Seagull announces he’s quitting Overwatch League, going back to streaming
The popular player laid out the emotional and physical toll of being a pro-player, and why he feels like he owes it to his Twitch fans to go back to his streaming roots
On Tuesday, Dallas Fuel’s flex player Brandon “Seagull” Larned announced that he’s retiring from professional play and returning to full-time streaming instead.
His abrupt statement shocked quite a few fans. Especially since Seagull typed out the tweet in the middle of a Twitch stream.
“I’ve been pretty much a pro-gamer, or I guess trying to be a pro-gamer since I was like 10 years old,” Seagull said. “I went from basement-dwelling neckbeard, to pro-player within three months in Overwatch. I rode that popularity straight to the Overwatch League."
“That whole time though I had to sacrifice a lot of things, like a lot of my personal life, a lot of my mental and physical health. I put on 40 pounds, I developed sleep apnea, I could barely sleep. I just didn’t want to do that anymore. I kept lying to myself for two years. I would sit there, telling myself it was all worth it because I got to compete.”
It was clearly an emotional decision for him. Seagull went on to describe how he felt torn between his obligations to his teammates and his obligation to his streaming fans, the very people he said were the reason for his initial success.
