Two-time Call of Duty champion Jordan “JKap” Kaplan has officially announced his retirement. In a statement via Twitter, JKap announced to the scene that he wouldn’t be returning as a player next year. At the time of writing this article, his tweet has over 4,000 retweets and well over 63,000 likes. Numerous Call of Duty personalities made comment on Jkap’s retirement, including the Call of Duty League’s official Twitter page.
JKap began competing back in 2010 when he was 16 years old on team Xtravagant. After Xtravagant, he went on to play for Optic Gaming, FaZe Clan, and Team Envy. He won back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2016 on Team Envy and Denial respectively. With his back-to-back wins, JKap became one of three players to win two world championships in a row. Damon “Karma” Barlow won back-to-back in 2013 and 2014 and James “Clayster” Eubanks recently won back-to-back in 2019 and 2020.
JKap enters retirement after Modern Warfare
Since his championship win in 2016, JKap continued to have success in Luminosity Gaming, EUnited, and Evil Geniuses. However, it wasn’t until Modern Warfare where Jkap began to fall flat as a professional player. He joined Optic Gaming Los Angeles at the start of the season but only played three tournaments before getting benched. After placing 3rd/4th during the Los Angeles home series, Jkap would become a substitute for the remainder of the year. Optic Gaming rotated between substitutes after removing Jkap and eventually placed 5th/6th at the Call of Duty League championship.
The Call of Duty League recently revealed that the league would be returning to 4v4 format after being 5v5 since Black Ops 4. However, the CDL also revealed that they would not be expanding franchised teams with the change. That means that every current team will have to drop at least 1 of their current starters. With a lack of positions, many professionals are considering retirement.
JKap wasn’t the first to retire during the first franchised year, as Karma retired halfway through the year while on the Seattle Surge. He has since taken to Warzone tournaments and streaming while focusing on his family. There are now questions about who will be joining the two GOATs in retirement before next season.
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