an iconic player in League of Legends for all that he achieved with SKT T1. To this day, the org remains the only team to have ever won the World Championship thrice, and in back-to-back fashion for two of those title wins.

Criticisms aside for when the team collapsed and missed Worlds, Bang no doubt helped catapult the team to victory in their glory days, earning back-to-back trophies alongside bot duo Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan. As his narrative in the pro scene comes to a close, Bang's legacy will still be his two Worlds crowns and four LCK championships with the winningest side ever in the game's history—even making him the most successful ADC to ever grace the League stage.

“I was able to form many valuable relationships, accumulate precious memories and make various achievements in my lifetime,” Bang said in his post. “These experiences are something that I feel blessed and most grateful [for].”

“Thank you for everyone's support in professional gamer ‘Bang',” he concluded. “I will be back soon again as a better person and better ‘Bang' in the future.”