Why did Scump retire from competitive Call of Duty?

The King of Call of Duty has officially made an announcement that longtime competitive CoD fans have dreaded: Scump is retiring from esports competition.

The 27-year-old broke the news on the launch day of Modern Warfare 2 in a heartfelt YouTube video in which Scump looks back on just a few of the plethora of moments from his legendary career so far.

Heading into his final season as a pro, Scump won 30 major tournaments and accrued over $1.1 million in prize money earned. He even won Major One of the 2022 CDL season this past March, proving that he still has what it takes to compete with the best.

So why exactly is Scump retiring then? Here’s what he had to say on the matter himself.

Why is Scump retiring?

There are inevitably multiple factors that go into a major, life-altering decision like this. Some fans might question whether it’s the quality of recent Call of Duty titles that is forcing Scump’s hand, while others may think he’s just ready to move on from the tireless grind of competing at the professional level. At the end of the day, Scump made it clear that he thinks he has one good season left in him.

“I’m not going to be completely leaving the space obviously. I’m still going to be heavily involved in Call of Duty,” Scump said. “It’s not like I’m just going to evaporate from thin air or anything. I just think that my time, my effort, and my energy, one last season is pretty much all that I got left in the tank in terms of my mental, all that stuff. I think that I have one more good year to give to not only myself, but my teammates, first and foremost, my coaching staff, my amazing partners and the people I work with at OpTic, and you guys, the Green Wall.”

A change of plans

Scump’s plan to retire after the season came to an abrupt and sudden change on Jan. 17, 2023, when the Ginja Ninja posted a video on Twitter revealing that he was retiring effective immediately and being replaced on the OpTic roster by Dashy.

In the nearly-six-minute video, Scump gave a heartfelt speech and was visibly emotional, becoming choked up and crying throughout its duration. He again spoke about the difficulties of balancing things like competing and creating content, but OpTic’s struggles in the early going of this season likely contributed to the decision to call it quits early.

“Coming into the year, I didn’t know what to expect,” Scump said. “I mean, we were running it back with the team. Honestly, high expectations, people expected a lot out of us. Things fell short, it happens, that’s part of competing.”

In the same week that Dashy was benched and replaced by Huke in the starting roster, he now has the unenviable position of replacing one of the all-time greats. But Scump was complimentary of his teammate.

“With the addition of Brandon back, I hope people are happy with the new roster,” Scump said as part of his farewell speech. “I think you guys are going to be disgusting. Bringing Brandon back made sense; life’s too short to hold grudges or be mad at each other. I hope he uses this opportunity to be a good teammate. I’m falling down so [Dashy] can go up.”

Scump also said that he will be attending events and meeting people, which he “really couldn’t do” due to COVID. But he’s looking forward to being a mainstay within the CoD esports community, teasing that there are “other things in the works.”

In the end, Scump is doing what he wants to do to be happy, and that’s where the decision to retire is rooted in. And nobody can fault him, or anyone else for that matter, for doing that.