Gaming star retires at 23 with obesity and diabetes

JIAN ZIHAO, China’s leading online gamer, is retiring at 23 after an eightyear career due to gaming-related health problems, including obesity.

Mr Jian, known by his alias “Uzi,” was diagnosed with diabetes last year.

“I tried to adjust my living habits, control my diet, lose weight, do exercises, and take meds, but my condition didn’t change,” he wrote on social media, announcing his retirement to five million followers.

“My mental state is not as good as before, due to the medicine, and the doctor warned that if the situation worsens, there’ll soon be complications. Plus, the problems with my hands are relatively serious, so my physical condition doesn’t allow me to go on competing in the game world.”

Mr Jian’s team, Royal Never Give Up, described him as “not only the heart and soul of [the team], but also an icon in the e-sports world as a whole”.

Mr Jian set unbeaten records in League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle game, in his debut year, and went on to win gold medals for China in international e-sports tournaments. According to the website E-sport earnings, he has earned around $545,000 (£485,000) in prize money, but would also have earned large sums from sponsorships and commercial events.

In 2018, Mr Jian said he had to be treated by a doctor for at least half an hour after every practice and match. “But I also believe that the best athletes in every sport in the world reach the top with injuries by pushing through the pain that ordinary people can’t bear,” he said, according to state media.