Free agency is here for those involved with League of Legends and along with that comes plenty of news about who will be on what team in 2018. One of those free agents is Eonyoung “Impact” Jeong, the former top laner for Cloud 9 and reportedly the newest member of Team Liquid. Before any reports came out about which team he signed with, there was another report stating he denied an offer from SK telecom T1. While it’s not weird to deny an offer from any team, this is one of the best teams in the world that we’re talking about. There are several reasons why he might have denied their offer, one of them being money.
Image from LoL Esports Flickr
According to the ESPN podcast, Impact stands to make around $1 million with his new contract which would keep him in the North American League. While he could probably make that much and more if he went back to South Korea, it wouldn’t be without a lot of stress. SKT has just lost in the World Championship and lost in the final of the Summer Split. They are coming back next year with something to prove and that is going to be a lot of stress placed on the team as they chase glory. That might not sound so appealing to someone who is a World Champion already, is one year away from becoming a resident player and is placed in North America where franchising has begun.
Image from LoL Esports Flickr
Not only Samsung Galaxy, but Longzhu Gaming proved that you don’t need to be part of SKT to win anymore. While it might help immensely going by their past record, we live in an era where other teams have a good shot at winning. It’ll probably help a lot more to be part of the LCK to do so and even then the other teams that might beat SKT are slim pickings, that’s still a lot more than in the past. When a team known for constantly being the best go in a rebuilding year that’s when other teams get to shine. League of Legends will see another time where SKT rules over, but that’s not what is currently happening.
Image from LoL Esports Flickr
As mentioned before, Impact has already won Worlds, he has the title forever attached to his name. He still has plenty of things to do now that North America has started to franchise. It wouldn’t be surprising if he didn’t want his name and his legacy always attached to Faker. It might seem like a trivial problem because who wouldn’t want the best player to have ever played League attached to their legacy, but fans have seen it time and time again. SKT does well in their region and crushes at Worlds, some players on SKT along with Faker get a lot of praise and then usually someone leaves to another team or region to strike out of their own. It’s one thing to be considered the best with Faker by your side and it’s another when you realize how far you can go without him.
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