Ceb announces retirement from professional Dota

Sébastien “Ceb” Debs announced his retirement from competitive Dota on Thursday morning. OG Esports’ Twitter account posted that the long-time player will still be a part of OG for the foreseeable future.

After many years of hard work and dedication, @Ceb is stepping down from competing at the highest level.

Even though he closes this chapter, his journey with OG is just starting , many adventures are still to come.

Thank you, Ceb.

Full video: https://t.co/CK2R4jXdEV#DreamOG pic.twitter.com/gJdIfmXmT8

— OG (@OGesports) November 18, 2021

“After many years of hard work and dedication, @Ceb is stepping down from competing at the highest level,” OG tweeted. “Even though he closes this chapter, his journey with OG is just starting, many adventures are still to come. Thank you, Ceb.”

Ceb’s retirement from professional Dota

Ceb’s retirement leaves a void not only in OG Esports, but in the Dota community as a whole. The legacy of Ceb started back when he was a French player in the early days of the Dota scene who went by 7ckingMad. After several stints on small French teams such as MTW and Sigma.int, Ceb eventually considered retirement. However, he was not meant to leave Dota behind as OG contacted him to be their coach at the end of 2016. Joining OG would revitalize his career as OG won the Manila, Kyiv, and Boston Majors under his coaching. With Tal “Fly” Aizik and Gustav “s4” Magnusson leaving the team, Ceb would rejoin OG as an offlaner and lead the organization to two back-to-back International wins in The International 8 and 9 – a feat that has yet to be replicated.

By the end of Ceb’s career, constant travelling and the toll of the Dota Pro Circuit finally became too much. He almost did not play the International 10 due to a detached retina that was detected a few days before the event. The emergency surgery during The International 10 was the second eye surgery that Ceb had gone through that year.

“Now even my body is getting hurt by it,” Ceb said in this retirement blog post. “And I have to listen to my own body. As much as I’ve given to this game, I can’t do it anymore.”

In the same retirement post, JMR Luna, the CEO of OG Esports expressed his own sentiments on Ceb’s retirement. Reiterating the fact that OG Esports as a player-run organization would not be where it is without him.

“Seb, you are an inspiration to me and to all of us every day,” said JMR Luna. “You are the most committed and passionate person I have met, and I am very thankful to have been able to share this time with you as a player and look forward to all we are going to do with OG in the future.”