Sources: Chengdu Hunters to keep OWL MVP ‘Leave’ as transfer talks break down

2021 Overwatch League regular season MVP Xin “Leave” Huang will be staying with the Chengdu Hunters after they were unable to come to an agreement for his transfer, multiple sources have confirmed to Dexerto.

On April 13, Dexerto reported that Leave was among a number of Chengdu Hunters players who were exploring their options ahead of the new Overwatch League season as the HUYA-owned organization looked at ways to balance its books.

Despite interest from Guangzhou Charge and Hangzhou Spark in Leave, the 2021 Overwatch League MVP will remain with his team, as neither organization was able to strike a deal with the Hunters, sources said. On April 26, the Chinese DPS himself reassured fans that he is staying on the roster with a post on his Weibo page.

Sources said that support Tan ‘Nisha’ Li is also expected to stay with the Hunters, while DPS player Li ‘Apr1ta’ Yuanjinghao and veteran support Li ‘Yveltal’ Xianyao should be benched until June. This means that no team will be able to sign them to strengthen their rosters until the midway point of the season.

The decision to bench Apr1ta will come as a surprise after his performances for Team Chaser, the Hunters’ now-defunct academy team. He is one of the highest-rated DPS players in China, and fans had hoped to see him paired with Leave in 2022.

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The Hunters are now in a race against time to finalize preparations for the new season, which gets underway on May 5, and make sure that the campaign will go as smoothly as possible despite the current situation, which may see players take a salary cut to help the team.