The League of Legends offseason comes to a close this week, but Team Dragon Knights has already finalized its Challenger Series roster with the signing of a new player.
Former NaJin e-mFire player Oh “Ohq” Gyu-min will join the team as its starting AD carry, taking over from Kim “Emperor” Jin-hyun—who moved on to Europe’s G2 Esports last week. Oh Gyu-min first linked up with the team during their bootcamp in Korea.
“It is exciting to continue my career on a foreign team and I feel confident as the management team has been super friendly and accommodating,” he tells the Daily Dot. “I look forward to competing in the new scene and to meeting new fans in North America.”
Team Dragon Knights has also moved former substitute mid laner Aaron “Bischu” Kim to the starting support role for the 2016 season, in place of Andy “Smoothie” Ta, who is now on Team Liquid.
Ohq and Bischu fill out the remainder of Team Dragon Knights’ strong Korean import-based roster, which includes top laner Shin “Seraph” Woo-yeong, Korean-American jungler Kevin “Kez” Jeon, and mid laner Noh “Ninja” Geon-woo.
Ninja, however, was suspended from competitive play until March 11 for his role in allegedly tampering with Jin-Yong “Fury” Lee while the player was still signed with Samsung Galaxy. Instead it picked up former SBENU Sonicboom mid laner Lee “do it” Chan-ho to play until the suspension end date, at which time the Dragon Knights will make a decision on who gets the starting role.
The switch between the two roles seems to have become an increasingly common thing in the North American scene this year, with Team Impulse’s Austin “Gate” Yu also making the change. Another legacy mid laner—who served primarily as a jungler in 2015—Cloud9’s Hai “Hai” Lam, is now a support player as well.
“In the time that I have been playing support, there have been massive improvements,” Bischu tells the Daily Dot. “I’d like to thank our coach for his tremendous effort and I look forward to the upcoming competition and my future career as a support player.”
What sets Team Dragon Knights apart from the other North American squads is that they communicate in Korean rather than English. Since the team’s inception in Sept. 2014, they have imported numerous Korean talents, but did not see success until Spring 2015.
With its final roster complete for the 2016 season, Team Dragon Knights will soon return home from their bootcamp and prepare for the Challenger Series, which will likely begin mid-February.
Photo via Riot Games/Flickr
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