A month ago, when Rise Nation dropped out of Overwatch, the players from the roster tried to continue together in an effort to qualify for Overwatch Contenders Season Zero. Under the name Midnight Sucks, the fallen squad made it to the round of 16 not once, but twice, falling short by just a map on the second attempt. The players split after the Contenders qualifiers, leaving each to do their own separate thing, and in Locke's case, retirement.

Whereas Midnight played further in Contenders filling in for Selfless, and Phaz and xRetzi have been spotted trialing for NRG, the other pieces of Rise Nation seem to be less fortunate. Spirit hasn't been seen in a tournament setting since, although he has recently banded together with other teamless pros to form a team called Hard Retweet. Nothing has been heard from Desro since the Rise split, and after this week, there will be no more Overwatch news regarding Locke ever again.

Locke tweeted out his retirement earlier this week. No Twitlongers or declarations of superior games, it was short and sweet. However, when asked to elaborate, Locke decided to give one last comment on Overwatch:

I don't really enjoy the game in the way that I used to when I first started playing. I really can't picture myself putting off life for another couple of years to do something I don't enjoy. Wouldn't be fair to the scene, any team I would join, or myself and for that reason I decided to retire.

Although, there seems to be a lot of discussion about how the meta is to blame and the developers aren't doing a great job, in my case, it was more that I grew tired of having any game occupy all of my time. Sure you could say we only scrimmed six hours a day for five days a week, but playing competitively really is full time. You're constantly thinking about the game because that's what it takes to be competitive. I just didn't want to do that anymore. I put off things when I started playing overwatch that I feel I should pick back up on now instead of later.