CLG’s Rush quitting League and streaming for military service
Riot GamesOne-time NA LCS MVP and ex-Cloud9 jungler Lee “Rush” Yoon-jae has announced he will be stepping down from LoL to complete his mandatory military service in South Korea.
As per Korean law, men are expected to complete at least one year of military service by the time they reach 28 years of age.
Special exemption is allowed in certain circumstances. Tottenham Hotspur soccer player Heung-min Son was given permission to forego his service after he led South Korea to gold in the 2018 Asian Games.
Unfortunately for fans of Rush, he’s not allowed to do the same.
Riot GamesRush quits LoL for military service
On his Twitch stream on November 7, Rush announced his intention to quit League to complete his military service upon the expiry of his contract with CLG.
“This is my last month playing League of Legends, not even my last month, I’m probably going to be playing for a week, to let people know that I’m leaving,” Rush explained. “And also, fulfilling the CLG contract. Then I will quit [both] streaming and League of Legends, to serve for military.”
Whether Rush will return to League when he completes his conscription is unknown. He reached first place on the SoloQ ladder of the South Korean server in each of the 2014, 2015 and 2018 seasons.
Rush came to North America in 2014 as the new starting jungler for LMQ, who later rebranded as Team Impulse. Known for his aggressive early-game play and insane Lee Sin mechanics, Rush quickly became a fan-favorite and was NA LCS MVP for the 2015 Summer Split.
This play against CLG, where he straight up walks through the enemy vision to get a kill under tower, is one of his most revered.
Despite TIP crashing out in the semifinals of playoffs to eventual champions CLG, Rush’s form earned him a move to C9 to replace Hai ‘Hai’ Du Lam as the starting jungler. After a quiet spring split which saw C9 lose to TSM in the quarterfinals, he was relegated to C9 Challenger, replaced by William ‘Meteos’ Hartman.
Rush had a brief stint with LCK juggernauts KT Rolster, but he was mostly an understudy to jungling great Go ‘Score’ Dong-bin. He moved back to NA for an LCS stint with Echo Fox, before becoming a streamer with CLG.