As reported by the Korean website Fomos, the ADC of Hanwha Life Esports, Gwon “Sangyoon” Sang-yun has also announced his retirement. His retirement from the professional League of Legends scene is the second of the LCK offseason after the former KT Rolster jungler Go “Score” Dong-bin also retired. While Sangyoon lacks any titles to his name, he was the 8th player to reach 1000 kills in the LCK, behind legendary players like Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, Kang “Ambition” Chan-yong and the previously mentioned Score.
This comes as a shock to many as Sangyoon was still a very reliable ADC that still showed the potential to become a top ADC in Korea throughout the season. While Hanwha Life Esports struggled through the season, Sangyoon along with longtime support Kim “key” Han-gi were still a strong tandem. As such, the pair could’ve still been a solid upgrade for teams like the Afreeca Freecs or the newly promoted APK Prince.
Image courtesy of: Invenglobal
With Sangyoon’s retirement, it’ll be interesting to see where key goes from here. Without Sangyoon, key has a lot of options for future teams such as the teams mentioned previously. Along with them, he could be a solid substitute support that can provide a veteran presence for teams such as Gen.G and KT Rolster. On top of these options, key could also follow his longtime ADC partner and retire as well. Considering he is already 22, and has been a 5-year veteran of the scene, it is a likely option. However, if key were to also retire, their bot lane tandem could be one of the biggest “what-ifs” of the LCK era of Korean League of Legends.
With more moves to follow as the offseason has yet to begin with Worlds 2019 still underway, it will be interesting to see if any lower-tier LCK teams such as Hanwha make any moves early on. Especially as they lose key players early on like Score and Sangyoon, the pressure will be on to find the right players to fill these gaps.
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