In League of Legends esports there is a story straight out of a sportsman’s fairy tale. In his old age, 26-year-old Trexor “Stixxay” Hyes has once again turned his career around, which actually seemed to have ended. He did what star player Bjergsen couldn’t: make a big comeback. All he needed was a teammate from his golden youth and 2 months of detention on the youth team.
Here’s how Stixxay’s career began:
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For years, Stixxay only played for weak teams
What was the time of suffering like then? This extraordinarily successful first half year in professional LoL should remain the glorious exception. Now followed 6 drought years.
Team discards him at 25 – Sends him to 2nd League out of necessity
That was the end of his career: Stixxay had actually come to an end after 2021. He was told by his team that he would no longer be playing, but he hadn’t had offers to switch either. Then he got the offer, his team just right, to continue as a coach.
Stixxay says after 2021 the team told him he wasn’t playing anymore. But can continue as a coach:
Stixxay comes back to the team: “Can’t they find a better one?”
What was the turning point? In May 2022, however, Stixxay’s plans changed again. The supporter “Huhi” was a new addition to the team. The South Korean was actually 2 years older than Stixxay, having played with him in his golden days at CLG, albeit still in the midlane.
Stixxay had previously considered changing clubs, looking for a new team. But now he really wanted to play for Golden Guardians again. And indeed, he was given the starting spot in the botlane alongside Huhi after impressing in the junior league.
A running gag: Stixxay looks very similar to German midlaner PowerOfEvil.
The return of Stixxay as a professional in the LCS was not received with much enthusiasm. One interviewer even told him that when he heard Stixxay was coming back, he thought: can Golden Guardians really not find anyone better?
Stixxay can understand this reaction, he got it more often at the time:
If you look at my results over the last few years, they have been really disgusting for years.
Stixxay says he was in an “attitude dip” for a while, got stuck.
But in 2023, Stixxay’s career changed again.
The 26-year-old gave up coaching, played in the bot lane again and showed what was probably the best LoL of his life alongside his old teammate.
Loser team knocks out stars like Bjergsen and Dobulelift from playoffs, makes it to finals
Then he was so successful: The perennial losers, the Golden Guardians, narrowly made it into the playoffs 9-9, beating highly decorated teams like TSM and Team Liquid.
In the playoffs, they then went on a triumphal march: They eliminated 3 of the current best teams in US LoL one after the other:
Only in the final was it not quite enough against the South Korean team Cloud9 and Golden Guardians lost the final 1-3.
What is remarkable, however, is that 7 years after his insane debut season, Stixxay once again dominated the playoffs. Nobody had more kills than him.
What does the player say about this? In an interview after his big comeback, Stixxay says: When you lose, it’s easy to be forgotten:
Stixxay and the Golden Guardians are now off to the MSI in London. 7 years ago Stixxay experienced his heyday and became one of the stars of the tournament. If he succeeds in 2023, that would be a huge thing for US LoL.
Well, there really isn’t much hope for that. According to the Chinese Doinb, Stixxay is a prime example of the US problem:
The world champion explains why the US is so bad at LoL