Chengdu Hunters head coach RUI steps down

Former Shanghai Dragons coach Jfeel will join the team as an assistant coach.

Photo by Robert Paul via Blizzard Entertainment

While many teams have made big changes during the Overwatch League offseason, the Chengdu Hunters camp has remained remarkably quiet with only minor changes made to its roster. But as 2022 begins, the team is switching up its management department first. 

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Head coach Wang “RUI” Xingrui will step down from his position before the fifth season begins in April and will instead become Chengdu’s “honorary advisor,” the team announced last night. 

In a post on Weibo, RUI cited health issues and a need to spend time with his family as reasons for his resignation. During a vacation in October, the coach realized he wasn’t taking care of himself or his household and suffered medical issues, according to a community translation of the post. 

RUI had been with the Hunters on and off since late 2018. He left the team after the 2019 season due to health issues that were exacerbated by his participation in the high-stress environment of the Overwatch World Cup 2019. RUI returned to Chengdu as its head coach in late 2020 and helped give the Hunters its most successful season ever. 

The team has yet to add a new head coach, but former Shanghai Dragons assistant coach Kim “Jfeel” Jeong-min will join the Hunters for the 2022 Overwatch League season. He joins current assistant coaches Yan “Creed” Xiao and Zhang “Yaoxie” Jihang on Chengdu’s management side. 

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Liz Richardson
Liz is a freelance writer and editor from Chicago. Her favorite thing is the Overwatch League; her second favorite thing is pretending iced coffee is a meal. She specializes in educational content, patch notes that (actually) make sense, and aggressively supporting Tier 2 Overwatch. When she's not writing, Liz is expressing hot takes on Twitter and making bad life choices at Target.