With big roster moves continuing to flow in as the offseason hits its third week, three more LCK teams have completed their rosters. While it’ll be hard to follow up on the amazing roster that Gen.G was able to put together, the following teams will look to become the new early favorites with the roster they have assembled. So how did these teams do? Take a look and find out!
Players that likely won’t see any playtime won’t be included in rosters listed.
SANDBOX Gaming
Top: Park “Summit” Woo-tae (no change)
Jungle: Kim “OnFleek” Jang-gyeom (no change)
Mid: Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon and Yoo “FATE” Su-hyeok (new)
ADC: Moon “Route” Geom-su and Han “Leo” Gyeo-re (all new, previously Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun)
Support: Kang “Gorilla” Beom-hyun (new) and Cho “Joker” Jae-eup
SANDBOX has put together one of the more interesting rosters going forward. While they kept their strong top side in Summit and OnFleek, the rest of the team saw a lot of change. In the mid lane, SANDBOX brought on FATE who was previously on challenger team Brion Blade. While it’s not a huge upgrade, most do expect FATE to eventually take over the starting spot. Meanwhile in the bot lane SANDBOX made some huge upgrades in Route, formally of Jin Air Green Wings, and Gorilla, formally of Misfits Gaming. While Gorilla will need to prove that his unfortunate time in Europe was a result of team synergy more than it was his own individual play, this duo has the potential to be one of the strongest in the region.
Along with that, it’ll be interesting to see how well their coaching staff does with the addition of former pro Shin “Coco” Jin-yeong, former Starcraft pro Jung “FanTaSy” Myung Hoon and former DAMWON Gaming coach Song “Morning” Chang-geun. If these three are able to use their experience to help the fairly young roster continue to grow, then SANDBOX can be a legitimate contender this season.
Hanwha Life Esports
Top: Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin (previously Kim “SoHwan” Jun-yeong and Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk)
Jungle: Kang “Haru” Min-seung (previously Kim “bonO” Gi-beom and Kim “Moojin” Moo-jin)
Mid: Kim “Lava” Tae-hoon and Kang “Tempt” Myung-gu (no change)
ADC: Jeon “Zenit” Tae-gwon (previously Gwon “Sangyoon” Sang-yun)
Support: Son “Lehends” Si-woo (previously Kim “key” Han-gi)
After another disappointing season, Hanwha has blown up their roster once again. This time only the mid lane stayed intact as Lava and Tempt will likely split time once again depending on which player is performing well. Otherwise, Hanwha made some solid upgrades to their top side with the addition of CuVee and Haru, who also have some synergy from their time together on Gen.G in the past. While the team suffered a big loss in losing the long-time bot tandem of Sangyoon and key, Hanwha was able to pick up a solid young bot lane in Zenit and Lehends. While Zenit will need to show huge improvements from his last showing on KT Rolster, the bot lane should be an upgrade on paper.
Unfortunately, even with some solid upgrades, the team still looks mostly unimpressive and requires some key players to have bounce-back years in CuVee and Zenit specifically. However, with a new coaching staff that includes Jeong “NoFe” No-chul, the team could pull it off. As such, Hanwha has the potential to either be the biggest disappointment of 2020, or the biggest surprise.
T1 (formerly SK Telecom T1)
Top: Kim “Roach” Kang-hui and Kim “Canna” Chang-dong (previously Kim “Khan” Dong-ha)
Jungle: Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan (previously Kim “Clid” Tae-min)
Mid: Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (no change)
ADC: Park “Teddy” Jin-seong (no change)
Support: Lee “Effort” Sang-ho (previously Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong as well)
While T1 has lost some key players in Clid and Khan, not all is lost at the moment. With Faker and the bot lane tandem of Teddy and Effort still on the roster, SKT will likely still be a top team in the LCK. Along with that, if Cuzz can continue to improve after one of his best seasons with Kingzone DragonX, then the loss of Clid may not be as bad as initially thought. The biggest question mark comes in the top lane with the addition of Roach and Canna to replace Khan. For now, it’s a clear downgrade and the biggest weak point of the roster, especially if Roach is the starter. However, Canna has been fairly hyped up for his solo queue performances and if he is able to translate that to good on-stage performances, then T1 could be fine.
Along with changes to their roster, it’s hard not to also mention the loss of coach Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun. While this change is a huge one, T1 was able to find a great replacement in coach Kim “Kim” Jeong-soo. While there is some arguments to be had about how much Kim actually contributed as a coach to the success of both Invictus Gaming and DAMWON Gaming, he is still the best coach for continuing the development of both Cuzz and Canna. Overall the early success of T1 will depend on how well Faker and Teddy can perform. But if the team can quickly develop, T1 could be a contender sooner rather than later.
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Featured image courtesy of LCK Flickr.
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