The Korean fps veteran might be retiring from competitive play soon.
NUTURN Gaming’s Kang “solo” Keun-chul has been playing competitive shooters professionally for over 15 years. Going through multiple Counter-Strike iterations, solo picked up VALORANT last year.
Touted as a great leader and, Keun-chul saw himself at the helm of NUTURN Gaming at the beginning of the year, playing alongside long-time teammate Jung “peri” Bum-gi.
The initial announcement came during a post-game interview following NUTURN’s loss against Fnatic in the lower bracket final. Solo said -through a translator- that although he’d like to keep playing until he was 40, that wasn’t really feasible.
“Between the players and I, and I just told them today, this tournament will be my last,” he said.
Solo later clarified on Twitter that he actually hadn’t decided on retirement yet but would make a decision in June.
Solo quickly showed why NUTURN picked him up by taking the then-undefeated Vision Strikers to a game five at the first VCT Masters event. He would later lead his team to a victory over those Vision Strikers in the Challengers Finals, before sweeping DAMWON Gaming 3-0 to punch their ticket to VCT Masters Reykjavik.
NUTURN clinched a third-place finish at Masters, only losing to both finalists Fnatic and Sentinels. They needed two comeback wins in their opening games against Sharks Esports and Version1 after losing Haven both times.
Thanks to solo’s immense experience, NUTURN managed to turn both series around.
Also read:
- NUTURN upset Version1, bound to meet Sentinels in the Upper Bracket Finals
- Viewership is soaring – Is VALORANT establishing its hold on the esports scene (and its competitors?)
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