Former NAVI player dinkzj announces retirement from Valorant

Professional player Denis "dinkzj" Tkachev has announced his retirement from competitive Valorant.

The 25-year-old has had a successful Valorant career, establishing himself as one of the best players in the CIS region. He most recently played for Natus Vincere. Before that, he competed on organization-less teams such as PartyParrots, SUMN FC, and Worst Players.

The highlights of his career came with NAVI, where he helped them become a top team in the CIS and EMEA regions. In 2022, they competed in both Splits of the EMEA Challengers league with the top teams in Europe. In August, the team qualified for the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier, where the winner would get a spot in the VCT Champions tournament in September, which sees the best teams in the world compete against each other. NAVI ended up placing sixth in the Last Chance Qualifier and took home $5,000. That was their last tournament together as a team. NAVI has since signed a new roster for the 2023 season.

In his TwitLonger, the Russian pro admitted that he hasn't been enjoying Valorant anymore and lost the motivation for it. He also said he hasn't shown his full potential yet and feels that his mission in the game isn't completed, but just can't do things he doesn't enjoy anymore.

While we don't know what he will do in the future, we wish him the best of luck going forward!

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