The roster that won the 2014 World Championship is now scattered as Dandy, Mate and Imp have fled to China. Photo: LoLesports
2014 World Champions Se-Hyeong "Mata" Cho and In-Kyu "DanDy" Choi, alongside their Samsung Blue colleague Gwan-Hyung "Heart" Lee will compete in China for the next season. The three are acquired by ViCi Gaming as part of their team restructuring.
Following the revised plans for the 2015 season in South Korea where each team company would be allowed a singular roster (instead of the previous two), League of Legends analysts expected an reflux of Korean players from their home region and transition to others.
They weren't wrong. As early as the second week of November, Korean professionals turned their sight towards China as a lucrative region to compete in. On November 14, Inven.co.kr confirmed the creation of HUYA Tigers, a team under Chinese ownership but entirely composed of Korean players, including Gorilla (NWS), Pray, Kuro, Lee (NBS) and Smeb (IM), alongisde No-Chul "NoFe" Jeong as coach, also formerly of Najin White Shield.
On November 25 followed the next big signing as 2014 World Champion and star AD carry Seung-Bin "Imp" Gu was announced as LGD's starting marksman. At the time, it was also rumored that LGD will spare expenses to also hire Imp's team-mate and SSW jungler In-Kyu "DanDy" Choi but the latest news reveal that this will not be the case.
In a post on their official Weibo page, team ViCi Gaming, known for their second place finish at Dota 2's The International 2014, announced the acquisition of three of Samsung's players, including world champions Mata and Dandy. This comes as part of ViCi Gaming's restructuring for the 2015 season when the team will try to conquer LPL with a fresh roster.
Alongside Mata and Dandy, two more former Samsungers will join the roster of VG, namely Heart and Skatchy as additional support and AD carry players. With them, the League of Legends division of ViCi grows to nine players as a tenth recruit on the mid lane position is still looked for.
2015 will be the first season where ViCi Gaming competes in the high echelon of professional League. Struggling with results in the past, ViCi finished 8th in the 2014 LSPL Summer Season with 3-9-3 in the group stages but managed to survive the 2014 LPL Spring Promotion qualifiers and will be part of the new LPL season alongside the other Chinese powerhouses.
