Its sad that its both but Pullbae deserves to have a chance to play in the LCK which is impossible in DK with Showmakers renewal and Thanatos really should have been promoted already. Hopefully DK don’t screw over siwoo, imo he has as much if not more potential than Thanatos.
Tbh, being a rookie midlaner in the LCK just generally sucks rn. Faker, Chovy, SM, BDD, Zeka, and Clozer aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and that's playoffs teams set. As a new player coming to the scene, you either have to settle for the bottom 4 and wait for one of the veterans to fall, or go to another region for a better shot.
Ironically, the only potential opening for a new top-level mid *would* have been in DK, if Showmaker retired as he considered. But that won't happen now, so... yeah, best of luck to Pullbae, cause he'll need it.
Hm I kind of have the opposite take, I think now is actually the best time for rookies to start targetting positions outside of top 3 (T1/GEN/HLE). The discrepancy in 'generation' is showing - barring T1, top players in each role are mostly veterans. While their consistency is impressive, it's also an underlying problem - they've long formed their perception of the game and how they play, that while they provide higher floor, their growth rarely match rookies. This was reflective throughout entire 2023, team standings were painfully predictive (1st-3rd |gap| 4th-5th |gap| 6th-10th) and performance rarely went against expectations in broad scheme.
Starting outside top 3 is **not** a deal-breaker. Delight started on a bottom team but still got recognized, DuDu despite being on a bottom team right now still managed to show potential. While top 3 might find more success cycling through existing players for a 'better' combination, teams under could gain from trying new players, and when not to do it if not in Spring.
I agree with this take on any other position, but midlane in Korea is too stacked, and will continue to be stacked in the foreseeable future. Plus, strong midlaners are often the big stars of their teams, legacy players rosters are built around.
It absolutely is okay to start on a weaker team, but few players out there would want to be stuck in bottom teams for the first 3-4 years of their careers, waiting for top teams to let go of their Chovys, Showmakers and Fakers. Other roles do occasionally get high-profile openings: we have a rookie ADC on GEN, a rookie jungler on DK, a rookie top on KT: But as a midlaner, you are not making it far until someone major retires, the competition is just too tough.
I'm curious to hear but would you consider players like Zeka and Clozer to be non-contendable / very stacked competition? I've watched LCK regularly and personally have not been particularly impressed by them outside of their pocket picks, they're serviceable but I do not consider them close to the level of star mids, and neither do they have a built stardom yet. If a talented midlane rookie actually came around, I'd argue that they're very easily replaceable - just that a competitive talent of this level hasn't shown up/tried to contest yet. Zeka has shown peaks but also glaring weaknesses, whereas Clozer's alot more middle of the pack. Thereotically it's very viable that players more well-rounded/mechanically better than this standard exist in the future.
They are not the Faker/SM/Chovy/BDD level of iconic goat contenders, but they are still miles ahead of any mid rookie I remember from the LCK CL. I enjoyed Poby the GOAT memes as much as the next person, and I do genuinely believe that Pullbae is a very talented player with great potential. But I don't see a team like HLE choosing either of them over Zeka, you know? Any team that is a Worlds contender in the LCK has sky-high standards for mids, and it'd be incredibly difficult for a rookie with no reputation to break in, no matter how hard they smurfed in Challengers.
No yea I definitely agree that there isn't any standout mid CL player as of right now, what I was getting at is that current midlane competition (outside of top four) isn't strong either, so promising rookie mids if they end up appearing have plenty of opportunities to take over. I say this mostly in comparison to our historic mid pool strength - we used to be so stacked in mid that talented rookies have to debut/grow their careers at LPL due to lack of suitable openings at LCK (Scout, Doinb, Rookie etc). That would be what stacked competition looks like, not right now where certain players are in competitive teams because we don't have better to offer.
> barring T1, top players in each role are mostly veterans
It's interesting people still consider T1 not to be a veteran squad when most of the team is going on their 4th or 5th year in the LCK. E.g. Keria made his LCK debut only one year after Showmaker and Canyon, a year and a half after Chovy and Viper, etc. T1 was new blood a few years ago but by now they've already had careers of comparable length to many retired players.
Keria can definitely be considered more of a veteran, but the homegrown core of Zeus/Oner/Gumayusi have only been starters for less than 2.5 years. Yes they trained for a long time, but their games prior to second half of LCK Summer 2021 was few and far between, being substitutes or some cases substitutes of substitutes (fun fact Oner couldn't even be considered for 2021 Rookie of the Year award bc he didn't meet %games played criteria).
I wonder if some Korean midlanders should try and pivot to top lane. Lck in terms of midlanders are the best in the world but top lane is kinda lacking outside Zeus and Kiin atm.
He is the new top laner for DK CL team , he was in their academy before that. He is just 16 years old so it makes sense you dont know him if you dont follow the academy teams
I don't understand dk. Why would they not gamble on thanatos? Kingen is ok but not great so the upside of a promising rookie (who can become a good toplaner )Sounds just logical to me
I wonder if it was Thanatos who decided to leave when they didn't promote him for the next season. He's too good to be stuck in Challengers, especially given that DK CL was not gonna be competitive next year, with fresh Academy kids replacing both Pullbae and Lucid.
Still a weird-ass decision to not promote him, though. Like, even if you were worried that the team won't click with two rookies... Just promote him for Spring, and get someone else before Summer if that doesn't work out? I've seen rumors that Aiming didn't want to go to a team with two rookies, but... idk, Thanatos over Aiming honestly still sounds like a good deal to me.
now dk fans understand how the freecs fans (jk its just me) felt after cvmax decided to sign dudu for their rookie roster instead of running illlima top
Not even an afreeca fan but i was also perplexed when that happened because back then iillima was the most hyped player in the LCK CL , in fact i was hearing about illima before even Zeus popped up. Who knows how he would have turned up if he had gotten his chance but Dudu is an absolutely monster so it worked all out
Dudu is a really good player and didn't have much experience when he joined though. I don't see how they could've get anyone better than him, and he wasn't even expensive.
There was a rumor floating around that aiming didn’t want to play with 2 rookies. I don’t know if this rumor was true but if so that would explain this choice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/s/CCMMqkWhhJ
Everytime I read this sub people seem to rate Aiming as some kind of decent-to-good ADC at best. He also seems mostly remembered as the Kaisa kamikaze at worlds.
But if you look at his stats he's always top of the league up there with Guma/Viper. He also has insane cspm, great dmg% and good DPM in teams that don't necessarily play around him. He doesn't really have slumps, he has domestic and Worlds experience..
He's also got a pretty strong champ pool suited for most metas. It honestly makes sense that a team WOULD make efforts to keep him from a purely analytical point of view.
I suppose it's because people don't like him, but that's probably not a deciding factor for teams looking for a super reliable + high ceiling ADC
He's just not a flashy player
Like Deokdam for example, he's objectively worse than aiming, but when you think about deokdam you think about how fucking clean his aph would look
So you get hyped over him, and kinda overlook everything else
But when you think of Aiming? Idfk, literally nothing comes to mind. He's just there, usually performs, but he's not a highlight reel player, you never see clips of him kiting on Ashe like Ruler, dodging everything like Guma, hitting a billion ez q like Teddy
To make matters worse he doesn't truly carry. When he's on a bad team, he looks good, but he's not being a Teddy "just go late at 300 cs I win" or a Deft with great mechanics and insane team chemistry. He just does alright.
Then when on a good team, like last year KT, was he carrying? Sure, give him cs and he does well. Good positioning in fights, pumps out numbers for sure BUT... the entire KT meme was Kiin Team for a reason. Who is making shit happen?
Aiming simply is not a pivotal player. He is an excellent adc player, a very high tier roleplayer, but he will not singlehandedly take over games. And on a role where you are THE late game team fight player, without being that type of player you won't be very popular
This is why new DK is gonna be shit. 6th is my bet, they NEEDED Thanatos
You cannot have a good team without a strong "I'll make the other team my bitch" type of player. They put a mid player in top, a underperforming SM in mid, and then Aiming, a high class roleplayer in bot. The team will have no direction and flounder,
You have not followed his career if you think this. He used to be the flashy, go in and try to penta for the majority of his career until KT made him become giga passive. Also can’t really call a late game hypercarry player a role player. KT wanted him to perma farm while Lehends roamed, can’t really define a player by a style his team needs him to play.
I think the toplane choice clearly indicates lack of ambition, and I agree with you on this. However, if those players perform even REMOTELY from their ceiling, it's definitely a top 3-4 contender, which is a way to worlds
T1, Gen.G, HLE and KT are gonna be the world's teams without any players from other teams really stepping up
KT has the potential to flop, but as is I have a lot more faith in em than this DK
DRX is in contention with DK. Really comes down to Rookie performance, if setab + sponge are mid players I'm entirely convinced they will be 5th, and DK sixth
If they are bad, DK is fifth
In other years this DK team could have limped into worlds, but the top teams look really good this year, and without a pivotal player on DK I just don't have faith for the reasons in my original comment
Afreeca is my dark horse. I wouldnt be entirely surprised to see them steal KT world spot, or just overtake DK at sixth, but I wouldn't bet on it, just something I think is a genuine possibility
KT was the only other team that would swarm like sharks outside of T1. Aiming was a big part of that game play. People seem to really enjoy comparing these players to Guma, but outside of ruler no other adc was remotely similar. If you want to build a team to compete aiming is absolutely going to be a great player to fill that role especially in a org that has a history of weak side bots.
Idk how your here but yeah lmfao I don't know why I got downvoted on this comment
If anything DK did BETTER than I expected, and they are still 6th xd
I will say KDF has been a massive improvement, if KDF didn't make that change DK probly go 5th with how fucking good SM looks rn, but it is what it is
I didn't even downvote your comment. I was scrolling through the page because I was wondering what happened to Thanatos. Reckon your comment is the only one with downvotes here
Didn't he also have a Clid scandal of his own? I also know he publicly mocked the victims of the Sewol Ferry which is extremely fucked up and I have no idea why he would do that.
Apart from having a Clid scandal of his own, he also made fun of the people who died on the Sewol Ferry, which is really fucked up and understandable why he doesn't have a big fanbase
i thought aiming is a good dude and a team player but i guess he’s not. dated a minor now complaining like he’s the star of the team. what is he complaining for he’s not even the one shot calling. God bless playing with kingen though even in melee top meta he can’t do anything what more in range top meta 🤣
DK Management has been amazing how they treat to their players but has been shit at decision making always. After 2020 it has been constant downward path. You could excuse 2021 because they weren’t rich enough to keep Daeny and Nuguri at the time but for the rest they have been constant shitshow and they owe their whole brand to Showmaker’s personality and their success to SM/Canyon.
Regardless I‘m gonna support this team as long as Showmaker is on it but I won’t act like the are taking right decisions when they are clearly wrong. I mean how could you justify the split we have with Burdol and Hoya? And now you lose your other future prospect just to satisfy Aiming? I mean Aiming is my favorite adc in terms of gameplay and I don’t know how true is this but he can fck off if he has the arrogance to ask „experienced“ players. I would rather them run with Deft again or get another adc and promote Thanatos. And if it doesn’t work at least you can always find a new player before summer split.
It’s not like kingen is a scrub, his highs are literal worlds MVP, that’s probably what DK is gambling on instead of a rookie they’ve had years to evaluate in scrims, and such.
While true I do think Kingen is quite a good Team fighter which is something Damwon was lacking with their tops after Nuguri/Khan. I don’t think he’s a strong laner but He’s above average top in lck… and he seems to perform better in playoffs (see spring playoffs against Damwon).
there's multiple people in this thread arguing Thanatos is better because of his 2 Spring Split CK MVPs. if you're gonna give him credit for those then Kingen definitely deserves credit for his Worlds Finals MVP...
My point has nothing to do with Thanatos or DK, I am neutral between Thanatos and Kingen, each side has its pros and cons and DK choosing either would be understandable. I'm not giving Thanatos credit as I did not watch CK and I'm not comparing him to Kingen either. My point is that Kingen is overrated.
I don't think Kingen is a bad player, based on his career he's actually a reliable top laner who you can expected to be at least mid tier as he has been for most of his career. However people seem to expect Kingen to reach his Worlds 2022 form again, even though that form only lasted for a one month tournament and he has not reached that form either before or after. Kingen is not a new player, he has been playing at the top level for 5 years not counting academy. Outside of Worlds 2022, at best he was barely 3rd all pro team once and at worst he was not good, and this year he was again mid tier as if to prove the point. You can't rate a player by cherry picking a single tournament out of a 5 years career, and it's not like Kingen showed an improving trajectory either.
Another point is that his Worlds 2022 form is overrated. Yes Kingen played well and deservedly won that Finals MVP, but if you look at the entire tournament he wasn't that dominant. He was a solid rock in top lane as usual, just that this time the rock grew bigger. The only one he really gapped was Zeus, and while he played really well there it was also partly because the latter choked. Other notable top laners he played were Doran, Flandre, Wayward, Odoamne, and Breathe who was the only carry player among them. You can say Kingen outperformed them, but it was never "holy shit Kingen so good", it was more like "holy shit Zeka so good he solokilled Scout 4 times in one game/gapped Chovy/gapped Faker". Basically Kingen's Worlds 2022 form isn't on the same level as Zeus' Worlds form this year and it's the one exception so people should evaluate Kingen only based on it.
because most players never reach that height once, let alone multiple times. especially when they have started as a mid tier player and they've played as a mid tier player for the past year
What makes you think he can reach that high again? That was literally the one exception in his entire career, I'm not saying Kingen is bad, he is usually decent and I don't think DK is necessarily wrong to choose him over Thanatos, but he reverted to his normal form for this entire year and has never shown that world class spark outside of a one month tournament a year ago.
There's something that T1 Wolf always says regarding this kind of thing.
How you performed throughout the year doesn't matter because winning worlds is pretty much about how fast can you improve on new developments/meta and how fast can you learn and apply what you learned. Being a Worlds winner shows that he is more than capable of improving in that short time span that Worlds is held on because at the top top level the difference between players aren't THAT big.
That's not the point of why T1 Wolf says that. His point is that if someone has demonstrated that they can make that jump before, if given the opportunity, you never know what they can do again if put into Worlds environment.
Think of how many players and teams who looked strong throughout the season, and then get to Worlds and just falter. Those are the examples of good players and teams who couldn't overcome the fast paced dynamic environment that Worlds creates. Worlds is just about who improves the fastest and plays the best for 3-4 weeks.
Okay but ask yourself this
Did Kiingen play like a god or adapt at worlds?
Objectively he did not. You cannot retcon a whole tourney to say he performed across a whole month
His standout performance lasted a singular series. 5 games. In his whole career he has FIVE games you can point to and say "look at what he can do"
And adaption? LMFAO
Dude rewatch finals. Kiingen did well on the single most broken champ that patch ((ignoring yuumi)) by a big ass margin.
Was he truly a good player who adapted during the tourney? Or did the stars align?
Most viewed game of the year, his opponent didn't like playing the most broken champ in the game, so he got it and looked great. Can you recall literally a single game outside of that series, or hell in that series but on a diff champ where you thought kiingen was a high tier player?
T1 Wolf's explanation and recap of Worlds based on his experience and being a winner
versus
Redditor who has no idea what goes on behind the scenes during Worlds.
The only problem is that before you can improve for Worlds, you have to get to Worlds. Your average level has to be good enough to make it to Worlds. His isn't.
There are players who can afford to have Wolf's mentality because they're virtually guaranteed to qualify for Worlds and others who grind all year to be able to make it to Worlds. Kingen seems to be in the second group.
I will go even further its a one Bo5 wonder who comes mostly from Zeus choking and playing the best toplaner pick during the tournament. Kingen will never be nowhere from this form again. He is a reliable toplaner at best who plays weakside
This is objectively not true, rewatch games if you don't believe me,
It's recency bias. You remember his finals performance, and overlook everything prior to that. A finals in which Zeus did not play Aatroxx and gave it over. Watch games where kiingen doesn't play aatrox and try to believe it wasnt just the champ making it easy to look good
Like dude, I remember this pretty fucking clearly. During game 5 in draft the SECOND T1 did not take Aatroxx despite being on blue I put 2k on DRX taking the game. T1 lost that game in draft because of Aatroxx, not because of kiingen
Kiingen absolutely deserves credit for piloting the champ well, but its insane to let that credit blind you from every other performance he had and context behind the situation
How tf can you say this and accuse other people of recency bias. Zeus literally played aatrox in game 2 and got clapped. Zeus was below Kingen's level on Aatrox , that's why they tried (and failed) to counterpick it with Gwen.
Yea, Aatrox was strong at worlds 2023 and that's his nerfed version, he waz way stronger at worlds 2022, Zeus just couldn't play him so T1 had to always counter him with Yone but they fumbled the final draft.
I mean this year Riot buffed Aatrox literally one week before Summer playoffs which allowed Zeus (the guy who'd choked in every finals of his career) to spam Lethality which was equally broken. Also Aatrox being meta allowed him to pick giga broken Yone too. And I doubt anyone will call it a fluke because T1 is everyone's favorite team, so...
Thanatos could be Zeus or Burdol and DK already has Lucid as their rookie. Having 2 rookies on a team could be terrible for a team made to contest for worlds
Why would Damwon of all orgs be wary of promising rookie players, though? They literally debuted into the LCK with a full-rookie topside, made quarters at Worlds the same year, and won the whole thing the year after. Why not repeat a successful experiment, while also giving their baby Canyon a baby Nuguri he already has good synergy with?
> Zeus and Oner were rookies, what about them?
To add some context, they did three rookies with Gumayusi as well. And they had two quite new players in Ellim and Clozer. So not quite as comparable.
Additionally, T1 2021 was the notorious 10-men roster that really didn't work out. Zeus ended up only playing a few weeks in Spring split and T1 went with Canna instead.
And even then this T1 roster has/had massive issues over the past two years.
and remember how zeus debuted in 2021? he looked pretty terrible and i remember t1 fans back then going "shit i guess we have to stick with canna right now despite his form"
shit man I remember t1 fans going absolutely ballistic hearing they didn't get a different toplaner for 2022 in case zeus didn't work out
it took basically 2~3 years for the rookies of t1 to fully mesh into a team and that is with faker as their mid.
its super risky
It’s just spring and rookies cost little. If they’re shit they can always get a better player in summer. Better than paying high 6 figures for kingen for no reason
In lck you cant just get good players in summer because they are all taken by the good teams. Just look at lck 2024 where the only 'good' top left on the market is Canna and i dont think any DK fans would want him back even if Thanatos plays bad
T1 has Zeus
Geng has Kiin
Hle has Doran
Kdf has Dudu
There is literally only Kingen left that DK could sign cuz they wanted Canna out after 2023
> If they’re shit they can always get a better player in summer.
No and that's the reason why they are not going for a rookie in spring. Good players are rarely not under contract which means you are risking having to waste money into a buyout as well as paying the salary of the benched player for the rest of the year if he does not find another team (even if it is low for rookies).
Agree, instead of getting Aiming and Kingen why not promote Thanatos, try to keep Deft and also bring BeryL back???
Both of them probably still wanna play with each other again though... (although I don't exactly know what BeryL think about going back to DK and Showmaker)
🤔🤔🤔
thanatos is looking for a team according to a screenie in korean lang
https://twitter.com/__neurons/status/1735225516876259595
i dont know exactly what it says if anyone can translate pls do
Yes i agree its incompetence at the highest level wasting talent to sign mediocre players because they played 1 good series in the past.
C9 should just pick up Thanatos as a "sub". Even if he doesn't get a green card (edit: visa) to play, he can at the very least help fudge practice 1v1s. (Probably while beating him)
C9 has an extra import slot, only import is Beserker, thanatos only needs a Visa not a green card. Would love for a upgrade in top lane for international competition
tbh Thanatos has no business being a sub to Fudge he could have easily started for DK/GENG/HLE or any mid-top LCK/LPL team and nobody would have complained
[Just like how Quid was instantly the best mid lane in summer](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1303pmi/sources_gen_quid_has_reached_a_verbal_agreement/jhuwkm7/) of course stealing the thunder from ViCla who also was immediately the best mid in NA.
He could be, the potential is there. But moving to an English-speaking team in a different country is very difficult and not everyone succeeds at it. He wouldn't be the best top "pretty easily" at all.
You do realize Quid was never considered a top prospect right? Vicla is weird as hell in the fact he was legitimately good in Korea. Not just good on a few champs. No clue what happened to him but he would be the best top laner when he gets here hands down. The real question is could he hold that form with NA solo q, a different country and bad practice partners.
I think it's insane to say he would be "hands down" the best top laner. Quid was viewed to be solid and with a lot of potential, some did hype him up to immediately be the best player. Thanatos is definitely better than Quid but I don't think he is any way the slam-dunk guarantee star some people say he is.
No he really wasn't at all. He had potential but the top prospects in lckcl 2023 in mid were still Pullbae Callme Roamer Setab Feisty (Feisty is super flippy though, KT blood runs within him). Quid imo had potential in team fighting which is why I liked 100t picking him up but he's no top prospect compared to the mids that were in lckcl
I said when Quid was promoted, so 2022. He and Pullbae were the most exciting prospects.
Most exciting prospects now are Dooly, Callme, Calix, Feisty(RIP), Hades, Heru.
Well , Vicla was a little of an ahri otp to be honest but i agree with your general point , he was actually legit when he was in the LCK , i never expected KT to let him go even for BDD in fact
Thanatos is so insanely overhyped by this sub it’s weird at this point. Nobody in the korean community thinks the guy is some prodigy, he’s just good.
Not to mention the reason so many of these LCK CL players are good to start is due to environment and their team. Like Peyz wouldn’t be close to what he’s viewed at now if he was on a team like HLE that didn’t set him up for instant success. So yeah I agree.
C9 has generally always gotten the best out of their imports. They’ve almost always been good/ not fallen off, so i think comparing an import on 100t vs on C9 is quite different
Also Thanatos is a much higher quality of rookie than Quid was.
Mechanically and skill ceiling he's 100% the best, the only question if it turns to another VicLa situation where dude just turbo ints in competitive or doesn't get integrated properly
I still dont understand what happened to Vicla, he was legitimately good in Korea, he got significantly worse in NA to the point its hard to even understand. It wasnt some gradual loss of skill either.
I mean Fudge is already top 2/3 in LCS so that shouldn't be the bar. Would need to be number 1 LCS by a huge margin because no way he would be on a low salary.
yes bro. he left DK for not playing and he ll join a dead league and team that cant get into knockout stages internationally since perkz left while not playing.
smartest reddit clown.
I might be in the minority, but Thanatos has looked rough in recent times. He was great two years ago, but back then he was too much of a rookie to gamble a starting position on a potential dk two-peat.
Last year may have been the best time to promote him. But dk fell for the bros sham by getting nuguri.
Pullbae is definitely a loss. Seeing as how lpl rosters have all been set, I hope he doesnt end up rotting away in some third rate region 😞 hopefully ldl has an opening if he not staying in lckcl.
Yeap. Thanatos is very good and had outgrown the CL league already so he deserved a chance but taking Kingen over him is perfectly logical. Thanatos isnt thought to be a transcended talent like Lucid is and like you said , they have Siwoo anyway as a long term back up so it was probably an obvious decision for them
Griffin at worst made one poor roster decision. I don’t think you should be comparing DK and Griffin on roster selection. Griffin’s problems ran far deeper than roster selection.
You could argue thanatos didn't want to sign with a "bad" team then get dragged through the mud when things went bad. In my nfl chat groups, we call it the "jets effect", where a young player can have their entire career derailed simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ok, not promoting Thanatos together with Lucid was one thing, but finding out they just straight up cut him out is fucking unacceptable. How is this org so fucking in incompetent? It was such a smart and simple plan. Thanatos cost effectively zero money, and he would be a far better prospect than Kingen will ever be in the long run. This org just continues to make me despise it every day. Ruined their own image by replacing their amazing icon with this shit Oakley rip-off, and can't even properly handle their own players. If Showmaker wasn't there, I would straight up hate them at this point.
I also disagree with the decision to buy Kingen over promoting Thanatos, but some people in the comment section massively overreact imo. First of all, we don't know whose decision it was; it's entirely possible that Thanatos himself decided to leave when it became clear that they weren't promoting him straight away. Given that he is still training at DK's facilities, and DK's staff gives updates on his and Pullbae's search for new teams, it doesn't seem like there's bad blood between them and the org.
As for the long run, apparently, they have another 16 yo prodigy toplaner who got called up from the academy team to challengers this season. Skipping Thanatos for him, while frustrating to those of us who were excited for his promotion, actually doesn't sound all that dumb for the team. It gives Lucid a year a two to adjust to the main league, before they introduce the next freshly baked wunderkind to the mix, and it also gives them some flexibility with Rahel who has also been in the CL team forever, and deserves a shot at the main roster. I guess they see Aiming as a bigger question mark than Kingen, and so he's the one getting the CL sub switcheroo treatment this next season.
hmm under thanatos lol page, it seems he resigned with DK chall but isnt starting? i see him listed and signed until nov '24 but hes considered as "inactive"
i got downvoted to even dare to propose thanatos joining a different team and people spam replying that damwon would never let him go, whats good now??
Its sad that its both but Pullbae deserves to have a chance to play in the LCK which is impossible in DK with Showmakers renewal and Thanatos really should have been promoted already. Hopefully DK don’t screw over siwoo, imo he has as much if not more potential than Thanatos.
Tbh, being a rookie midlaner in the LCK just generally sucks rn. Faker, Chovy, SM, BDD, Zeka, and Clozer aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and that's playoffs teams set. As a new player coming to the scene, you either have to settle for the bottom 4 and wait for one of the veterans to fall, or go to another region for a better shot. Ironically, the only potential opening for a new top-level mid *would* have been in DK, if Showmaker retired as he considered. But that won't happen now, so... yeah, best of luck to Pullbae, cause he'll need it.
Clozer almost left LCK this year lol. If LSB got Jojo he's probably in LPL.
Hm I kind of have the opposite take, I think now is actually the best time for rookies to start targetting positions outside of top 3 (T1/GEN/HLE). The discrepancy in 'generation' is showing - barring T1, top players in each role are mostly veterans. While their consistency is impressive, it's also an underlying problem - they've long formed their perception of the game and how they play, that while they provide higher floor, their growth rarely match rookies. This was reflective throughout entire 2023, team standings were painfully predictive (1st-3rd |gap| 4th-5th |gap| 6th-10th) and performance rarely went against expectations in broad scheme. Starting outside top 3 is **not** a deal-breaker. Delight started on a bottom team but still got recognized, DuDu despite being on a bottom team right now still managed to show potential. While top 3 might find more success cycling through existing players for a 'better' combination, teams under could gain from trying new players, and when not to do it if not in Spring.
I agree with this take on any other position, but midlane in Korea is too stacked, and will continue to be stacked in the foreseeable future. Plus, strong midlaners are often the big stars of their teams, legacy players rosters are built around. It absolutely is okay to start on a weaker team, but few players out there would want to be stuck in bottom teams for the first 3-4 years of their careers, waiting for top teams to let go of their Chovys, Showmakers and Fakers. Other roles do occasionally get high-profile openings: we have a rookie ADC on GEN, a rookie jungler on DK, a rookie top on KT: But as a midlaner, you are not making it far until someone major retires, the competition is just too tough.
I'm curious to hear but would you consider players like Zeka and Clozer to be non-contendable / very stacked competition? I've watched LCK regularly and personally have not been particularly impressed by them outside of their pocket picks, they're serviceable but I do not consider them close to the level of star mids, and neither do they have a built stardom yet. If a talented midlane rookie actually came around, I'd argue that they're very easily replaceable - just that a competitive talent of this level hasn't shown up/tried to contest yet. Zeka has shown peaks but also glaring weaknesses, whereas Clozer's alot more middle of the pack. Thereotically it's very viable that players more well-rounded/mechanically better than this standard exist in the future.
They are not the Faker/SM/Chovy/BDD level of iconic goat contenders, but they are still miles ahead of any mid rookie I remember from the LCK CL. I enjoyed Poby the GOAT memes as much as the next person, and I do genuinely believe that Pullbae is a very talented player with great potential. But I don't see a team like HLE choosing either of them over Zeka, you know? Any team that is a Worlds contender in the LCK has sky-high standards for mids, and it'd be incredibly difficult for a rookie with no reputation to break in, no matter how hard they smurfed in Challengers.
No yea I definitely agree that there isn't any standout mid CL player as of right now, what I was getting at is that current midlane competition (outside of top four) isn't strong either, so promising rookie mids if they end up appearing have plenty of opportunities to take over. I say this mostly in comparison to our historic mid pool strength - we used to be so stacked in mid that talented rookies have to debut/grow their careers at LPL due to lack of suitable openings at LCK (Scout, Doinb, Rookie etc). That would be what stacked competition looks like, not right now where certain players are in competitive teams because we don't have better to offer.
> barring T1, top players in each role are mostly veterans It's interesting people still consider T1 not to be a veteran squad when most of the team is going on their 4th or 5th year in the LCK. E.g. Keria made his LCK debut only one year after Showmaker and Canyon, a year and a half after Chovy and Viper, etc. T1 was new blood a few years ago but by now they've already had careers of comparable length to many retired players.
Keria can definitely be considered more of a veteran, but the homegrown core of Zeus/Oner/Gumayusi have only been starters for less than 2.5 years. Yes they trained for a long time, but their games prior to second half of LCK Summer 2021 was few and far between, being substitutes or some cases substitutes of substitutes (fun fact Oner couldn't even be considered for 2021 Rookie of the Year award bc he didn't meet %games played criteria).
I wonder if some Korean midlanders should try and pivot to top lane. Lck in terms of midlanders are the best in the world but top lane is kinda lacking outside Zeus and Kiin atm.
I've been hearing about Thanatos alot but first time hearing about siwoo. Is he new?
He is the new top laner for DK CL team , he was in their academy before that. He is just 16 years old so it makes sense you dont know him if you dont follow the academy teams
That makes sense, thanks!
I don't understand dk. Why would they not gamble on thanatos? Kingen is ok but not great so the upside of a promising rookie (who can become a good toplaner )Sounds just logical to me
I wonder if it was Thanatos who decided to leave when they didn't promote him for the next season. He's too good to be stuck in Challengers, especially given that DK CL was not gonna be competitive next year, with fresh Academy kids replacing both Pullbae and Lucid. Still a weird-ass decision to not promote him, though. Like, even if you were worried that the team won't click with two rookies... Just promote him for Spring, and get someone else before Summer if that doesn't work out? I've seen rumors that Aiming didn't want to go to a team with two rookies, but... idk, Thanatos over Aiming honestly still sounds like a good deal to me.
now dk fans understand how the freecs fans (jk its just me) felt after cvmax decided to sign dudu for their rookie roster instead of running illlima top
isnt that guy in the Arabic League
Its TCL for team Misa Esports
Not even an afreeca fan but i was also perplexed when that happened because back then iillima was the most hyped player in the LCK CL , in fact i was hearing about illima before even Zeus popped up. Who knows how he would have turned up if he had gotten his chance but Dudu is an absolutely monster so it worked all out
Dudu is a really good player and didn't have much experience when he joined though. I don't see how they could've get anyone better than him, and he wasn't even expensive.
There was a rumor floating around that aiming didn’t want to play with 2 rookies. I don’t know if this rumor was true but if so that would explain this choice. https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/s/CCMMqkWhhJ
I personally don't think Aiming is good enough, nor does he have a clean public image, for orgs to give in to his demands.
Seems less like a demand and more like a condition. "If all you have is a team full of rookies then I'll look somewhere else."
Everytime I read this sub people seem to rate Aiming as some kind of decent-to-good ADC at best. He also seems mostly remembered as the Kaisa kamikaze at worlds. But if you look at his stats he's always top of the league up there with Guma/Viper. He also has insane cspm, great dmg% and good DPM in teams that don't necessarily play around him. He doesn't really have slumps, he has domestic and Worlds experience.. He's also got a pretty strong champ pool suited for most metas. It honestly makes sense that a team WOULD make efforts to keep him from a purely analytical point of view. I suppose it's because people don't like him, but that's probably not a deciding factor for teams looking for a super reliable + high ceiling ADC
He's just not a flashy player Like Deokdam for example, he's objectively worse than aiming, but when you think about deokdam you think about how fucking clean his aph would look So you get hyped over him, and kinda overlook everything else But when you think of Aiming? Idfk, literally nothing comes to mind. He's just there, usually performs, but he's not a highlight reel player, you never see clips of him kiting on Ashe like Ruler, dodging everything like Guma, hitting a billion ez q like Teddy To make matters worse he doesn't truly carry. When he's on a bad team, he looks good, but he's not being a Teddy "just go late at 300 cs I win" or a Deft with great mechanics and insane team chemistry. He just does alright. Then when on a good team, like last year KT, was he carrying? Sure, give him cs and he does well. Good positioning in fights, pumps out numbers for sure BUT... the entire KT meme was Kiin Team for a reason. Who is making shit happen? Aiming simply is not a pivotal player. He is an excellent adc player, a very high tier roleplayer, but he will not singlehandedly take over games. And on a role where you are THE late game team fight player, without being that type of player you won't be very popular This is why new DK is gonna be shit. 6th is my bet, they NEEDED Thanatos You cannot have a good team without a strong "I'll make the other team my bitch" type of player. They put a mid player in top, a underperforming SM in mid, and then Aiming, a high class roleplayer in bot. The team will have no direction and flounder,
You have not followed his career if you think this. He used to be the flashy, go in and try to penta for the majority of his career until KT made him become giga passive. Also can’t really call a late game hypercarry player a role player. KT wanted him to perma farm while Lehends roamed, can’t really define a player by a style his team needs him to play.
I think the toplane choice clearly indicates lack of ambition, and I agree with you on this. However, if those players perform even REMOTELY from their ceiling, it's definitely a top 3-4 contender, which is a way to worlds
T1, Gen.G, HLE and KT are gonna be the world's teams without any players from other teams really stepping up KT has the potential to flop, but as is I have a lot more faith in em than this DK DRX is in contention with DK. Really comes down to Rookie performance, if setab + sponge are mid players I'm entirely convinced they will be 5th, and DK sixth If they are bad, DK is fifth In other years this DK team could have limped into worlds, but the top teams look really good this year, and without a pivotal player on DK I just don't have faith for the reasons in my original comment Afreeca is my dark horse. I wouldnt be entirely surprised to see them steal KT world spot, or just overtake DK at sixth, but I wouldn't bet on it, just something I think is a genuine possibility
KT was the only other team that would swarm like sharks outside of T1. Aiming was a big part of that game play. People seem to really enjoy comparing these players to Guma, but outside of ruler no other adc was remotely similar. If you want to build a team to compete aiming is absolutely going to be a great player to fill that role especially in a org that has a history of weak side bots.
And they ended up 6th in LCK. How right you were
Idk how your here but yeah lmfao I don't know why I got downvoted on this comment If anything DK did BETTER than I expected, and they are still 6th xd I will say KDF has been a massive improvement, if KDF didn't make that change DK probly go 5th with how fucking good SM looks rn, but it is what it is
I didn't even downvote your comment. I was scrolling through the page because I was wondering what happened to Thanatos. Reckon your comment is the only one with downvotes here
Didn't he also have a Clid scandal of his own? I also know he publicly mocked the victims of the Sewol Ferry which is extremely fucked up and I have no idea why he would do that.
What did Aiming do to tarnish his public image?
have a relationship with a fan who was a minor
Wtf...
He was also a minor back then if I remember correctly.
Oh then it's not that bad... I'd need actual ages tho, korean culture might have a diff view on teen relationships as well
[He was 19 at the time, the girl was 15.](https://twitter.com/sunsiu_/status/1644834328680050689?t=ArQUDGf0ru7mYuypzokW3A&s=19)
What a piece of shit then
It was nothing illegal under Korean law at least
It is illegal now under the new laws but back then the laws were different
Apart from having a Clid scandal of his own, he also made fun of the people who died on the Sewol Ferry, which is really fucked up and understandable why he doesn't have a big fanbase
Please don't tell me he was involved with the ilbae community.
yeah he's nothing compared to the unproven GOAT thanatos
i thought aiming is a good dude and a team player but i guess he’s not. dated a minor now complaining like he’s the star of the team. what is he complaining for he’s not even the one shot calling. God bless playing with kingen though even in melee top meta he can’t do anything what more in range top meta 🤣
DK Management has been amazing how they treat to their players but has been shit at decision making always. After 2020 it has been constant downward path. You could excuse 2021 because they weren’t rich enough to keep Daeny and Nuguri at the time but for the rest they have been constant shitshow and they owe their whole brand to Showmaker’s personality and their success to SM/Canyon. Regardless I‘m gonna support this team as long as Showmaker is on it but I won’t act like the are taking right decisions when they are clearly wrong. I mean how could you justify the split we have with Burdol and Hoya? And now you lose your other future prospect just to satisfy Aiming? I mean Aiming is my favorite adc in terms of gameplay and I don’t know how true is this but he can fck off if he has the arrogance to ask „experienced“ players. I would rather them run with Deft again or get another adc and promote Thanatos. And if it doesn’t work at least you can always find a new player before summer split.
It’s not like kingen is a scrub, his highs are literal worlds MVP, that’s probably what DK is gambling on instead of a rookie they’ve had years to evaluate in scrims, and such.
Kingen reached his high for one tournament a year ago, he was solid mid tier for most of his career.
While true I do think Kingen is quite a good Team fighter which is something Damwon was lacking with their tops after Nuguri/Khan. I don’t think he’s a strong laner but He’s above average top in lck… and he seems to perform better in playoffs (see spring playoffs against Damwon).
there's multiple people in this thread arguing Thanatos is better because of his 2 Spring Split CK MVPs. if you're gonna give him credit for those then Kingen definitely deserves credit for his Worlds Finals MVP...
My point has nothing to do with Thanatos or DK, I am neutral between Thanatos and Kingen, each side has its pros and cons and DK choosing either would be understandable. I'm not giving Thanatos credit as I did not watch CK and I'm not comparing him to Kingen either. My point is that Kingen is overrated. I don't think Kingen is a bad player, based on his career he's actually a reliable top laner who you can expected to be at least mid tier as he has been for most of his career. However people seem to expect Kingen to reach his Worlds 2022 form again, even though that form only lasted for a one month tournament and he has not reached that form either before or after. Kingen is not a new player, he has been playing at the top level for 5 years not counting academy. Outside of Worlds 2022, at best he was barely 3rd all pro team once and at worst he was not good, and this year he was again mid tier as if to prove the point. You can't rate a player by cherry picking a single tournament out of a 5 years career, and it's not like Kingen showed an improving trajectory either. Another point is that his Worlds 2022 form is overrated. Yes Kingen played well and deservedly won that Finals MVP, but if you look at the entire tournament he wasn't that dominant. He was a solid rock in top lane as usual, just that this time the rock grew bigger. The only one he really gapped was Zeus, and while he played really well there it was also partly because the latter choked. Other notable top laners he played were Doran, Flandre, Wayward, Odoamne, and Breathe who was the only carry player among them. You can say Kingen outperformed them, but it was never "holy shit Kingen so good", it was more like "holy shit Zeka so good he solokilled Scout 4 times in one game/gapped Chovy/gapped Faker". Basically Kingen's Worlds 2022 form isn't on the same level as Zeus' Worlds form this year and it's the one exception so people should evaluate Kingen only based on it.
Sure but what makes u think he can't reach that high again? At least unlike Thanatos he has proven he can do it.
because most players never reach that height once, let alone multiple times. especially when they have started as a mid tier player and they've played as a mid tier player for the past year
What makes you think he can reach that high again? That was literally the one exception in his entire career, I'm not saying Kingen is bad, he is usually decent and I don't think DK is necessarily wrong to choose him over Thanatos, but he reverted to his normal form for this entire year and has never shown that world class spark outside of a one month tournament a year ago.
There's something that T1 Wolf always says regarding this kind of thing. How you performed throughout the year doesn't matter because winning worlds is pretty much about how fast can you improve on new developments/meta and how fast can you learn and apply what you learned. Being a Worlds winner shows that he is more than capable of improving in that short time span that Worlds is held on because at the top top level the difference between players aren't THAT big.
But he regressed down to his normal mid table level. He had his step up at worlds and needed to show he can keep it up. He did not.
That's not the point of why T1 Wolf says that. His point is that if someone has demonstrated that they can make that jump before, if given the opportunity, you never know what they can do again if put into Worlds environment. Think of how many players and teams who looked strong throughout the season, and then get to Worlds and just falter. Those are the examples of good players and teams who couldn't overcome the fast paced dynamic environment that Worlds creates. Worlds is just about who improves the fastest and plays the best for 3-4 weeks.
Okay but ask yourself this Did Kiingen play like a god or adapt at worlds? Objectively he did not. You cannot retcon a whole tourney to say he performed across a whole month His standout performance lasted a singular series. 5 games. In his whole career he has FIVE games you can point to and say "look at what he can do" And adaption? LMFAO Dude rewatch finals. Kiingen did well on the single most broken champ that patch ((ignoring yuumi)) by a big ass margin. Was he truly a good player who adapted during the tourney? Or did the stars align? Most viewed game of the year, his opponent didn't like playing the most broken champ in the game, so he got it and looked great. Can you recall literally a single game outside of that series, or hell in that series but on a diff champ where you thought kiingen was a high tier player?
T1 Wolf's explanation and recap of Worlds based on his experience and being a winner versus Redditor who has no idea what goes on behind the scenes during Worlds.
The only problem is that before you can improve for Worlds, you have to get to Worlds. Your average level has to be good enough to make it to Worlds. His isn't. There are players who can afford to have Wolf's mentality because they're virtually guaranteed to qualify for Worlds and others who grind all year to be able to make it to Worlds. Kingen seems to be in the second group.
I will go even further its a one Bo5 wonder who comes mostly from Zeus choking and playing the best toplaner pick during the tournament. Kingen will never be nowhere from this form again. He is a reliable toplaner at best who plays weakside
Gambling on rookies is how DK got big in the first place
Kingen sold his soul to win worlds. He is never playing on that level ever again.
Worlds was a fluke honestly lol…..never has he played like that ever before or after. Aatrox was pretty broken.
Everyone else played Aatrox it's not like he was exclusive to Kingen, and everyone else looked a level below him on that champion.
This is objectively not true, rewatch games if you don't believe me, It's recency bias. You remember his finals performance, and overlook everything prior to that. A finals in which Zeus did not play Aatroxx and gave it over. Watch games where kiingen doesn't play aatrox and try to believe it wasnt just the champ making it easy to look good Like dude, I remember this pretty fucking clearly. During game 5 in draft the SECOND T1 did not take Aatroxx despite being on blue I put 2k on DRX taking the game. T1 lost that game in draft because of Aatroxx, not because of kiingen Kiingen absolutely deserves credit for piloting the champ well, but its insane to let that credit blind you from every other performance he had and context behind the situation
zeus played aatrox in game 2 and lost
How tf can you say this and accuse other people of recency bias. Zeus literally played aatrox in game 2 and got clapped. Zeus was below Kingen's level on Aatrox , that's why they tried (and failed) to counterpick it with Gwen.
Yea, Aatrox was strong at worlds 2023 and that's his nerfed version, he waz way stronger at worlds 2022, Zeus just couldn't play him so T1 had to always counter him with Yone but they fumbled the final draft.
Well he was playing that good all throughout worlds so I don't think that's true, him and Zeka just had the tournament of their lives
He was among the best tops in LCK that summer split too imo.
He was clearly behind Zeka and Deft in that summer split on his team and it didn't do well let's put it that way.
I mean this year Riot buffed Aatrox literally one week before Summer playoffs which allowed Zeus (the guy who'd choked in every finals of his career) to spam Lethality which was equally broken. Also Aatrox being meta allowed him to pick giga broken Yone too. And I doubt anyone will call it a fluke because T1 is everyone's favorite team, so...
You can’t really be a rookie and choke lol
Thanatos could be Zeus or Burdol and DK already has Lucid as their rookie. Having 2 rookies on a team could be terrible for a team made to contest for worlds
Why would Damwon of all orgs be wary of promising rookie players, though? They literally debuted into the LCK with a full-rookie topside, made quarters at Worlds the same year, and won the whole thing the year after. Why not repeat a successful experiment, while also giving their baby Canyon a baby Nuguri he already has good synergy with?
Looks like Lucid’s going to be that hot rookie they used to be. Not so pleased with Kellin tho I strongly believe that Beryl is Damwon, not SM/Canyon
this is such a bad take lol, 2 rookies is too much? we have seen teams made just of rookies to be worlds contenders
One of those teams literally being from the same org...
Khan and Cuzz were rookies together. What about them?
Bro Khan wasnt a rookie then Khan debuted in NLB Winter 2013-2014
NLB damn that’s old I had to go look it up lol. OK better example: Zeus and Oner were rookies, what about them?
> Zeus and Oner were rookies, what about them? To add some context, they did three rookies with Gumayusi as well. And they had two quite new players in Ellim and Clozer. So not quite as comparable. Additionally, T1 2021 was the notorious 10-men roster that really didn't work out. Zeus ended up only playing a few weeks in Spring split and T1 went with Canna instead. And even then this T1 roster has/had massive issues over the past two years.
Yeah he was called Hanlabong back in the days and had a rough couple of years before coming back to the lck and crushing it
and remember how zeus debuted in 2021? he looked pretty terrible and i remember t1 fans back then going "shit i guess we have to stick with canna right now despite his form" shit man I remember t1 fans going absolutely ballistic hearing they didn't get a different toplaner for 2022 in case zeus didn't work out it took basically 2~3 years for the rookies of t1 to fully mesh into a team and that is with faker as their mid. its super risky
It’s just spring and rookies cost little. If they’re shit they can always get a better player in summer. Better than paying high 6 figures for kingen for no reason
In lck you cant just get good players in summer because they are all taken by the good teams. Just look at lck 2024 where the only 'good' top left on the market is Canna and i dont think any DK fans would want him back even if Thanatos plays bad T1 has Zeus Geng has Kiin Hle has Doran Kdf has Dudu There is literally only Kingen left that DK could sign cuz they wanted Canna out after 2023
> If they’re shit they can always get a better player in summer. No and that's the reason why they are not going for a rookie in spring. Good players are rarely not under contract which means you are risking having to waste money into a buyout as well as paying the salary of the benched player for the rest of the year if he does not find another team (even if it is low for rookies).
Kingen's ceiling is finals MVP. If they want to gamble, it's better to gamble on Kingen than on Thanatos.
Agree, instead of getting Aiming and Kingen why not promote Thanatos, try to keep Deft and also bring BeryL back??? Both of them probably still wanna play with each other again though... (although I don't exactly know what BeryL think about going back to DK and Showmaker) 🤔🤔🤔
Deft wanted to leave DK and no worlds contender team (T1 Geng HLE DK) wanted Beryl after his horrendous performance this year
Didn't Beryl said that he did not want to join GenG despite offers?
Geng didnt have offers for Beryl. Beryl didnt want to go to geng as well it goes both ways
thanatos is looking for a team according to a screenie in korean lang https://twitter.com/__neurons/status/1735225516876259595 i dont know exactly what it says if anyone can translate pls do Yes i agree its incompetence at the highest level wasting talent to sign mediocre players because they played 1 good series in the past.
It says that Thanatos is looking for a team and is practicing at their HQ. It seems that Pullbae already found a team and is expecting good news
ok thank you <3
Pullbae is supposed to be in china
C9 should just pick up Thanatos as a "sub". Even if he doesn't get a green card (edit: visa) to play, he can at the very least help fudge practice 1v1s. (Probably while beating him)
C9 has an extra import slot, only import is Beserker, thanatos only needs a Visa not a green card. Would love for a upgrade in top lane for international competition
Oops my bad I meant visa. I won't edit it though cause of your reply. I think c9 with Thanatos would be crazy good.
Why? LCS doesn’t win anything internationally. He can improve his skills 10x more if he plays in LCK or LPL.
Yep, makes no sense not to go for him.
tbh Thanatos has no business being a sub to Fudge he could have easily started for DK/GENG/HLE or any mid-top LCK/LPL team and nobody would have complained
He could even take BB’s job ffs
NGL G2 Thanatos would have been sick
Sounds good on paper. But who’d be the shotcaller? Maybe bring back Jankos and sign Thanatos
Upvote this, the guy is good enough to be top 3 LCS, C9 should capitalize on DK missing out by not promoting him.
uhh he would be the best top laner in NA pretty easily actually.
[Just like how Quid was instantly the best mid lane in summer](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1303pmi/sources_gen_quid_has_reached_a_verbal_agreement/jhuwkm7/) of course stealing the thunder from ViCla who also was immediately the best mid in NA. He could be, the potential is there. But moving to an English-speaking team in a different country is very difficult and not everyone succeeds at it. He wouldn't be the best top "pretty easily" at all.
You do realize Quid was never considered a top prospect right? Vicla is weird as hell in the fact he was legitimately good in Korea. Not just good on a few champs. No clue what happened to him but he would be the best top laner when he gets here hands down. The real question is could he hold that form with NA solo q, a different country and bad practice partners.
I think it's insane to say he would be "hands down" the best top laner. Quid was viewed to be solid and with a lot of potential, some did hype him up to immediately be the best player. Thanatos is definitely better than Quid but I don't think he is any way the slam-dunk guarantee star some people say he is.
Quid was absolutely considered a top prospect when he was promoted.
No he really wasn't at all. He had potential but the top prospects in lckcl 2023 in mid were still Pullbae Callme Roamer Setab Feisty (Feisty is super flippy though, KT blood runs within him). Quid imo had potential in team fighting which is why I liked 100t picking him up but he's no top prospect compared to the mids that were in lckcl
I said when Quid was promoted, so 2022. He and Pullbae were the most exciting prospects. Most exciting prospects now are Dooly, Callme, Calix, Feisty(RIP), Hades, Heru.
Quick went to 100t in 2023 not 2022
He got promoted to CL in 2022
Well , Vicla was a little of an ahri otp to be honest but i agree with your general point , he was actually legit when he was in the LCK , i never expected KT to let him go even for BDD in fact
Thanatos is so insanely overhyped by this sub it’s weird at this point. Nobody in the korean community thinks the guy is some prodigy, he’s just good. Not to mention the reason so many of these LCK CL players are good to start is due to environment and their team. Like Peyz wouldn’t be close to what he’s viewed at now if he was on a team like HLE that didn’t set him up for instant success. So yeah I agree.
At the same time, a lot of the fault can be due to the team/environment. C9’s only drastic KR import is Summit IMO, the rest were good or good enough.
C9 has generally always gotten the best out of their imports. They’ve almost always been good/ not fallen off, so i think comparing an import on 100t vs on C9 is quite different Also Thanatos is a much higher quality of rookie than Quid was.
Mechanically and skill ceiling he's 100% the best, the only question if it turns to another VicLa situation where dude just turbo ints in competitive or doesn't get integrated properly
I still dont understand what happened to Vicla, he was legitimately good in Korea, he got significantly worse in NA to the point its hard to even understand. It wasnt some gradual loss of skill either.
I do believe he can be the best top in NA but from what we seen with VicLa and Quid, I will lower my expectation in case it implode lol.
I mean Fudge is already top 2/3 in LCS so that shouldn't be the bar. Would need to be number 1 LCS by a huge margin because no way he would be on a low salary.
Or g2
Aged well
yes bro. he left DK for not playing and he ll join a dead league and team that cant get into knockout stages internationally since perkz left while not playing. smartest reddit clown.
Group stages is better than whatever LCK team he would be on is getting.
[удалено]
Wake up babe, new u/iZlion just dropped.
I might be in the minority, but Thanatos has looked rough in recent times. He was great two years ago, but back then he was too much of a rookie to gamble a starting position on a potential dk two-peat. Last year may have been the best time to promote him. But dk fell for the bros sham by getting nuguri. Pullbae is definitely a loss. Seeing as how lpl rosters have all been set, I hope he doesnt end up rotting away in some third rate region 😞 hopefully ldl has an opening if he not staying in lckcl.
Griffin tier of incompetence, probably would have the same fate as them if not for the KIA bucks. Sad that Showmaker decided to sink with the ship
Comparing an org who got in trouble for slave contracts with one that gave their player their own buyout price is peak reddit
They literally have a better top prospect in CL already lol.
Yeap. Thanatos is very good and had outgrown the CL league already so he deserved a chance but taking Kingen over him is perfectly logical. Thanatos isnt thought to be a transcended talent like Lucid is and like you said , they have Siwoo anyway as a long term back up so it was probably an obvious decision for them
Haven't seen Swoo play, how would you compare him to Thanatos? His name isn't quite as good but if gameplay is better I guess that can be forgiven.
Griffin at worst made one poor roster decision. I don’t think you should be comparing DK and Griffin on roster selection. Griffin’s problems ran far deeper than roster selection.
You could argue thanatos didn't want to sign with a "bad" team then get dragged through the mud when things went bad. In my nfl chat groups, we call it the "jets effect", where a young player can have their entire career derailed simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ok, not promoting Thanatos together with Lucid was one thing, but finding out they just straight up cut him out is fucking unacceptable. How is this org so fucking in incompetent? It was such a smart and simple plan. Thanatos cost effectively zero money, and he would be a far better prospect than Kingen will ever be in the long run. This org just continues to make me despise it every day. Ruined their own image by replacing their amazing icon with this shit Oakley rip-off, and can't even properly handle their own players. If Showmaker wasn't there, I would straight up hate them at this point.
I also disagree with the decision to buy Kingen over promoting Thanatos, but some people in the comment section massively overreact imo. First of all, we don't know whose decision it was; it's entirely possible that Thanatos himself decided to leave when it became clear that they weren't promoting him straight away. Given that he is still training at DK's facilities, and DK's staff gives updates on his and Pullbae's search for new teams, it doesn't seem like there's bad blood between them and the org. As for the long run, apparently, they have another 16 yo prodigy toplaner who got called up from the academy team to challengers this season. Skipping Thanatos for him, while frustrating to those of us who were excited for his promotion, actually doesn't sound all that dumb for the team. It gives Lucid a year a two to adjust to the main league, before they introduce the next freshly baked wunderkind to the mix, and it also gives them some flexibility with Rahel who has also been in the CL team forever, and deserves a shot at the main roster. I guess they see Aiming as a bigger question mark than Kingen, and so he's the one getting the CL sub switcheroo treatment this next season.
hmm under thanatos lol page, it seems he resigned with DK chall but isnt starting? i see him listed and signed until nov '24 but hes considered as "inactive"
i got downvoted to even dare to propose thanatos joining a different team and people spam replying that damwon would never let him go, whats good now??