In a surprise Twitlonger today, Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski announced that he would be stepping back from his place on Spacestation Gaming (SSG) and instead pursuing other opportunities within Rainbow Six.
The move comes due to a similar reason as to another legend of the game, Niclas "Pengu" Mouritzen, with Canadian stating that he, too, was losing motivation to play the game at a competitive level.
The team had previously announced that it would not be making any roster changes this off-season, but head coach Justin "Lycan" Woods revealed that the team had only been informed two days ago on Thursday night, four days after the transfer window had closed. The later-released Twitlonger also detailed circumstances in the lead-up to Canadian's retirement.
As such, the team will be looking for a new player for the May transfer window, but will play with analyst Luke "Luke" Slota as a stand-in until then, with the recent transfer window already having closed and SSG having been under the impression that signing a free agent was exempt from the transfer windows.
At the same time, assistant coach Zachary "Sov" Sites will be reducing his involvement with the team after securing another job.
Spacestation Gaming analyst Luke with the Six Invitational caber in 2020.
Canadian has been competing at the very top level of R6 since Year 1, attending the Pro League Season 2 Finals alongside player-turned-caster Michael "KiXSTAr" Stockley, and winning the Season 3 Finals -- NA's only Pro League title -- alongside Ammar "Necrox", Austin "Yung" Trexler, Nathan "nvK" Valenti, and Alexander "Retro" Lloyd on Continuum.
Three months later, he cemented his name as one of Siege's greats with a victory at R6's first World Championship event, the 2017 Six Invitational.
Following this were a rough few seasons, as Continuum tried out new players ahead of the Season 6 Finals where they were acquired by Siege's first tier-one organisation in Evil Geniuses (EG). Three months later, the players were truly back, as they attended their second SI grand-final in a row.
In what remains the most-watched match of Siege to date, the game saw EG take a two-map lead before being reverse-swept by PENTA Sports, falling just a few rounds short of a defended title.
EG vs PENTA happened two more times in 2018, as PENTA knocked them out of both the Season 7 Finals and the Paris Major grand-final. As well as this, Canadian finished as runners-up at the DreamHack Austin event to Millenium, the 2018 US Nationals to Rogue, and then the Season 9 Finals to Empire, before a group stage exit at the Raleigh Major finally led Canadian to leave the EG squad.
Canadian quickly announced that he had joined SSG, who themselves had already had a promising year which included a win over Canadian in Raleigh. Within three months, Canadian finally won another title at the 2019 USN event, just after finishing second at the OGA PIT Minor, leading him to enter SI20 as one of the top favorites once again.
Here at SI20, Canadian lifted the caber for the second time in his career, as SSG took the title in North America's first tier-one tournament victory since the SI17 event.
In the year since, SSG has remained in the top three in the region, finishing the North American League (NAL) Finals and August Major in third, while they were beaten to second at the November Major.
Now, a week ahead of the 2021 Season's kick-off, Canadian has joined his long-time rival of Pengu in retirement as he leaves competitive R6 as the reigning World Champion.
In his Twitlonger, Canadian also stated he will be "staying away from playing or coaching R6 for the foreseeable future and exploring other opportunities" as well as focusing on streaming.