Karma Retires From Professional Call of Duty

3x World Champion and X-Games gold medalist Damon ‘Karma’ Barlow has retired from professional Call of Duty.

The announcement first came from Karma via the Seattle Surge as they released a statement on June 3.

Karma said “I would like to thank everyone that helped me on my journey. First and foremost to my wife Holly and my daughter Bella who motivate and inspire me every day.

To my teammates throughout the years including my current teammates on the Seattle Surge. To all the fans that have followed me throughout my entire career from my three championship seasons through to today with those in the city of Seattle I’d like to say thank you for your support as I enter the next chapter in my life.

I wish all the best to the Surge organization and thank them for their understanding and guidance through this tough decision.”

He followed up on the situation in a series of tweets where he confirmed that this was his decision after some speculation from fans. Karma is a legend within the Call of Duty community and would be on many fans’ “Mount Rushmore” of Call of Duty.

Karma’s history

Karma is the only player to have ever achieved three World Championships. He has played for many notable teams such as Impact, CompLexity, Evil Geniuses and was the replacement for Nadeshot on OpTic Gaming. However, his journey started back in Black Ops 1 where he placed 10th at MLG Columbus 2011 with his team yunGunZ.

Following this he joined Impact for the Black Ops 2 season, where they won the 2013 Championship. After a poor run of results under Team EnVyUs Karma joined CompLexity where they won CoD Champs 2014. He went on to win another Championship under OpTic Gaming in 2017 making him the only player to ever win three. He is also one of only two players to win back-to-back championships.

It is a shame to see Karma retire from professional Call of Duty. However, he has achieved everything, and there is nothing left for him to win. He referred to Modern Warfare as a “Nightmare”, so maybe if this game was better to play competitively he may have stayed longer. We’ll never know.

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