As of today January 17, 2012 Konstantin Fedorov has officially left Russian Legion. His official decision came today to HyBrid Foto, with this to say:
“Yes guys, now it’s not rumors – this is true … I am leaving Russian Legion. I would love to say to my team (coaches, players and owner of RL Sergey Leontiev) for supporting all my career in Boston RL big thank you … they gave me a huge experience in my life, they taught me how to be the best, they gave me a lot of fun, a lot of wins… it’s really hard to leave my team my family… But I hope young players take my spot and join the team in PSP to make a big step and take those hopes in real… I cannot say anything bad because my life was perfect with RL, sometimes we need to change our life for the next big step and I’m doing this right now! It’s not over, the battle is just beginning. But for the future, I’m staying in paintball with Art Chaos and will be supporting them in Europe…I’m going to find more wins and more things in paintball… I hope my fans understand and support me.”
Konstantin Fedorov
it seems like a lot of the "spotlight" players are leaving the russians. this is weird, it feels like the russians will be a completely different team this season.
Legion will never be the same. That doesnt mean that they dont know how to find, or make talented players, its still a Biz. But I’m just glad I was around for the Glory days.. Long Live Russian Legion….
I disagree with the above post that the “Glory days” for Russian Legion are over. The Russian Legion Organization has such tremendous talent and financial resources that I predict they again will be a dominate team for the 2012 season. I base this on my experience as the official Russian Legion photographer for the past five years and my experience working closely with the Russian Legion Organization in North America, Europe and Asia.
I can remember seeing Russian Legion playing the first at a San Diego NPPL about 10 years ago and they were incredible to watch, they were so fast and so efficient that everyone thought they were cheating and each player had some sort of secret listening device. They were just too good and fast to be believed. I do remember one young player Russian Legion player in particular who seemed to be able to fly and his name was Konstantin Fedorov. Over the past years Konstantin and I became close friends.
As part of my work for Russian Legion and FaceFull I am the only outsider to have spent time in Moscow inside the Russian Legion facility at their practices and I have seen some of the young players that they were developing. I was also at the final Millennium event in Paris last year where they had the Youth Cup European Championship which was won by an amazing young Russian team full of amazing 15 and 16 year olds that flew down the field so fast it reminded me of the first time I saw Konstantin play almost 10 years ago
So don’t worry Tufshot Media, this is not the end of Russian Legion, it simply represents a changing of the guard and reloading with some major new talent. I know by the end of this season a there will emerge a new Russian super star who will ,together with the existing super stars, will lead Russian Legion to another successful season. I have no doubt, just wait and see
I completely agree with Gary, the Russian Legión organization is amazing and I think that although they are excellent players who leave, there is enough talent to be even better, sometimes the stars lose their humility that has made it great in sport and a chamge is necesary.