Apex Legends pro Jacob ‘HisWattson’ McMillin has announced his retirement from the esport after three years of competitive play.
From solo-queuing from Rookie to Predator without using any armor, or climbing from Bronze to Masters without using any tools at all, to consistently placing high in pro tournaments, HisWattson once claimed he was the best Apex Legends player in the world, and some of his achievements can certainly back that up.
The 21-year-old signed with FURIA ahead of the ALGS World Championship 2022 last year, where he was named MVP of the tournament and his team placed second, walking away with $300k.
However, after three years of competing, the Apex pro has now announced his retirement from the esport.
HisWattson announces retirement from Apex Legends esports
On July 15, the Apex pro released a statement, explaining why he’ll be stepping down from competitive play. “Today I’ve made the decision to step down from Competitve Apex,” he wrote. “I went from being miles ahead of the 2nd best player to being poop. I tried everything possible to make myself enjoy playing comp, but even when we were winning, I still wasn’t having fun.
“I’ve tried looking at it from every angle, but I simply don’t think it’s something that can make me happy. And over time, me not having enjoying it has made my skills deteriorate to the point where I’m no longer content and just want to go back to what made me the best and the happiest I’d ever been: Spamming ranked like a degen and being a goofball on stream.”
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HisWattson continued, explaining that his teammates or recent performances in tournaments aren’t the reason behind his retirement — revealing that he’s wanted to “move on” from competitive Apex for a while, but has been convinced multiple times to continue playing.
“This isn’t because we just did bad or I hate my team or anything,” he said. “I wanted to move on before Split 1 even started and multiple times after but got convinced to keep playing every time, and it’s pretty much impossible for me to stay ahead of everyone skill-wise when I’m not giving it everything I have.
“It’s not fair to my teammates or anyone who wants to see me do well that they’re expecting my all when I’m not able to give it to them. Everyone at FURIA is amazing and I apologize for not pulling the plug sooner.”
Apex Legends Competitive pic.twitter.com/GWBI1GXS40
— FURIA HisWattson (@HisWattson) July 15, 2023
He added: “I’m still going to be staying with FURIA as a content creator. Thank you to Pandxrz, Xera, and Sealion for being great teammates on this journey, and thank you so much to everyone that supported my competitive adventures. I’m very grateful for all of you.”
HisWattson will now shift focus to full-time content creation, where he’ll still be representing FURIA.