LoL: 23-year-old German moves from Schalke to the USA, becomes champion, gets Long Covid – Will probably be replaced now

The 23-year-old German e-sports professional Felix “Abbedagge” Braun actually has a wonderful year and a half in League of Legends behind him. Schalke 04 sold it to the US when they gave up the LoL license in 2021. There Abbedagge became champion with 100 Thieves. But now the worm’s in there: he’s complaining of Long Covid and apparently he’ll be replaced in 2023 by old Dane Bjergsen, who is looking for a new club.

How did Abbedagge come to the USA?

• Felix Braun played for Schalke from November 2019 to April 2021 and had an eventful time in royal blue. Braun, who was still very young at the time, was considered a great talent. As a football club, Schalke was interested in getting into e-sports and was considered a pioneer.
• But with Schalke’s relegation in the Bundesliga, the situation changed: Schalke urgently needed money, suddenly said: First of all, you are a football club, that comes first. So the license in the LoL professional league was sold to Switzerland for around 30 million euros to support professional football operations.
• When it became apparent that the “LoL” project would be abandoned, the player with the greatest talent was handed over to the USA, that was Felix Braun. Schalke is said to have received a transfer fee of €1 million, Braun is said to earn around €600,000 a year in the USA, it is rumored (via earlygame).

German midlaner becomes champion in the USA

How did Abbedagge fare in the US? It was really brilliant. Braun ended up at 100 Thieves, an ambitious young club that relies heavily on influencers and merchandise.

Abbedagge hit the US league LCS, which is considered rather weak, and became champion with his new team in summer 2021.

In 2022 things went well, after all, 100 Thieves finished twice as runners-up, had to admit defeat once to Evil Genius and once to Cloud9.

Abbedagge performed well: In September 2022, for example, he screwed up the tour for LoL legend Bjergsen and his “super team” Liquid.

No chance at the Worlds and then Long Covid

How long has the worm been in there? Things haven’t been going so well for 100 Thieves and the young midlaner since October 2022. At the Worlds you were thrown out without a hitch. They didn’t stand a chance against the top teams from Asia, Gen G. and Royal Never Give Up.

The team was only able to win one game at the Worlds, against “CTBC Flying Oysters”, a team from Taiwan, they won the only game of the World Cup.

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Abbedagge himself also seems to be suffering. He writes on Twitter:

• He caught Covid in mid-October, had been feeling sick for 2 days by then, but wanted to be “a warrior” during Worlds
• In early November he wrote: Long Covid is really bad. He feels depressed, tired, and still has to cough 3 weeks after the infection. I don’t want to do fitness anymore.

100ß Thieves reportedly bring in Bjergsen and Doublelift

This is the great news now: Abbedagge now seems to have to look for a new club.

According to insiders, “his team”, 100 Thieves, has secured the services of Bjergsen, a 26-year-old midlaner, for the new season. Supposedly his old friend Doublelift (29) is also joining 100 Thieves. Bjergsen and Doublelift are considered the two most popular US players of all time, although both are clearly past their prime as players.

There is still no statement from the club itself as to whether this will happen and what will happen to Abbedagge, but the life of a LoL pro is tough. Usually, the signing of a new “star player” inevitably results in the departure of the previous regular. Only in rare cases do you look for another solution, let the previous regular player change to another position or hand him over to the youth team.

Bjergsen’s signing isn’t official yet, but such rumors a day before the official start of the trades are almost certain.

Looks like Abbedagge’s time in 100 Thieves is coming to an end:

The bitter thing is that players who have achieved top performances are exchanged for “big names”. The same thing happened to the best German botlaner in LoL a few weeks ago:

LoL: The best player in Germany (22) will probably be thrown out of his team – because an old Swede wants his job back