JD Gaming jungler Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok has won the MVP of the LPL Spring Split, the Chinese league revealed today.
The 19-year-old former Griffin substitute narrowly beat FunPlus Phoenix mid laner Doinb to punch, accumulating 105 MVP points in total.
JD Gaming finished the regular season fifth in the standings with a 26-10 game record thanks to Kavani. But the team could have potentially placed higher in the league if star top laner Zhang “Zoom” Xing-Ran wasn’t under quarantine.
Kanavi was the standout jungler of the split, participating in 76 percent of his team’s kills. His gank-heavy, teamfight-orientated playstyle helped JD Gaming overcome some of the top dogs in the league, like Invictus Gaming, and eStar.
Kanavi played 11 different champions over the course of the split, prioritizing Kindred, Sylas, and Rek’Sai.
In 2019, before Kanavi made an appearance in the LPL, the player came under controversy for his questionable contract with LCK team Griffin. Taking a substitute role, Kanavi signed a “slavery contract” and was “treated like an animal”, according to Korean Senator Ha in November.
Kanavi was eventually granted free agency, leading to his transfer to JD Gaming in November 2019.
JD Gaming had one of their best splits after former World Champion Imp has left the team in the off-season, they’ve reworked their roster and had huge success this season. After finishing 8th in League Pro League Spring 2019 and 10th in League Pro League Spring 2019, the team has failed to get a spot for the World Championship by points. They had another shot in the Regional Finals, but lost 2-3 to the former World Champions Invictus Gaming in the end.
After the World Champions, China had the traditional Demacia Cup where JD Gaming showed up with their new roster without Imp and performed extremely well. They finished third in Demacia’s Cup after winning against Vici Gaming, who acquired kk0ma and iBoy in the offseason. After the Coronavirus shut down the LPL for an undefined period of time, Riot Games organized an online scrim league between the teams. JD Gaming won the tournament by going 3-0 and acquired first places, showing up again after the dominance in the Demacia Cup.
Coming into LPL Spring they managed to secure second place, one step behind Invictus Gaming. They are a local championship contender and are looking hungry for international competition.
JD Gaming will play their next best-of-five series in the semifinals of the LPL Spring Playoffs on Monday, April 27.
