PawN is returning to professional League of Legends, but not as a player. The legendary mid laner will join the broadcast team as an analyst for the upcoming Summer Split of the LCK, according to Fomos reporter kenzi.
PawN made a name for himself all the way back in 2013 during the game’s third season where he played over 3,800 ranked solo queue games in Korea, the most of any player. He was subsequently contracted to the Samsung team where he earned the nickname “Faker’s kryptonite” after solo killing him in lane on multiple occasions.
[Official] Pawn joins #LoL #LCK Summer Analyst and Wadid joins LCK Summer Temporary Color Caster(KR/EN) @WadidXD pic.twitter.com/25WSkZx6QQ
— kenzi (@kenzi131) June 9, 2020
Following his time with Samsung, PawN went on to start for KT Rolster and Kingzone DragonX during the peak of each team’s success, further certifying his status as a legend. After six seasons of pro play, the illustrious mid laner decided to call it quits in 2019, citing his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as the primary reason for his retirement.
Pawn joined Kingzone DragonX for the 2019 season along with his longtime teammate Deft. Kingzone finished a strong third in the Spring Season with a 13-5 record, but were immediately swept by SKT in the playoffs.
In May, Kingzone announced that Pawn would become inactive due to health issues. He remained inactive for the rest of the 2019 season before announcing his retirement in September. In December, Pawn revealed in an interview with InvenGlobal that he had retired due to developing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, he stated that he still wanted to play professionally, and did not rule out a return if his issues improved.
Despite recently hinting at a possible return to pro play, it seems that PawN has decided that analyst work is the next step in his esports journey. He’ll join Wadid on the broadcast team, another ex-pro player who was announced alongside PawN, and will be a color commentator for both the Korean and English broadcasts of the LCK this split.
A trivia about his Chinese nickname, 小胖, literally means “little fat”. It was given to him because 胖 is pronounced “pang,” sounding similar to his name.
It seems that the LCK is following in the footsteps of traditional sports in which well-respected retired players are invited to work on the broadcast to offer some valuable insight into a pro’s perspective. The audience generally eats it up and it provides athletes with a legitimate and logical career pathway after retirement.
You can watch the new-look broadcast since June 17.
