One of the greatest mid laners in the North American scene has hung up his mouse and keyboard: Danish player Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen has officially retired from competitive League of Legends.
Jensen retires from LoL after 10 years of professional experience
The announcement came from the player himself, who posted a video on his X account. “When I first started in Cloud9, that was like like my first real Esports experience. I mean, I was just a kid back then. I was like 19 or 20. I didn’t really know what to expect… I was just a kid going to California by myself, not really sure what to expect,” he explained at the start of the video.
Despite the pressure of being the new mid laner for one of the strongest teams in the North American scene, Jensen was able to take Cloud9 to Worlds in their first year, as Jensen was consistently among the top in his role, alongside the other great Danish mid Bjergsen. Now, the player will go back to Denmark to spend time with his family.
hello guys its been a while, felt like i owe you guys a goodbye as im stepping away from pro league of legends. Thank you for the support and memories throughout the years 🫡 pic.twitter.com/lPdqrIox3c
— Nicolaj Jensen (@Jensen) August 2, 2025
Jensen’s career in LoL was filled with unexpected highs
Jensen arrived in North America in 2015, joining Cloud9 as the mid laner to replace Hai. His arrival was impressive, becoming a foundational piece for the team. Known for his great laning phase and mechanics, he quickly became one of the best mid laners in the LCS, and was voted as the All‑Pro First Team four times (Spring 2016, Summer 2017, Summer 2018, Summer 2019).
While the domestic titles never came around in his first stint at Cloud9, Jensen has actually been one of, if not the most successful, LCS player at the international stage so far. He holds the record for the most amount of consecutive appearances at Worlds from 2015 to 2022, reached quarterfinals on two occasions (2016 and 2017), as well as broke the milestone of taking a North American team to the top four at Worlds 2018.
Jensen won back-to-back domestic titles in 2019 when he moved to Team Liquid. However, he wasn’t able to repeat the same level of excellence at Worlds, with only two top 12 finishes in 2019-2020. After that, he was able to win a third title in the Summer of 2022, when he returned to Cloud9, but once again, international success was missing: a 1-5 record in the group stage at Worlds meant only a top-16 finish.
After a somewhat disappointing year on Dignitas in 2023, Jensen had his last chance internationally with FlyQuest in 2024, but the team was eliminated early on by PSG Talon in the play-in stage. The lack of results led to him being benched by the team before finishing the 2024 campaign back on Dignitas. This year, the player did not take part in the newly-formed LTA and only played briefly in the NACL with the streamer team Near Airport.
“I feel like I’ve experienced everything I needed to and I’ve had my fun,” he said at the end of the video. “If I will ever come back to the League of Legends, I don’t know… I’m kind of just experiencing life, you know, doing things that I never really felt like I had time to when I was a pro player. I hope I’ve left a good mark on LCS and the fans who enjoyed watching me play because it’s, it’s been fun for me.”
