Photo: LoL Esports
For many, the South Korea is the birthplace of League of Legends. However, the servers took a while to arrive and the first Worlds were held without Koreans. But since then, the country has caught up well and the LCK teams have won a lot of trophies (SKT, Samsung, DWG KIA…). In Korea, the talents are numerous and the competition is extremely fierce. It is therefore not uncommon to see players go into exile. Some go to China (Rookie, TheShy…), others are going North America (CoreJJ, Impact…) and there are also some elements in Europe !
There was a time when Korean was really fashionable in our region. In Summer 2016, 7 of the 10 EU LCS teams had at least one player of Korean nationality in their roster:
- fnatic : Gamsu and Spirit
- G2 : Expect and Trick
- Giants Gaming : Night and SONSTAR
- H2K :Ryu
- Roccat : Parang and Raise
- vitality : Mightybear and Police
- Unicorns of Love : Move and Veritas
This Korean rush has since passed and the excitement has died down… But according to the streamer/caster caedrelEurope would do well to activate this vein again.
Top lane, the least filled role in Europe?
For the Briton, Korea had a lot of good top laners in the Spring Split. He quotes Zeus (T1), Kiin (Kwangdong Freecs), Rascal (KT), Doran (Gen.G), kingen (DRX) without forgetting canna (NS) which has proven in the past that it can work wonders. At the Summer Split, the traffic jam could be even more impressive with the return of Nuguri (DWG KIA).
Without wishing to be toxic, he adds that in comparison Europe is rather weak in this position, and this trend is not new! The former pro player saves Broken Blade, Wunder, Odoamne and Alphahari. But for the rest, he thinks it’s very light… Players like Adam Where Armute will appreciate the comment.
Difficult to say on the subject and everyone knows very well that the Koreans, although talented, can have difficulty adapting to Europe. The metagame of the LEC is different from that of the LCK and it is also necessary to take into account cultural factors… Going back to Caedrel, he thinks that European teams should look into this vein, for the top lane but also for the roles of jungler and support.
Recent examples that make you want to see more
The caster also supports his argument with concrete examples which are rather well found. Koreans are no longer really fashionable in Europe, yet the latest imports have shone.
- Hirit : he caused a stir last year in the LEC. In 2022 he is a little less to his advantage but he remains a solid top laner… Whereas in South Korea, he has never played in the LCK. He tasted the Challenger Series best with APK Prince.
- Malrang : the former Canyon replacement at DWG KIA was the big revelation of the LEC in the spring. Intelligent and above all very creative, the Rogue jungler marked the European scene with his talent. Elected to the LEC Pro Team, he never played the leading roles in the LCK…
- Summit : the latter evolves in LCS (C9) and not in LEC. But he showed that he had an excellent level and that a Korean player could easily get used to Western culture.
In the past, we may have imported Koreans indiscriminately. The casting errors were numerous (Nagne, Profit, Chei, GBM…). But today there may be great deals to achieve.
lfl-lol
The LFL is becoming more and more attractive and many former League of Legends globalists are playing in our French league. Among them, we must mention Rekkles and Cabochard, two of the big names of Karmine Corp. Another experienced element is expected to join the league in the Summer Split.