TongFu's Zhou retires as a Dota 2 player, considers coaching or casting

After Chinese New Year, most people were probably expecting some kind of hint or announcement regarding the rumored Dota 2 dream team. However, the silence was broken, not by a formation of a team, but by the retirement of a legendary player—Chen ‘Zhou’ Yao.

After considering retirement before the end of 2013, TongFu’s captain and carry player Chen ‘Zhou’ Yao has officially announced his retirement from Dota 2 his Weibo account. The following is the English translation of his post via DotaLand.net:

“I’ve retired”

This is my own decision, thank you to those friends who have supported me, I hope you all will not be sad. In the future I will continue being active in the scene, as a commentator or coach. I remember my earliest days playing professionally, at that time I did not understand what esports really was, and hadn’t realized that money could be made in this way, that it could be a line of work. It was purely because of my own passions and interest that I played this game.

That earliest generation of players probably all had similar attitudes, back then we were all still young, we danced with our youthfulness to the melodies of our own esports journeys. We fought for our own dreams!
I… couldn’t stop myself at all, no matter if it was my parents or teachers words, nothing could make me turn back, prevent me from continuing on step by step towards my own dreams.

All these years, against the pressures of family, criticism online, I achieved one after another world title, my dreams and my glories hit their peak! Here I want to thank each and every one of my teammates, it was you guys that allowed me to achieve these heights, thank you to my managers/bosses and fans for their support and belief in me, these things allowed me to have the motivation to go on.

Throughout his career, Zhou had won 27 championships including: The International 2012, G-League Season 2, and the World Cyber Games 2012 with the rest of Invictus Gaming (iG). He has even appeared on the Warcraft 3 DotA loading screen seven times different times.

With Zhou’s retirement, TongFu is currently without a carry player. To make matters worse, if the Chinese dream team rumors are true, they could also lose their solo mid player Zhang ‘Mu’ Pan. At the moment, though, there has been no official announcement concerning this dream team, but we’ll keep you posted for any updates regarding this.