SK Gaming might not have qualified for the 2020 World Championship just yet, but they’ve already hit a snag in their aspirations for the tournament.
Jungler Kim “Trick” Gang-yun will not be eligible to compete in Shanghai due to “an oversight” by the team and the player.
Last month, LEC officials contacted all participating teams for copies of their players’ passports to help begin the process of acquiring Chinese visas. COVID-19 has made it especially complicated for Riot Games to ensure all players are able to attend, especially if they are from a Western region.
Unfortunately, in order to apply for a visa to China, the passport must have six months or more left on its term—Trick’s had less than six, which means he will not be able to join the team in Shanghai should they qualify for the tournament.
If the team does qualify for Worlds, reports suggest the team will shift over jungler Marc “Canee” Behrend as Trick’s substitute for the event. Trick joined SK back at the start of the 2020 season, and has helped the team finish in fifth place with a 9-9 record.
Canee was acquired by SK this past month, but he had last competed for OP Innogy—a German esports organization which recently played in the 2020 Prime League Pro Division and the 2019 Winter ESL Meisterschaft.
After a pretty even early to mid-game, in which neither League of Legends team had a clear advantage over the other, SK stepped up at around the 20-minute mark, winning a crucial fight near the top lane and obliterating Origen.
The game was filled with strong performances from the entirety of the SK roster, particularly from Trick’s Sett and ZaZee’s Azir. Trick was voted KIA Player of the Game, with 53.2 percent of the votes.
Origen, on the other hand, reach their end after a catastrophic split. After dropping so many games and losing against Schalke last week, the hopes for a miracle that would allow Origen to return to their former glory as a decent playoffs contender seemed dull. Issues in drafting, adapting to the meta, and concerns such as Xerxe’s pathing all contributed to the team’s underwhelming performance this split and the expected outcome this week.
Origen acquired Jactroll earlier this split. Destiny will compete for the starting support position on “equal terms” with Jactroll and function as a sixth member of the team, according to Origen. The decision to acquire Jactroll halfway through the regular season aligns with the team’s goal to make it to Worlds. Origen were fifth in the standings with a 4-5 record after struggling to contend with the top dogs in the league. Jactroll was Vitality’s starting support player during the 2020 LEC Spring Split. But after finishing the regular season in last place, he was replaced by Pierre “Steeelback” Medjaldi.
