Nuguri and Burdol weren’t the only ones to become free agents today. DWG KIA’s athletic director Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun, head coach Yang “Daeny” Dae-in, and coach Lee “Zefa” Jae-min have all officially parted ways with the League of Legends team.
KkOma leaves DWG KIA after joining at the end of 2020 when he became the head coach of the team. He previously worked for the Chinese team Vici Gaming but is most notably known for having coached Faker and SK Telecom T1 in their golden era of three World Championships.
Under his guidance, DWG KIA won both LCK splits in 2021 and became the finalist at both the Mid-Season Invitational and Worlds. At the end of that season, he was promoted to DWG KIA’s athletic director, leaving the head coach spot to Daeny. In his new role, kkOma was in charge of overseeing all three DWG KIA’s rosters: the main LCK roster, DWG KIA Challengers, and DWG KIA Academy.
Just like kkOma, both Daeny and Zefa have worked with T1 and DWG KIA throughout the years. When kkOma joined at the end of 2020, the two South Korean coaches headed together to T1 with general manager Polt. They, however, were fired seven months later due to some disappointing results in the 2021 season.
As a result, Daeny immediately returned to DWG KIA as an analyst while Zefa rejoined at the end of 2021. One year later, both of them will have to find a new destination.
With the free agency period starting on Nov. 21, this LCK offseason is set to become one of the spiciest transfer windows of recent years.
