Talon Esports has announced that Patiphan ‘Patiphan’ Chaiwong is taking an “indefinite break” from Valorant competition.
Talon Esports revamped its roster this off-season around three new faces in former T1 player Seungmin Oh ‘ban’ Joseph, North American import Peter ‘Governor’ No and former Team Secret player Lionel ‘lenne’ Lim.
The rest of the squad is filled out with IGL Thanamethk ‘Crws’ Mahatthananuyut and Thai Valorant star Patiphan.
Talon is looking to improve its 2023 campaign which saw the crew miss out on VCT Masters Tokyo and Valorant Champions competition. The squad didn’t even get the chance to fight for Masters as Talon placed ninth in the VCT Pacific regular season and missed out on the playoffs.
Now, it seems like the 2024 rebuild has hit a snag as one of their players has announced that he is taking a mental health break from Valorant competition.
Talon Valorant star Patiphan announces break from competing
Talon Esports and Patiphan announced on December 4 that he is taking a break from esports competition. A potential return date was not given, and the break is fully supported by the organization.
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Take all the time you need, @itsPatiphan and we look forward to your comeback soon. 🫂 ❤️Always choose kindness, TALON Fam. #SOARWITHTALON #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/fLKRhLkf7f
— TALON (@TALON_ESPORTS) December 4, 2023
“Today we would like to share that Patiphan will be taking an indefinite break from competitive play to focus on his well-being… Here at Talon, we always put our player’s welfare as our top priority above anything else and will continue to support him in every meaningful way as he transitions to the reserve roster,” Talon said in an official statement.
In Patiphan’s statement, he said that he has been dealing with a loss of passion for competition and he expects to be back at some point in the future.
“Even logging in to play has become difficult, and I find myself in a constant struggle. It wouldn’t be fair to my teammates for me to continue when thoughts of stepping away are constantly on my mind,” he wrote.
— Patiphan (@itsPatiphan) December 4, 2023
Patiphan has taken a break from Valorant competition before, stepping away for a time due to injury and once to return to Overwatch esports.
Talon Esports will presumably start Jittana ‘JitboyS’ Nokngam in Patiphan’s place. The sixth man started a handful of games for the team in 2023, getting more starts toward the end of the year.