Two-time Call of Duty World Champion Apathy retires from CDL

Jaret Kappelman
Two-time Call of Duty World Champion Apathy retires from CDL(1)

Two-time Call of Duty World Champion Apathy has announced that he is retiring from the CDL and professional CoD.

Bryan ‘Apathy’ Zhelyazkov competed for over 10 years, but has decided it is time to move on from playing.

He capped off one of the greatest careers the esport has ever seen, taking home the World Championship in both Black Ops 4 and World War II. In total, Apathy won six major events throughout his tenure.

The last two years in the CDL were rough for Apathy and, heading into the 2022 season, the ex-pro announced he received no offers despite feeling like he had some “gas left in the tank.”

Apathy steps away from professional CoD a 2x World Champ

Apathy started to make a name for himself back in CoD: Ghosts when he broke into the scene on Strictly Business. The team was able to win the Champs Regional Finals and enter as the number one seed. Although the team didn’t win that event he would go on to get picked up by better teams.

With runs on Orgs such as FaZe, Envy, and Evil Geniuses, Apathy will go down as one of the greatest to play the game. Perhaps his most memorable tournament came in 2018, as his Evil Geniuses team entered Champs as heavy underdogs.

The team was able to knock OpTic Gaming out of groups and the rest is history as they went on to win Champs, getting Apathy his second ring.

apathy-seattle-surge-cdl
Apathy announced he is retiring from professional Call of Duty after over a decade of competing.

When the league switched to the franchised format, Apathy found himself on the Seattle Surge with three-time World Champ Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow and AR superstar Sam ‘Octane’ Larew.

Unfortunately, the team never clicked and Apathy signed with the Los Angeles Guerrillas for the 2021 season. Things didn’t work out there either, as the team finished in 11th and missed CoD Champs. LAG now yields a completely new roster for 2022.

In his announcement, Apathy said, “I did try to get on a pro team and wanted to keep competing but there were no opportunities or offers. I completely understand why, just felt like I had gas in the tank still.”

While the last two years may have damaged his chances at landing on a CDL team, his legacy will live on in the Call of Duty world. He plans to share more plans on his future “very soon.”

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