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North American esports outfit Team Liquid have completed their League of Legends roster with world-champion jungler Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon and former FunPlus Phoenix top laner Park “Summit” Woo-tae.
By bringing in these last two Korean players, the LoL Championship Series (LCS) team have verified the news that has been going around for weeks about the team trying to field an all-Korean roster.
Pyosik has only represented the South Korean team DRX, where he started from their academy roster in November 2019. The 22-year-old player recently competed at the 2022 Worlds, where DRX emerged as champions. After concluding his training in the academy, he debuted in his first pro tournament, the 2019 KeSPA Cup, in which the team emerged in third-fourth place.
The jungler has also had multiple runs in the League of Legends Championship Korea (LCK). In the 2020 LCK Spring event, he led Team Liquid alongside his teammates to earn third place, and moving on to the 2020 LCK Summer, the team surpassed their previous performance finishing in second place. Pyosik also competed in the 2020 LoL World Championship, where the team came in fifth-eighth place. Also, he claimed the Player of the Split award in the 2021 LCK Spring.
Summit, on the other hand, has represented many top esports outfits such as Cloud9, FunPlus Phoenix, Afreeca Freecs, Liiv Sandbox, and a few others. The 23-year-old top laner was named Most Valuable Player at the 2022 LCS Spring.
Liquid’s co-CEO, Steve Arhancet, welcomed both players to the team in a video and highlighted their reasons for acquiring them.
“It’s an honor, and I’m pleased to announce that he’ll (Pyosik) be coming to the States and joining the roster. He’s an incredible player, obviously,” he said.
“He’s very likeable; he really gets along with his teammates and knows how to have fun when he’s competing. I think his aggression, his selection of champion pool is going to be pretty cool. I think it’s what this team needs; we gave a lot of thought to, like, roles and perspectives, and carry potential and threats on the team, and how the gelling is going to work with this specific roster. And I think this works out.”
Summit has such a track record of producing significant results and acting more like a carry player in the top lane when required. The dynamic champion pool that he brings to the table will give Team Liquid great flexibility in their drafts.
“What he (Summit) wants, I think Team Liquid and this team in particular, and the environment that we have, is really going to be structured for him to maybe have one of his best individual (seasons) ever,” Archancet said.
Team Liquid’s roster now consists of Summit, Pyosik, star support player Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in, and former academy players Sean “Yeon” Sung and mid laner Harry “Haeri” Kang.
Archancet also spoke on the agenda behind their 2023 roster, which is a mixture of veteran and rookie players.
“We’ve been supporting the rookie and amateur scene for quite some time. However, we have not decided to promote many of our LCS players to play in the LCS. But this year, we decided that ‘time is now’,” he said.
