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2016 Street Fighter 5 World Champion NuckleDu & Team Liquid Part Ways

NuckleDu had opted to test free agency in January and now it looks like his old team is out of the running.

Ozzie Mejia

February 3, 2018 11:05 AM

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While it appeared that 2016 Capcom Cup World Champion Du "NuckleDu" Dang was testing free agency at the start of the year, there were some that assumed that Team Liquid would retain its star Street Fighter player. Surprisingly, that will not be the case. The two parties have officially parted ways, with Team Liquid giving NuckleDu a video sendoff on Saturday morning.

"While NuckleDu was a very successful competitor under the Liquid banner, he was much more than that behind the scenes — he was a wonderful person," reads the tribute on the Team Liquid website. "As much as his wins, we will remember when NuckleDu graciously donated his DreamHack 2017 prize money to Hurricane Irma relief and when he personally sponsored unsigned players to attend EVO 2017 for their chance at a big break."

NuckleDu had declared his free agency via Twitter and has stayed quiet on the social media platform ever since. This dates back to the closing months of 2017, where NuckleDu was slated to defend his Capcom Cup championship, but bowed out due to undisclosed personal reasons.

This means one of the top Street Fighter talents in the world is currently a free agent, with NuckleDu ideally looking to make a comeback soon. He'll step into a brave new world of Street Fighter, where a lot has changed. On the game side, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is a different animal, having issued balance tweaks to nearly all of the game's characters, as well as tossing in all-new V-Trigger moves. And then there's the player side, with a new generation of players rising up to try and stake their place in the competitive world. And yes, that includes new Capcom Cup World Champion MenaRD (Saul Leonardo Mena Segundo).

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?