Top laner CuVee and jungler Haru have mutually agreed to depart from Korean League of Legends team Hanwha Life Esports, the organization announced today.
HLE had a disappointing year, finishing eighth in the 2020 LCK Spring Split and ninth in the Summer Split. The team acquired some players for the Summer Split hoping to improve their place in the standings, but the results got worse.
CuVee is a legend among LCK top laners. He played most of his career under the Samsung banner, with which he won the 2017 World Championship. Once known as one of the strongest top laners in the LCK, CuVee now seemingly has issues adapting to the meta. He joined HLE this year and wasn’t able to replicate his previous performances from his time on Samsung and Gen.G.
Haru spent most of his time on Samsung as well, being the backup jungler for the recently role-swapped mid to jungle player, Ambition. He was never seen as the starting jungler on any roster that he’s been on, but that changed this year when he joined HLE. He started for most of the year, yet couldn’t find any success.
HLE are left with two rookies in the top lane and jungle for now: DuDu in the top lane and CaD in the jungle. It’s unclear if they’ll be starting or if the organization is looking to rebuild around the former Griffin bottom lane of Viper and Lehends.
Sandbox Gaming destroyed HLE in the last Summer Split match, leaving the team with only one win.
The first game was even for the first 10 minutes with both teams trading objectives and kills all over the map. After that, SB started playing much more aggressively, going for flanks and engages onto the HLE squad. After constantly outplaying them and securing the Cloud Dragon Soul, SB finished the first game with a 5,000 gold lead.
In the second game, SB were much more ruthless. They secured a small lead in the fourth minute and continued growing it, surpassing a 10,000 gold lead by the end of the game. OnFleek was the centerpiece of this onslaught, constantly ganking and ensuring that his carries scaled well into the mid to late game.
Sandbox started their season poorly but turned things around once YamatoCannon joined them. The organization quickly improved, securing five wins a row before being shut down by other teams. They failed to secure a playoff spot, though, finishing the LCK Summer Split in seventh place with a 7-11 record.
