Former New York Subliners pro player Tommy ‘ZooMaa’ Paparatto has delved into the thumb injury that forced him to retire from professional Call of Duty, just days after shocking fans across the world with his announcement.
Fans of competitive Call of Duty will have grown accustomed to the ever-presence of ZooMaa. Representing FaZe Clan from 2015 to 2019, he was one of the pros who successfully made the leap into the Call of Duty League, joining New York Subliners at its inception in late 2019.
ZooMaa was always competing at the very top level, helping his Subliners team win their Week 11 home series.
However, back on January 19, he shocked the CoD community with an announcement of early retirement, citing an ongoing thumb issue as the primary reason. He said: “Playing through the weakness and pain in my hand just isn’t possible anymore.”
ZooMaa has seen a lot of success in CoD, but has called it a day earlier than many expected.On January 22, he followed up his initial announcement by delving a little deeper into the injury. He explained that playing on mouse and keyboard is significantly easier than controller.
“So the way it works is that right now I’m having trouble with the range of motion in my thumb,” he said. “That comes from the wrist, you can see the scar… and it just f**ks with the range of motion of my thumb, so like when I’m on the analogue stick my thumb is very weak, and I have a hard time just moving the analogue stick.”
“But with a mouse and keyboard I don’t use that range of motion,” he finished. “The only thing I use my thumb for is clicking one of my side buttons of my mouse and I have no problem doing that. It feels good playing on mouse and keyboard.”
ZooMaa has stated that the issues and pain will prevent him from competing at the top level of professional Call of Duty, but has explained that he will still be streaming and creating content.
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NYSL announced the acquisition of Asim to fill Zoomaa’s vacant spot. Their roster, heading into the second CDL season, is as follows:
- Mackenzie ‘Mack’ Kelley
- James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks
- Conor ‘Diamondcon’ Johst
- Obaid ‘Asim’ Asim
- Paco ‘HyDra’ Rusiewiez (sub)
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