Korean Jungle Legend Watch Retires from Competitive League of Legends

Former OGN champion Cho "Watch" Jae-geol officially announced his retirement from competitive League of Legends. Watch will focus on broadcasting on South Korean streaming platform Kongdoo, according to an interview Kongdoo released Tuesday (h/t Kelsey Moser of Yahoo Esports).

The famous jungler was known not only as being one of South Korea's fan-favorite players, but one of the region's jungle legends throughout an incredible career of resilient, do-or-die performances.

Watch achieved success quite early in his career; with NaJin Sword (surrounded by some of Korea's all-time greats, Yoon "MaKNooN" Ha-woon and Kim "PraY" Jong-in), he secured a coveted first-place title in South Korea's domestic league, Champions in 2013.

The following year, Watch would find himself on a different NaJin Black Sword lineup (after the organization rebranded its two sister teams) that most notably earned a 2014 World Championship spot despite finishing Champions in the worst placing in the organization's history. After obtaining enough circuit points throughout the entire season, NaJin was able to take a spot over arguably Korea's best roster at the time, KT Rolster.

The slight did not sit well with the League of Legends community that felt Watch and Co. weren't deserving of the spot and would drop out early in the tournament. Despite the criticism shrouding their Worlds qualification, Watch led a NaJin Black Sword roster in proving the doubters wrong, ending the tournament in third place while having lost to the eventual League of Legends overlords SKT in a close 3-2 semifinal.

The Worlds showing was unsustainable, though, and the roster would eventually dissolve after a series of poor performances in Champions.

Watch stayed loyal to the NaJin organization, though, moving instead to the White Shield sister team where, again, his miraculous magic followed him. The roster would qualify for Worlds again over the defending champions SKT despite barely clinching a spot in the 2014 Korean regional gauntlet. But his second Worlds showing wasn't as successful as the first; NaJin White Shield was swept in the quarterfinals.

With changes to Korea's league in the 2015 season, the NaJin sister teams were forced to combine, and although Watch was able to retain his starting position on the new NaJin e-mFire, his time in the spotlight would eventually pass (especially considering rising star—now phenom—Yoon "Peanut" Wang-ho was waiting on the bench for his time to break out).