Spiidi announces retirement

The German player lost his fire and has decided to hang up the mouse.

Timo "⁠Spiidi⁠" Richter has announced he is retiring from competition after a decade-long career that took him to Big Event and Major arenas around the world.

The 28-year-old spent the majority of his early career between PENTA and MOUZ, the two top teams in Germany when he played in them between 2014 and 2017, before BIG's eruption into the scene. He was also a part of MOUZ in the early days of the team going international.

Some of the 28-year-old's highlights include making it to two Major quarter-finals at DreamHack Winter 2014 and ESL One Katowice 2015 with PENTA, and the semi-finals at ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals and ELEAGUE Season 1 with MOUZ.

Spiidi's controversial move from PENTA to MOUZ alongside Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget and Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell also ended up in an iconic craft sported by Kevin "⁠kRYSTAL⁠" Amend after the trio took the Major berth earned in PENTA to their new organization. It was an AK 47 | Jungle Spray renamed "Traitors" with Spiidi's sticker alongside denis, nex's and a MOUZ logo.

After reaching two Major playoffs in a row with PENTA, he failed to reach the same heights at Valve-backed events with MOUZ, finishing last at ESL One Cologne 2015. Although never truly tournament contenders, Spiidi and his MOUZ teammates continued to reach the deep end of events on occasion.

Spiidi ultimately moved to Sprout in 2018 and eventually ALTERNATE aTTaX, unable to grind his way back to the top rungs of competition. He did, however, have a good send-off on the local level, winning ESL Meisterschaft one last time with ALTERNATE aTTaX to leave on a high.

Spiidi ends his days as a player with the feat of having the most maps (2413) and rounds (63834) recorded on HLTV to date.

The thought of retiring first came to Spiidi in April, not long after joining aTTaX in January, and never left. "I lost my 'fire' as a player," Spiidi wrote in his goodbye letter. "I didn't enjoy the officials anymore like I used to, and I didn't enjoy the grind to get 'to the top' anymore."