Bryan “Apathy” Zhelyazkov announced his retirement from Call of Duty in a Twitlonger on Monday, Oct. 4. This decision comes after playing professionally for over a decade, with back-to-back underwhelming years during the Call of Duty League.
The two-time Call of Duty World Champion revealed he would be stepping away from professional play and pursuing content creation on Twitter. He had been on both the Seattle Surge roster in the inaugural season as well as the revived LA Guerrillas roster during Season 2. Both rosters were at the bottom of the standings in their respective titles, putting a blemish on Apathy’s career.
As with many Call of Duty retirement statements, Apathy expressed that he’d tried his best to get on a team for the 2022 season to no avail. Additionally, he expressed his love for competing and still felt like he had “gas left in the tank.”
“This isn’t how I wanted all of this to end. I always told myself I wanted that third ring before I retired,” Apathy said in his TwitLonger announcement. “Sometimes in life things don’t go the way you want it and this is one of those times.”
Apathy’s career in Call of Duty
Apathy began competing in Call of Duty over ten years ago. It was in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War that he joined his first team at just seventeen years old. He continued competing and growing closer to that elusive title of World Champion. It wasn’t until Black Ops 3 in 2016 that Apathy finally got the ring he had been searching for on Team Envy in 2016.
Shortly after winning his first ring, Apathy became a World Champion again in 2018 during Call of Duty: WWII. This was after he nearly won back-to-back world championships during Infinite Warfare when Envy placed second at Champs. Many Call of Duty professionals retire without ever getting a ring but Apathy was able to earn two before hanging up his controller.
However, in the last two years, Call of Duty hasn’t been kind to Apathy. During this time, his highest placement at a tournament was placing fourth at the Chicago Huntsmen Home Series in 2020. Now, Apathy will be pursuing the career of a content creator as well as being a full-time father.
