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Team Vitality have signed Kyeong “Photon” Gyu-Tae, Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser, Matúš “Neon” Jakubčík, Slovakia, and coach Alexander “Carter” Cartwright to their League of Legends 2023 roster.
Co-Founder and Esports Director, of Team Vitality, Fabien “Neo” Devide, stated that this roster overhaul was a deliberate move to improve the general performance of the team, and also to give rookie players an opportunity to display their fresh skills on the international scene.
“After our performance this year we know we need to take a step back and really think about the next era of Team Vitality,” he said.
“We decided to look closely at the upcoming talent that can add an extra explosive factor to the mix. Through the aggressive style of our exciting new starting jungler Bo, we’re hoping to take the LEC by surprise.
“Additionally, with all of our rookies on both the LEC and LFL rosters, we really want to highlight the DNA of Team Vitality to reveal, develop and celebrate talents in esports.”
Carter also noted that he is equipped to lead the players to great heights in the forthcoming League of Legends tournaments. He also thanked Team Vitality for giving him the opportunity to develop the skills of the young players.
“It is a great honour to announce that I have joined Team Vitality as their new Head Coach. I’m excited to lead the boys in 2023 and I’ll give my all to succeed.”
Carter is the former strategic coach for Misfits Gaming. The English coach started his coaching career as early as 2017 and has since then worked in that capacity with teams such as Dark Passage, H2K, Ninjas in Pyjamas, GamersOrigin, MnM Gaming, and mousesports.
Team Vitality’s 2023 League of Legends European roster currently consists of the 20-years-old Korean top laner, Photon, Korea, 20 years old, Chinese jungler, Zhou “Bo” Yang-Bo, 23-year old Croatia mid-laner Luka “Perkz” Perković, 23-years old AD Carry Neon, and 24-years old German support player Kaiser.
Bo, whom the team have already recognized, will be a star jungler for the team, having just started his professional career in 2020. And ever since then he has represented teams such as eStar Young, and FunPlus Phoenix, and he initially played for Team Vitality as a substitute player in June.
The Chinese jungler has also won a couple of awards in domestic tournaments, such as the Rookie of Week 4 at the 2021 LPL Spring and the Best of the Rift in Week 4 of the same tournaments.
And much earlier in 2020, when he just kicked off his career, Bo was named Best Player for Week 4 at the LDL Summer.
On the other hand, Photon, who is serving as the team’s new top laner, has been opportune to represent the Academy team of some of the top-tier esports outfits, which includes Gen.G, T1, and SANDBOX.
This year at the LCK CL Summer the top laner bagged the Regular Season MVP, and Round 4 MVP while being signed into T1.
Neon parted ways with Misfits Gaming in November after spending a period of one year with the team and representing them at the 2022 LEC Summer and LEC Spring, where the team came in fifth and fourth place, respectively.
The Slovakian player has also represented other regional teams, which include Millennium, eSuba, Origen, and a couple others.
The 24-year-old Kaiser, who will be serving Team Vitality in a support capacity, was signed by mousesports in May of 2018 and later transferred to the MAD Lions, where he gained recognition before parting ways with the team in November.
With MAD Lions he was opportune to grace an international stage by participating at the 2021 League of Legends World Championship where they came in at a fifth-eight place.
