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Alex Chu (born August 12, 1992), better known by his in-game name Xpecial, is an American ''
League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL'', commonly referred to as ''League'', is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for ''Warcraf ...
'' player who is the head coach for Harrisburg University. He previously played for several teams, including
Phoenix1 Sentinels is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. The organization was founded as the ''League of Legends'' team Phoenix1 and competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS). In June ...
,
Team Dignitas Dignitas is an American esports organization based in Newark, New Jersey. It was founded by Michael "ODEE" O'Dell in 2003 as a merger of two ''Battlefield 1942'' Clan (computer gaming), clans. Dignitas was acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2 ...
,
Team Liquid Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. They signed their first professional players with the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty''. In 2012, Team Liquid acq ...
and
Team SoloMid TSM (initialism derived from the previous name Team SoloMid) is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy Dinh, Andy "Reginald" Dinh. TSM currently fields players in ''Apex Legends' ...
.


Playing career


2013–2014

In May 2013, during Season 3, Xpecial was selected to join the North American All-Star team in Shanghai, along with Scarra,
Doublelift Yiliang "Peter" Peng (), better known as Doublelift, is an American content creator, streamer, and semi-professional and former-professional ''League of Legends'' player. He previously played for Counter Logic Gaming, Team Liquid, Team SoloM ...
, Saintvicious, and teammate
Dyrus Marcus Hill (born March 30, 1992), better known as Dyrus, is an American Twitch streamer and former professional player of the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game ''League of Legends''. Dyrus was the top laner for Team SoloMid (TSM) f ...
. Along with Doublelift, Xpecial received second place in the Bottom Lane Skill Competition, losing in the finals to Pray and MadLife of Korea. In the main event, the North American team finished in the top four by winning against Europe 2–0 and losing to both China and Korea 0–2. On March 23, 2014, Xpecial was awarded the Week 9 MVP for having the highest KDA of the week, 11.5, in two games against Dignitas and XDG Gaming. This was his first Week MVP award and the fifth for Team SoloMid. On April 27, 2014, Xpecial announced on his stream that he was being benched from Team SoloMid's main roster. On May 4, Xpecial announced that he had been released by Team SoloMid and was joining Team Curse. The details surrounding the quick benching and subsequent release were unknown for some time, with neither party divulging any details until Xpecial announced via his stream that the release had not been performance related but rather due to his "passive-aggressive attitude". Months later, Xpecial retracted his statement, saying that he did not consider himself to be passive-aggressive but instead trying to be critical without being rude.


2015

Prior to the start of the spring LCS split, Team Curse merged with the Team Liquid organization and rebranded under the name Team Liquid. After a few swaps between Keith and Piglet as their AD carry, the team ended the season with a 9–9 record and qualified for playoffs with the sixth seed after defeating Team 8 in a tiebreaker game. In the playoffs, Liquid beat CLG 3-0 in the quarterfinals before falling to Cloud9 3-2 in the semifinals; in the third-place match, Liquid finally broke the "fourth-place curse" that stopped them from placing higher than fourth place in any event that had persisted since they were Team Curse and took down Team Impulse 3-2. Team Liquid finished the summer split round robin in first place after winning a tiebreaker match over Counter Logic Gaming – the first team other than TSM or Cloud9 to place first in an NA LCS round robin. However, in the playoffs, they lost immediately in the semifinals to TSM, making them also the first team to finish first in an NA LCS round robin but not make the playoff finals. A CLG victory over TSM in the playoff finals sent Team Liquid to the regional finals instead of giving them a direct seed to Worlds via Championship Points, and in the gauntlet they lost to underdogs Cloud9, ending their post-season abruptly. In September 2015, Xpecial released a vlog confirming that he would be leaving Team Liquid. His replacement Smoothie was announced a few weeks later, and shortly after Xpecial became a free agent. In his free agency announcement, he stated that he had played briefly with Cloud9's new Challenger team but that it hadn't worked out. Xpecial confirmed the benching of himself from Team Liquid on the September 26, 2015.


2016

Xpecial joined NA Challenger Series team Apex Gaming, and the team won the 2016 Spring NA CS. On September 27, 2016 Apex Gaming and
Team Dignitas Dignitas is an American esports organization based in Newark, New Jersey. It was founded by Michael "ODEE" O'Dell in 2003 as a merger of two ''Battlefield 1942'' Clan (computer gaming), clans. Dignitas was acquired by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2 ...
were acquired by the
Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, also known colloquially as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlan ...
, and players were transferred to the Dignitas team.


Coaching career

Chu began his coaching career as a coach for
Golden Guardians The Golden Guardians (GG) were an American esports organization owned by the Golden State Warriors. The organization was one of four that joined the ''League of Legends'' Championship Series (LCS) in 2018 after the league began franchising, t ...
in the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split. In June 2019, Chu joined Harrisburg University full-time as the university's varsity ''League of Legends'' coach, parting ways with the university in July 2022.


Tournament results


Team Solomid

* 2nd — 2012 IEM VI - Kiev * 1st — 2012 IGN Pro League Season 4 * 1st — 2012 Reign of Gaming International Invitational * 1st — 2012 MLG Spring Championship 2012 * 1st — 2012 GIGABYTE ESPORTS LAN Invitational * 1st — 2012 IPL Face Off: San Francisco Showdown * 1st — 2012 Season 2 Regional Finals - Seattle * 5th–8th — 2012 LoL Season 2 World Championship * 9th–12th — 2012 IGN Pro League Season 5 * 1st — 2013 NA LCS Season 3 Spring Playoffs * 2nd — 2013 NA LCS Season 3 Summer Playoffs * 11th–12th — 2013 LoL Season 3 World Championship * 1st — 2013 Battle of the Atlantic * 2nd — 2014 NA LCS Season 4 Spring Playoffs * 4th — 2014 Riot NA LCS Season 4 Summer Playoffs


Team Liquid

* 6th — 2015 League of Legends Championship Series Spring season * 3rd — 2015 League of Legends Championship Series Spring playoffs


Apex Gaming

* 1st — 2016 Spring NA CS * 6th — 2016 NA LCS Summer regular season * 5th–6th — 2016 NA LCS Summer playoffs


References


External links

* {{CCBYSASource, sourcepath=http://lol.gamepedia.com/Xpecial, sourcearticle=Xpecial Golden Guardians players Team SoloMid players Team Liquid players Team Curse players Apex Gaming players Dignitas (esports) players People from the San Gabriel Valley People from Temple City, California Living people 1992 births American people of Chinese descent League of Legends support players League of Legends coaches American esports players