Hoawen “Somebody” Xu Retires After 7 Years on Tyloo

Legendary CS:GO player, Hoawen “Somebody” Xu, has retired from professional counterstrike as of February 15. Competing for Tyloo for the past seven years, the 26-year-old has become a legend in the local Asian scene. After a fruitful career claiming multiple top 4 finishes at international events such as IEM Sydney 2018 and IEM Shanghai, Xu has decided to hang up his mouse.

“Somebody” had been competing in the local Chinese scene until Tyloo had picked him up in February of 2015. After picking up “Somebody”, Tyloo had been one of the biggest upset teams in the international CS:GO scene. Xu has achieved wins against top teams such as Virtus Pro and Gambit during the IEM Shanghai and against the top 20 teams at the time, including MIBR and Renegades, to claim the country’s first legend spot in the FACEIT London Major.

When Ryan C., an 11^th grader at AISG was asked what he thought of “Somebody” he said, “He truly was somebody that we used to know. He’s not very famous internationally, but his contributions to the Asian scene cannot be understated.”

Richie L., an 11^th grader at AISG as well, holds a similar opinion- saying, “I don’t really follow professional counterstrike much, but I think I’ve heard of his name. From what I remember, I believe people were pretty hype about him a few years back.”

While “Somebody” will be sorely missed by Chinese CS:GO players, he will be replaced by Bntet who is a proven talent that could take Tyloo to new heights. Due to the pandemic, Tyloo has lacked the ability to practice internationally against the best teams in the world. With the Indonesian talent, Bntet, coming back to the team, Tyloo will likely be stronger than ever as Bntet has been playing counterstrike internationally for the past 2 years while posting great numbers.

However, the new CS:GO rosters this year will be a challenge to beat as an innumerable number of major-winning lineups have recently been formed. With the likes of top players such as Zywoo, S1mple, and NiKo having star lineups formed around them, this year of professional CS:GO will be the most competitive in many years.