Leave has joined the Chengdu Hunters Chengdu Hunters OWL Rank #13 Mmonk Zhou Xiang (周翔) flex support Daizi Ni Yuandong (倪远东) off tank Jinmu Yi Hu (易虎) dps Leave Huang Xin (黄馨) dps GA9A Qiu Jiaxin (仇佳鑫) tank Nisha Tan Li (谭力) support . He will be unable to play in the 2019 season because of his age, and thus is not officially on the team's roster as of yet.
Welcome Leave to join Chengdu Hunters!
— Chengdu Hunters (@ChengduHunters) July 25, 2019
Due to the age restriction, Leave will not be available for the rest of OWL 2019. But coming of age in October, he has a bright future ahead of him.#LetsGoHunt #OWL2019 pic.twitter.com/6B2uyPhgZD
Leave is ineligible to receive an Overwatch League contract at this time and has thus joined the Hunters as "contracted talent." They will look to sign him to their Overwatch League roster for the 2020 season as soon as they are allowed to under the league's rules.
“To clarify for our fans, Leave is not yet eligible to sign an OWL player agreement. He has joined the Hunters organization as contracted talent for now, and we hope to sign him as a player for the 2020 season as soon as we are permitted under OWL rules.”
— Chengdu Hunters (@ChengduHunters) July 25, 2019
Despite quickly reestablishing himself as one of China's top talents after returning from a break for the 2018 Overwatch World Cup, leave hadn't joined a team since then. In fact, leave hasn't been with a club team since Miraculous Youngster disbanded in 2017.
That Miraculous Youngster roster included YangXiaoLong, jiqiren and LateYoung, all of who are on the Hunters roster. That team was also coached by RUI, who is now the head coach of the Hunters. They were the most dominant team in China at the time.
leave retired from Overwatch shortly after Miraculous Youngster's disbanded and thus missed the entire 2018 Contenders season. When he returned prior to the World Cup, it was expected he would join a Contenders team since he was too young to enter the Overwatch League. Instead, he has been absent from Contenders for the entirety of 2019.
The current situation for leave is reminiscent of Fl0w3R's situation when LuxuryWatch Blue was signed by the New York Excelsior before the Overwatch League's first season. Although Fl0w3R was too young to compete in the Overwatch League or join their roster, he was a contracted member of their organization. He eventually joined their Contenders squad before being called up to their Overwatch League roster when he became old enough in the next offseason.
The Hunters are currently 9-12 and within the top 12 of the Overwatch League standings. They will make the postseason play-in tournament if they finish in the top 12.