An era-defining Overwatch League star in Lee “Carpe” Jae-hyeok is officially moving on from the game after an extraordinary and lengthy pro career, joining the T1 VALORANT roster for the 2023 season in the VCT Pacific League.
The Philadelphia Fusion, whom Carpe has played for in all five seasons of OWL, bid farewell to the dynamic DPS start today, as he takes on his “next challenge” of playing pro VALORANT for T1, the esports organization owned by the same group that owns the Fusion. Reports of Carpe heading to VALORANT first surfaced at the end of October, days before Fusion were eliminated from the 2022 OWL playoffs.
He will join two other OWL veterans on T1 in Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo (formerly with Florida Mayhem and The Guard VALORANT) and Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom (formerly Seoul Dynasty, Boston Uprising, and Crazy Raccoon VALORANT). All three will play in Asia’s Pacific League, which features a handful of other former OWL big names like Park “Bazzi” Jun-ki on Global Esports and Patiphan “Patiphan” Chaiwong on Talon Esports.
In his farewell video, Carpe said his five year run with the Fusion was “truly precious, unforgettable and honorable,” and said he will always be “rooting for this team forever.” Up until today’s move, Carpe had been one of the longest-standing players in the entire League, and is the only player to have played with a single team for all five seasons.
Per Liquipedia, he won the Role Star award for DPS players in season three, and was the first OWL player to reach 4000 total final blows. Carpe and the Fusion sadly never won the OWL Championship during his five year run, but they reached the grand finals of playoffs during the inaugural season, and he helped Korea win the Overwatch World Cup in 2018.
Carpe’s official VALORANT debut will likely be at the VCT 2023 Kickoff tournament in Sao Paulo, Brazil in February.
