LCK team Sandbox Gaming has added former Griffin support player Irove to its League of Legends lineup, the organization announced today. The player has also updated his in-game name for the upcoming Summer Split to Kabbie, which was his original name when signing with Griffin in 2018.
Despite being just 18 years old, Kabbie has been contracted to a myriad of professional teams over the years, spending almost two years with Griffin. During that time period, he made it to the quarterfinals of the World Championship in 2019 as a substitute for Lehends.
But despite finding such early success in his career, Kabbie is fresh off of a disappointing Spring Split with Griffin that ultimately ended in the team being demoted from the top tier of competition in Korea and disbanding. During the demotion tournament, his new team Sandbox Gaming eliminated Griffin to requalify for the 2020 LCK Summer Split.
After managing to make it back into the LCK by the skin of their teeth, Sandbox Gaming has been aggressive in rebuilding its roster. The organization has made several coaching and player changes over the last month, including the reported appointment of YamatoCannon as head coach.
Griffin was once one of the best teams in Korea, consistently placing in the top ranks of the league and performing on the international stage. But following a roster reshuffle ahead of 2020, the team has looked like a shadow of their former selves.
Losing mid laner Chovy—the centerpiece of the team—along with top laner Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon, support Son “Lehends” Si-woo, and coach Kim “cvMax” Dae-ho clearly took a toll on the roster who kept losing games.
Griffin on the hand is looking to explore options out of League of Legends. After a devastating season where they lost their core players it’s understandable that they want to get out and save their investments for other games. Sadly we will most likely never see a team like Griffin ever again with the removal of Promotion tournaments. With most major regions moving out from Promotion tournaments in order to become franchised, Griffin’s will remain in history was the team who went from qualifying to Worlds to knocked out of LCK in one season.
Sandbox head into the next split with a nearly full roster and will be eager to return to the kind of form they showed during the 2019 season where they finished in a playoff position each split.
