Despite having made Royal Never Give Up his home, support Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong announced his departure from the team on his Facebook earlier today. Mata has been a player for RNG since December 2015, where despite rumours of his return to Korea, he stayed after leaving Vici Gaming. RNG found more success with Mata as the support, as well as his former teammate of Samsung White, Jang “Looper” Hyeong-seok, in the top lane.
During his time in China, Mata had a huge influence on RNG, and has been a part of the team during their hardest matchups. However, RNG struggled against teams such as Fnatic and SK Telecom T1, taking pretty hard beatings at IEM Season X and the Mid-Seasonal Invitational.
One of Mata’s main reasons for leaving the team is due to “personal health problems,” but also about “playing games in Korea.” While Mata has not officially stated where he will go next, he showed nothing but support and love for his fans and teammates. He finished his statement by saying, “thank you to [my] fans who love to support me. And thanks to the generous team, interpreter, and players, I was very grateful. I would also like to support the RNG team. I will not give up.”
It would seem that Korea is calling to Mata, and has been at the back of his mind for quite some time, so it will be interesting to see where he goes next in his competitive career.
Do you think Mata wil return to a Korean competitive team? Leave your comment down below, or tweet us @GAMURScom.
Jordan Aldridge-Payne is an esports journalist for GAMURS and can be reached on Twitter @mrjordanap.
