xiaosaGe announces retirement

9-3-2021 15:31

The 31-year-old player withdraws from Invictus and concludes his playing career.

Invictus member Peng "⁠xiaosaGe⁠" Song has decided to hang up his mouse and retire from Counter-Strike, citing "age and physical reasons". The experienced player did not express a desire to stay in the scene in a different role.

xiaosaGe's last official appearance came in January at the Hot Pot Masters Championship, a ~$26,000 LAN event that took place in China at the start of 2021. Invictus won the tournament after beating TYLOO 2-1 in the grand final.

xiosaGe represented 5POWER, UYA, R-Stars, and Invictus

xiaosaGe spent the majority of his career playing in Chinese and Asian tournaments, finally getting a chance to compete against international teams in 2017 at the ROG Masters Grand Finals with the Chinese-Mongolian 5POWER lineup.

In 2018, the team attended multiple events outside of their region, including the Qi Invitational, EPICENTER 2018 Wildcard stage, and PLG Grand Slam, peaking at No.47 in the world rankings. After a stint with R-Stars, xiaosaGe linked up with Invictus in April 2020 and spent the last 11 months with the team, who finished second in PAL Summer and fourth in PAL Fall.

"Because of age and physical reasons, I have withdrawn from the Invictus Gaming CS:GO division and retired from my professional career," the player is quoted by CSGO2ASIA as saying.

"Since 2017, I have known a lot of good friends, have a lot of happy memories. I also want to thank everyone who accompanied me all the way, all the best in your future endeavours, and finally wish my old teammates better and better results."

Invictus currently have the following players:

Peiqi "⁠flying⁠" Song
Lei "⁠bottle⁠" Mao
JiaMing "⁠DeStRoYeR⁠" Gu
Lifan "⁠Viva⁠" Ran

MinHui "⁠sPiNacH⁠" Sun (coach)

Related video:

Very sad!

2021-03-09 15:31

27 replies

farewell xiaosaGe!!

2021-03-09 15:39

12 replies

very sad another legend leaves csgo !

2021-03-09 16:04

11 replies

stop faking half of you didnt even knowned his existence

2021-03-09 16:58

7 replies

wow wtf show some respect maybe ??

6 replies

faking that i knew his existence? no thanks nothing personal against the guy btw he probably was a good player

2021-03-09 17:00

1 reply

I'm pretty sure everyone here was sarcastic in someway. But indeed it's sad to see players retire even if they're not well known.

2021-03-10 17:08

no need just another match fixer, we dont like him

2021-03-09 17:09

3 replies

Seems like everyone((

2021-03-09 17:55

2021-03-09 18:55

+1 but good player

2021-03-10 05:38

Big legend Just like Kennys and every other pro that retirees somehow every time a player quits cs people call them legends hahahah it’s so sad

2021-03-09 17:14

2 replies

axaxa +11

2021-03-09 17:58

Broh? He is better than kennys tho

:( sad

2021-03-09 16:03

I expect 99% u'll appear on this thread lmao

2021-03-09 18:56

Yea I respect Mr xiaosage

2021-03-09 19:15

u respect match fixer? XD

2021-03-10 07:28

time to bring back vlad into china team

2021-03-09 16:14

no it’s not 99.7% of the people here don’t care about this dude

2021-03-09 17:26

5 replies

2021-03-09 17:46

U're freaking wrong and delusional

At least Chinese scene has players, maybe give him some respect?

2021-03-09 22:44

I’m not being disrespectful in any ways, I have nothing against this guy but it just makes me laugh that some people fake being sad for this guy to retire

2021-03-11 23:21

Any player retirement is sad, show some respect for xiaosage

2021-03-11 23:30

expected knowing esl doesnt care about asia

2021-03-09 17:50

This is the first time I'm unironically like "Who???"

2021-03-09 20:50

I remember him saying a few years ago how much he wanted to play in a major. Sadly his wish didn't become a reality. Gl in life

2021-03-09 21:29

sad

2021-03-09 15:32

dammit

Very nice

2021-03-09 15:33

sad!

GG asia CS

Good luck to him!

legend

man i'm crying

same(

2021-03-09 15:50

Good Bye

is this a league of legends team?

2021-03-09 15:34

same corp

2021-03-09 18:18

sad that such a legend has left the game :(

Lmao 8/8

2021-03-09 16:41

Rip a Legend

2021-03-09 15:35

TYLOO TO MAJOR AGAIN SOON

2021-03-10 04:53

2021-03-10 05:47

thanks man!

2021-03-10 07:27

np men

2021-03-10 07:37

2021-03-10 07:19

GOAT

:( Thank you for the amazing games! Enjoy your retirment.

2021-03-09 15:36

Saddest day in CS history (((((((((((

2021-03-09 15:37

rip major winner

Honestly a shame, people say NA CS is dead but Asian CS has basically crumbled since online to the point I dont even know if the top Asian teams are able to internationally compete

8 replies

asian/oceania region is filled with matchfixing so its been dying for pretty long now.

2021-03-09 15:41

Ik but I remember a time when Tyloo/VICI were actually in the top30 now they are nowhere near The matchfixing thing in Asia is apparently vile though, the only way it will ever rebound is if they play in EU or just not in Asia

2021-03-09 15:55

4 replies

um tyloo and vici are kind of in one of the best stages they've ever been in lol

For vici yes, for tyloo no, their performance been dipping since 2019

2021-03-09 16:10

well this lineup has been miles better than the xeta-freeman lineup from what I've seen

2021-03-09 16:43

yeap agree with that, but 2018 tyloo was at it peak (xaccurate,bntet,captain mo,dd and somebody)

2021-03-10 05:08

Not sure about other Asia countries, but China has only less than 40 pro csgo player.

2021-03-09 18:20

china and south korea has the most players, and others countries have much lesser. Sadly most players in asia are playing league of legends

2021-03-10 05:11

kinda sad inb4 all newfags who signed up in 2019-2020: WHO???

2021-03-09 15:40

Stupid kids and their who. Welcome to hltv

Rip Goat (5 major winner in Asia)

Very sad that an unknown player's retirement is reported as major news.

2021-03-09 15:42

ofc u dont know him when u only watch european tier 1 cs lmao

2021-03-09 15:43

Also T2 cis stuff sometimes. But why does a T2 asian scene player have to get a front page news thread?

2021-03-09 15:45

why not? how does that inconvienience you? racist?

2021-03-09 16:12

Then they should report the news about every pro player, including changes in T2 cis teams and so on.

2021-03-09 16:25

those are changes, this guy literally retired, for good, a damn fine player, experienced, skilled for his scene, in one of the biggest team on china and asia as a whole, this is pretty big news

2021-03-10 04:35

UK Scene < Asia scene

2021-03-09 16:21

obviously, a continent of gamers vs 1 country who is shit at videogames

fuck online CS. I think he wouldn't have retired without this covid restrictions. covid is destroying cs and valve doesn't car... sad

What, you want Valve to nerf covid?

2021-03-10 01:16

2021-03-10 05:13

yes

2021-03-10 19:45

Didnt know he was 31

rip legend...

Why is this news?

Why wouldn't it be?

2021-03-09 15:44

I mean there's no news about me and my MM buddies

Have you played at Minors? Have you made money from csgo? Did you have salary for playing csgo?

2021-03-09 16:16

Have you earned 59,000 USD in a 5 year long CS:GO career? topping several domestic tournaments?

2021-03-10 04:50

Sad

WH OMEGALUL

lmfao

flying + bottle = epic bottle flip.

2021-03-09 15:46

Destroyer KKKKKKKK I remember kids used such nicknames unironically in 1.6, now it looks cringy

2021-03-09 15:54

Legend.

2021-03-09 15:47

IG's best carry BYE BYE

2021-03-09 15:48

xiao Sadge

Good luck mens)) Don't joke on someone's retirement by spamming 'who', understand the context before joking or trying to be cool

ciao

expected

sad :(

2021-03-09 15:56

Bring back Oi to the roster IG

2021-03-09 15:57

Rip Sausage

2021-03-09 15:58

no way

2021-03-09 16:00

Better than kennys

2021-03-09 16:02

This guy gets an announcement while guys like Xeta don't

hltv.org/news/29779/xeta-retires-from-cs..

2021-03-09 16:13

Idiot?

2021-03-09 20:10

2021-03-10 04:37

2021-03-10 23:17

xiao 'sage' , valorant soon ??

Hard to imagine scene without this legend 💔

Noooooo

CSGO Will not be the same without this legend!

wtfmens((

gl xiaosage

2021-03-09 16:19

idk who he is but have an nice retirement!

You will be missed god, appreciate your commitment and dedication to asian cs.

2021-03-09 16:24

tier2 player in the chinese scene idk how this news even reached hltv lol

2021-03-09 16:27

Sad!

2021-03-09 16:28

:( crying rn

2021-03-09 16:37

really dissapointed about the asian cs... what a waste of talents that need a investment

legend? kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Am i the only one that cant see the video?

noooooooo

2021-03-09 16:44

I feel like he was still really good, even tho he is 31 years old I feel like he could keep playing, but I understand his decision and I wish him GL in the new chapter of his life. Goodbye xiaosaGe.

2021-03-09 16:49

always liked to watch his games, take care!

2021-03-09 16:52

actualy never heard of this guy lmao

2021-03-09 16:54

weeb

2021-03-09 16:57

actually sick highlight

2021-03-09 17:03

Very sad news. GL AUG KING xiaosaGe!!! iG.AE?

2021-03-09 17:08

This man is famous in East Asian FPL.

2021-03-09 17:21

of course Valorant. lmao

2021-03-09 17:33

I literally have never heard of him.

2021-03-09 17:37

2021-03-09 17:38

2021-03-09 17:44

sad, good luck!

2021-03-09 18:11

2021-03-09 18:29

RIP Asian scene

Rip since 2019 when xaccurate and bntet leave tyloo, boot-ds running out of money, bren performance dipping. Vici is currently the only asian team that is improving

2021-03-10 05:18