BLEED
BLEED
Asia-Pacific
Rank #21
have announced the arrival of former DRX initiator, Kim "Zest"
Ki-seok (김기석), as well as Jorell "Retla"
Teo, who was a part of the team in 2022. They are also parting ways with Javier "Egoist"
Chua, just over five months since his arrival. Their in-game leader, Ngô "crazyguy"
Công Anh, has been moved to the inactive roster. Since the announcement, Egoist has retired from esports.
This move follows their early elimination from Pacific Kickoff. The first event of the year was a noticeable decline for the team that won Ascension. Considered favorites to make it out of Group A, they lost their opening series against T1, who were also favored to progress. Their elimination game was against Global Esports, but BLEED were unable to win the match, an unceremonious end to their run.
Zest is best known for his time on one of the most storied cores in the game's history. First joining Vision Strikers in 2020, he was vital in helping them reach a 108 match streak without a single loss. They were less dominant outside of Asia, unable to make the top four in Masters Berlin and Champions 2021.
The team was next picked up by DRX. They continued their local dominance and improved on their international performance, finishing the year with a top three placement at Champions 2022. They made top four the next event, LOCK//IN, but were unable to replicate the result later in the year.
He was instrumental to DRX's performance throughout 2023, his Viper playing a crucial part in their playstyle and match wins. Despite this, Zest was released ahead of the 2024 season. He recently qualified to Challengers Korea with IAM, an orgless team.
Also joining is sentinel player Retla. He was on an early Paper Rex roster alongside Egoist, where he remained until the org's eventual rebuild in 2021. The next year, he joined BLEED late into the season and was able to help the team reach top three in Challengers and the APAC LCQ. He stayed the rest of the year, winning a couple of non-VCT events, but was eventually replaced by nephh.
After his release, he made Challengers 2023 with an orgless team, without finding much success in the circuit. The team again qualified to Challengers MY/SG 2024, but Retla has not played since making the main event.
The roster only played eight official maps before making roster changes. Image: Riot Games
Upon joining in late 2022, crazyguy led BLEED to win a handful of non-VCT events. They had only been able to win an event on one occasion in the past, and their best performance in Challengers was third place in APAC Challengers and LCQ.
This result led to them being invited to Challengers 2023, where their changes continued bearing fruit. They won Split 1, losing only one series and a total of five maps. Split 2 was an improvement, as they were crowned without a loss and only dropped one map.
The performance carried over to Ascension, making it out of groups with a 3-1 record and winning the grand final 3-0 against Scarz. The victory promoted them to the Pacific League for the next two years.
Egoist had a less notable time with BLEED. He only joined the team in September 2023 to replace nephh, who needed to complete his military service. He played in two events with the team, Riot Games ONE and Pacific Kickoff.
He was previously on Team SMG, one of the top Southeast Asian teams of 2021. Two years later, Egoist played for X10 Esports, but was unable to qualify to Ascension, losing both Challengers grand finals to BLEED.
The following
BLEED
BLEED
Asia-Pacific
Rank #21
roster will debut in April:
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