{"id":488,"date":"2025-05-02T11:16:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T11:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/?p=488"},"modified":"2025-05-05T12:49:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T12:49:42","slug":"sonder-to-retire-from-valorant-after-red-bull-instalock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/02\/sonder-to-retire-from-valorant-after-red-bull-instalock\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonder to retire from VALORANT after Red Bull Instalock"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"sonder retires from VALORANT competitive\" class=\"wp-image-180873 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/sonder-retires-from-VALORANT-competitive-large.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image Credits: Riot Games, Colin Young-Wolff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbe79d9\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>One of VALORANT&#8217;s most experienced Game Changers players, <strong>Diana &#8216;sonder&#8217; Zhang<\/strong>, has announced her retirement from the competitive scene, with <strong>Red Bull Instalock 2025<\/strong> set to be her final tournament.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbe800f\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>The Chinese American duelist, currently playing for FlyQuest RED, has decided to step away from esports to focus on other life goals.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"keep-reading \" id=\"kr-681898bbe8c7f\">\n<div class=\"heading section__title \"><span>Keep Reading<\/span><\/div>\n<ul class=\"d-flex flex-column\">\n<li id=\"post-180557\"><a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/falcons-vega-mary-interview\">\u201cI\u2019ll eventually step down as duelist\u201d: Falcons Mary on exploring other roles<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"post-180615\"><a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/05\/valorant-masters-toronto-2025-drops-all-rewards-and-how-to-get-them\">VALORANT Masters Toronto 2025 drops: all rewards and how to get them<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"post-180472\"><a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/05\/vct-emea-stage-1-resume-friday-tech-issues\">VCT EMEA Stage 1 to resume on Friday after solving tech issues<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbe9b33\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m glad to have met all of the cool people across my whole career. Thank you all for the support and love and encouragement throughout every high and every low alongside me. I hope to have shown that no matter what, always have some fun,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sonderx_x\/status\/1918027273711829454\">sonder tweeted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbea13f\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not sad that it\u2019s ending, yet I&#8217;m glad that it happened. Love you all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbea73f\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>Despite exciting the esports scene, sonder mentioned that she will continue streaming on her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/sonder\">Twitch channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-heading-681898bbead4b\" class=\"esi-heading \">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span id=\"sonders_valorant_journey-2\">Sonder&#8217;s VALORANT Journey<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbeb368\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>Sonder made her VCT Game Changers debut back in 2021 with Moon Raccoons Black, but it wasn\u2019t long before she caught the attention of Shopify Rebellion GC. Notably, she spent over two years with the team, helping Shopify Rebellion GC finish runners-up at the 2022 Game Changers Championship.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbeb944\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>In January 2024, sonder joined FlyQuest RED and has remained with the roster for over a year before announcing her departure from esports earlier this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbebf1d\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>Bidding her farewell, FlyQuest RED said: \u201cThank you sonder, for your time with RED and Game Changers. Your impact towards the team and the scene as a whole has been remarkable, we&#8217;ll miss you lots.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">One last dance&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>We announce with a heavy heart that Red Bull Instalock will be the last official tournament of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sonderx_x?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@sonderx_x<\/a>&#039;s VALORANT career.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you sonder, for your time with RED and Game Changers. Your impact towards the team and the scene as a whole has been remarkable,\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ys6j1F6TIh\">pic.twitter.com\/ys6j1F6TIh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FLY RED (@FlyQuestRED) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FlyQuestRED\/status\/1918002694947512572?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbec557\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>sonder will set her foot on the stage one last time on May 2nd and 3rd at Red Bull Instalock, hosted at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London. The event will also be streamed live on Red Bull Gaming\u2019s official <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/redbull\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitch<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@redbullgaming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube<\/a> channels.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"esi-paragraph-681898bbecb33\" class=\"esi-paragraph \">\n<p>She is not the only prominent VALORANT player stepping away from the competitive scene. Ava &#8216;florescent&#8217; Eugene, who moved to VCT after signing with EMEA organisation Apeks, has also <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/04\/flor-leaving-apeks-for-2025-vct-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">taken a break<\/a> from the rest of the 2025 season to rest and recharge.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/05\/sonder-retire-valorant-red-bull-instalock\">Sonder to retire from VALORANT after Red Bull Instalock<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\">Esports Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image Credits: Riot Games, Colin Young-Wolff One of VALORANT&#8217;s most experienced Game Changers players, Diana &#8216;sonder&#8217; Zhang, has announced her retirement from the competitive scene, with Red Bull Instalock 2025 set to be her final tournament. The Chinese American duelist, currently playing for FlyQuest RED, has decided to step away from esports to focus on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valorant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keepinitcoolhvac.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}