After spending a year on Invictus Gaming, Lu “Leyan” Jue is heading over to Vici Gaming to become the team’s new starting jungler for the 2020 LPL Summer Split, the organization announced today.
Leyan has spent a good portion of his professional League of Legends career with Invictus Gaming, whether it was on the main team or with the organization’s academy team, IG Young. He was originally added as a temporary substitute player in April 2019.
The 17-year-old eventually got his big break in August 2019 when he was promoted to the starting roster for the Summer Split. Even though Leyan only got to play in five games, the experience to play alongside some of the best players in the region was invaluable.
In 2020, Leyan played 27 games for Invictus Gaming as the team’s starting jungler and had a 3.1 KDA with 85 kills, 173 assists, and 84 deaths. The team finished in first place for the regular season, which was impressive considering that they had to adjust to three new players.
But IG were eliminated in the semifinals by star ADC JackeyLove and TOP Esports. They also lost to FunPlus Phoenix in the third-place matchup. It was a fall from grace that not many League fans saw coming. And now, the team must find another player to fill in the jungle position.
While both Invictus Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix played really well this season, they were outclassed by Top Esports and JD Gaming in the end. Invictus Gaming fell short due to TheShy inning his life away in multiple games against worse teams. FunPlus Phoenix on the other hand did not play with one main top laner, swaping between GimGoon and Khan in multiple games. Have they sticked up with a single top laner and developed him properly, they would’ve most likely managed to reach the finals. Even though they won the previous world champions, the top laner fell short and that’s the core reason why FPX acquired a substitute top laner. While in theory, it should’ve helped them play better, the practice was different.
Meanwhile, Vici Gaming will look to improve on its ninth-place finish from last season by moving Leyan into the starting lineup. With kk0ma and Boy as the drivers of the team, the team has high chances to become a contender for top 4 if they improve their gameplay.
Stay tuned for more roster changes in the upcoming days as all teams look to upgrade their rosters.
