Don’t Give Up on KT Rolster Just Yet
It’s LCK off-season again, and it’s time for the perennial KT Rolster disappointment train to begin churning for yet another underwhelming LCK season. The complaints have begun even before the 2021 spring-split kicks off in January. It would be an understatement to suggest that KT Rolster’s off-season squad-building has been less than impressive. The team parted with its star-player Kim “Aiming” Ha-ra in the middle of November, the player who many fans expected the new squad to be built around. In the 2020 LCK summer split, Aiming single-handedly carried KT Rolster to the cusp of playoffs with consistent carry performances as ADC. He dealt an incredible 32% of his team’s average damage per game and boasted an absurd 619 damage-per-minute (DPM) record over the course of the split. The stats positioned him as one of the most in-form ADCs in the league, second in both measures only to Gen G. ADC Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, who many were deeming as the most in-form ADC in the world. The team finished the split in sixth-place, barely missing out on playoffs to the fifth-placed team Afreeca Freecs, who Aiming played for in the 2019 season. Although KT as a team consistently disappointed in 2020, Aiming was a standout player that caught the eye of the league esports community. With his contract expiring in 2020, fans expected KT to immediately secure Aiming’s services for another year, tying him down to a renewed contract. However, along with most of his teammates, Aiming was allowed to enter free agency, leaving KT. Only mid-laner Son “Ucal” Woo-hyeon remained, with his contract lasting until 2022.
What better place to start disappointing your fans than in the off-season?
But KT has filled its ranks swiftly following the mass exodus of most of its 2019 squad. One week following Aiming’s release, the team announced the signing of top-laner Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon, who had been the starting top-laner for DRX in the 2020 LCK season. Six days later, Doran’s signing was followed by the announcement that two ADCs, Lee “HyBriD” Woo-jin and Park “5kid” Jeong-hyeon had joined the squad for the upcoming season. Then, on December 1, Lee “Bonnie” Gwang-su and Lee “Harp” Ji-yoong joined KT as the new jungler and support respectively, rounding out the roster to compete in the 2021 LCK spring-split. Fianlly, the team added another jungler and support to the roster, adding Kim “GIDEON” Min-seong and Park “Rebel” Geun-woo to the squad.
On paper, this incoming squad certainly looks extremely underwhelming. Doran had a less-than-consistent 2020 season, and rarely showed decisive performances when placed on aggressive champs like Lucian, Irelia, or Camille. Both Bonnie and GIDEON are unproven young junglers, with no LCK starts to their name. Bonnie had stints on the academy teams of Gen. G and KT, while GIDEON was the substitute jungler for Griffin, who struggled in LCK challenger for the 2020 season. Ucal looks like a shadow of his former self, and despearately needs to regain his 2018 summer-split-winning form. The same goes for HyBriD, who looked brilliant in the 2020 Spring Split, but looked dismal in the Summer season. 5kid was the ADC for Runaway, a in Challengers Korea team founded by popular Overwatch player Runner. The team ultimately failed to reach LCK promotion. Harp was support for ESC Shane, a team that finished second-last in the 2020 Challengers Korea Summer Split. Rebel is a virtual unknown, having competed only in academy competitions for KT in the previous season. Considering this, many KT fans will be inclined to write off the team, even before the Spring season begins.
But let’s look a bit deeper into this team, and why KT should not yet be dismissed as a potential dark horse.
TAKE NOTE OF THE ROOKIES
Bonnie. GIDEON. 5kid. Harp. Rebel. No one knows who they are yet, but 2021 may be the year where they quickly become household names in the LCK community. Bonnie and Rebel were both part of the KT Academy team that won the November LCK Academy Series, beating the academy team of fellow LCK competitor DRX. In game 1 of the series, Bonnie and Rebel showed great synergy in the early-game, as Rebel’s Alistar roamed topside to invade DRX’s jungle with Bonnie’s Hecarim, which resulted in a first-turret gold bonus that snowballed into a decisive win for KT Academy. Rebel showed flashes of stellar mechanics throughout the series, such as his brilliant initiation onto the bot lane of DRX during the laning phase. Both players are unproven in the LCK stage, yet they may be stars in the making. Their consistency as players is reinforced by the fact that they completed the 2020 season with accounts in the top 100 of Korea’s soloque ladder. GIDEON was a substitute jungler for the past year; yet his potential has not gone unnoticed, as he is touted by the Korean lol community as one of the most exciting jungle young jungle prospects. This montage hints at a snippet of the aggression he may offer to the KT team. 5kid and Harp both featured in the Challengers Korea scene in 2020, on two uninspiring teams. 5kid was the ADC for RunAway, who failed to secure promotion to the LCK in both the Spring and Summer splits. Despite this, 5kid’s performance was considerably solid: he boasted the second-highest cs-per-minute out of all challenger ADCs in the Summer split, indicative of a strength in the early-game laning phase. It is yet to remain whether he can replicate his laning phase prowess in the LCK; although the rest of his stats are not the most inspiring, this may be the year 5kid steps up. Harp, on the other hand, is a player to watch. Despite playing on the second-worst team in Challengers Korea, he performed very well during the Summer split, showing stats that mirrored the other top supports of the league. Harp had the third-highest vision-score-per-minute out of ten supports, and placed second in average assists, at 7.6. Although these rookies may not look to be the next superstars at the moment, only time will tell; but the stats look promising. While all eyes are focused on the up-and-coming rookies of T1, the new guard of KT Rolster might just surprise you.
HE’S DONE IT BEFORE
It doesn’t seem like too long ago that Son “Ucal” Woo-hyeon was being touted as the next big mid-laner from Korea. He had replaced PawN in KT’s 2018 LCK summer split squad as an untested newcomer, yet he took the league by storm, playing a decisive role in the team’s path to become the LCK Summer split champion, defeating Griffin in a dramatic five-game series. That year, Ucal demonstrated that he could go toe-to-toe with the best of Korea, and although KT crashed out of worlds after a nail-biting five-game series with eventual world champions Invictus Gaming, Ucal held his own against Rookie, the undisputed best mid-laner of the world that year, and arguably the best mid-laner of all time bar Faker. Since then, Ucal has been less impressive on his stints with the Afreeca Freecs and Griffin. Nevertheless, he’s still only twenty years old. Ucal has done it before. He knows what it’s like to win. Being a proven winner might be critical this season, as none of his other teammates have ever won a major competition during their careers. Although overshadowed by the current kings of mid-lane, Showmaker and Chovy, remember the name Ucal.
NO MORE CVMAX
Many are baffled as to what former-Griffin coach and current DRX coach Kim “cvMax” Dae-ho sees in Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon as a top-laner. In the eyes of many fans, Doran has consistently failed to repay the trust of his coach when it mattered most. He was a no-show in the most recent LCK Summer final against DAMWON, in which he was decisively outmatched by Nuguri, who was arguably the best-performing top-laner in the world from the start of the Summer split to the end of worlds. Doran has certainly had flashes of brilliance, however, especially on his initiations with Kennen during teamfights. He just needs to find the next-gear in his playstyle. He must find the capacity to carry the team on his back at times, like the likes of Nuguri or Kiin. Versatility is paramount for top-laners heading into the new season. If Doran can only keep playing Karma and Ornn, he may find that the new coaching staff may be less patient than CvMax. On the other hand, we should be excited to see Doran under the KT coaching staff. Head Coach Kang “Hirai” Dong-hoon is a seasoned veteran in the LCK scene, and holds two LCK championships to his name (Longzhu Gaming, 2017 Summer split; KingZone DragonX, 2018 Spring split). Moreover, it was Hirai who nurtured two of Korea’s strongest top-laners in Rascal and Khan. Judging by his less-agressive playstyle, Doran may be the next incarnate of Rascal. Or, he might rediscover himself under Hirai, and emerge as the next Khan. Fans of Doran and KT would take either of these choices.
REMEMBER APK PRINCE?
APK Prince was one of the standout teams of the 2020 LCK Spring-split. The reason was not for thei results (they finished seventh), but for their chaotic flair and spiciness in-game, which sharply contrasted the measured and composed tempos of most other LCK teams. In this split, the fans largely viewed this APK team as a collective, and most of the players were not specifically touted for exceptional play. That is, all except for their ADC Lee “HyBriD” Woo-jin. HyBriD was a monster during the whole of LCK 2020 Spring, and the stats reflect this sentiment: first-place in average damage-per-minute-dealt, and second-place in average kills. I mean, watch this clip of his Ezreal against Hanwha Life Esports to see how good he was just eight months ago. Unfortunately for HyBriD, most of the APK fans quickly abandoned the hype-train after the team’s dismal showing in the Summer split under the name of SeolHaeOne Prince. The team placed last place in the regular Summer split, and the HyBriD of Spring was nowhere to be seen. But with the dawn of another Spring split approaching, there is no need to rule out the possibility that we will once again see prime Spring split HyBriD in action. And boy, would that be a treat.
Strap-in
In recent years, previous renditions of KT Rolster lived-up to their logo with a series of wildly inconsistent performances with sensational peaks and embarrassing troughs. At their best, KT looked like contenders for the LCK title, but at their worst, they looked no better than some of the worst teams in the league. The motto for the team in recent seasons has become “don’t get excited,” a nod to how the team will always find a way to disappoint its fans even when things look so good. And so far, this trend looks to continue heading into the 2021 season. Many expected great things for KT in the transfer market — people were talking about a Chovy in KT colours, accompanied by the likes of Viper and Lehends on the team. However, in perhaps quintessential KT fashion, the roster has left virtually no one with goosebumps of excitement. The squad looks like a haphazardly assembled piece of misfits, outcasts, and unexciting rookies; to many, a mid-table team at best. Yet this is where KT Rolster is at their most surprising. The motto “don’t get excited” should be accompanied by the phrase “but never write them off.” Contrary to the expectations of many, KT showed that they could compete with the best last year. Few expected them to go on a massive win-streak in the Summer split. There is no saying that this can’t happen again.
This rendition of KT is different. It is not a super-team that failed to live up to the hype like in 2018. It is not the abysmal 2019 roster that gave a sad ending to the legendary jungler Score’s career. It is also not a team of outcasts and players past their prime, like the 2020 edition. Rather, 2021 KT is young, unproven, and deceptively high in its ceiling for greatness. KT struggled the most when everyone expected them to win. Now that no one expects them to perform, they may be more dangerous than ever.
