Juicy decides to do mandatory military service in Singapore at 16 years of age

On his Twitter account, one of Singapore’s top VALORANT players, 16-year-old rising star Tyler “juicy” Aeria, revealed that he will do mandatory military service in his country. This statement comes after Riot Games did not allow the 16-year-old to play in the VCT with Bleed Esports in 2024.

Undoubtedly, the last few days have been complicated for Singapore’s VALORANT fans. While Paper Rex reached the VALORANT Champions 2023 Grand Final, they could not beat Evil Geniuses and finished in second place. In addition, a few days earlier, we learned that Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie said he would retire during VCT 2024 to perform mandatory military service in Singapore.

However, it doesn’t end there because, as we mentioned, Jinggg is not the only player to interrupt his career at a young age. Juicy, the star of Bleed Esports, who undoubtedly led them to qualify for VCT Pacific 2024 and 2025, cannot continue in the team because he is 16.

16 years-old decides to retire for mandatory military service in Singapore

Juicy, 16 years old, decides to retire from the VALORANT competitive scene to fulfill mandatory military service in Singapore. However, this decision was made by Juicy because Riot Games has a strict rule that, to play in the VCT, players must be at least 18 years old. As a result, Juicy decided to step aside to fulfill a mandatory requirement of his country.

Riot confirmed i cant play franchise because of age so I decided to go serve national service first, see you guys next time

— BLEED juicy (@juicyVALO) August 27, 2023

Bleed Esports had juicy as the main exponent throughout the 2023 season. The team managed to steamroll all its rivals in both divisions of VALORANT Challengers in the Pacific region. In addition, they then crushed SCARZ 3-0 in the VCT Ascension Pacific 2023 Grand Final to seal their direct ticket to VCT 2024 and 2025. As a result, we can’t deny that this is a really tight and incredibly talented team.

Riot Games’ strict rules and regulations

As mentioned, Riot Games has strict regulations regarding players participating at the highest competitive level. In the franchise league, i.e., the VCT, teams must have players at least 18 years old. As a result, juicy, who is currently 16, will not be able to compete in the 2024 season.

Likewise, this may help juicy’s career take off since serving his mandatory military service so early will allow his career not to be interrupted later on. However, it all depends on the player’s skills, as he will have to go several months without being able to play VALORANT.

In Singapore, military service is 2 years long, and young people can enlist with parental consent from 17. As a result, juicy’s return to the competitive scene would be when the player is 19 years old, i.e., 24 months without competing, which could give him some performance problems.

Singaporean fans and the world, we hope that juicy and Jinggg will return to the VALORANT competitive scene at the end of their mandatory military service. Moreover, we hope they will do so in the best possible way and at the highest level, as they are right now.