MaRin, Ambition, PawN... Who are the 5 LCK legends KC will be facing?

After an exciting mercato, the Karmine Corp has officially finalised their new line-up for the LEC Summer Split, with the main aim of erasing the very disappointing performances during the season's first two splits. As headliner, KC celebrated the arrival of their new star on the toplane: Kim "Canna" Chang-dong. The former Dplus KIA toplaner, trained at T1 with whom he reached the Worlds semi-finals, is leaving his native South Korea for the first time in his career to embark on a European adventure.

He will be joined by another newcomer to the Old Continent: Can "Closer" Çelik. Having won titles in North America and regularly been cited as one of the best junglers in the region in previous years, the Turkish jungler will be taking his chance in the LEC for the first time, taking on the role of leader of a team that was sorely lacking at the start of the year.

Finally, the midlane has been entrusted to young talent Vladimiros ‘Vladi’ Kourtidis, a brilliant player with KC Academy in the LFL, who joins the European elite aged only 18. With an unchanged botlane, Elias ‘Upset’ Lipp and Raphaël ‘Targamas’ Crabbé, Karmine Corp look set to make amends for the past few months, and their first official match before the start of the LEC will be against five Korean legends who have left their mark on the history of the global League of Legends.

On the toplane of this legendary team, Canna will be up against a player who also played a big part in the success of his training club, T1, even leading them to a world championship title: Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan. The 2015 Worlds winner is a pure product of the greatest team in the history of League of Legends, with whom he made his debut in 2014, initially in the secondary team, in which he shows decent performances without being transcendent for all that.

His explosion came in 2015 when SKT had to combine their two teams into one following the ban of sister teams. MaRin now finds himself in the spotlight, with a major role in his team's style and a great deal of responsibility: alongside no less than the best player in history, he must help his team regain the success that eluded them for most of the previous year.

The toplaner succeeded brilliantly, delivering a near-perfect year that still goes down in history today as one of the most dominant seasons ever achieved by a team. SKT in 2015 almost achieved the Grand Slam - winning all the competitions disputed by a team in the same season - after losing to EDward Gaming in the MSI final. This success was largely due to the outstanding performances of MaRin, who became a impressive carry as the season progressed, particularly with Gnar and Rumble. At his very first Worlds, MaRin even became the key member of his team, making one stroke of genius after another on his Fiora and finishing the competition as MVP. At the time, he was considered the best player in the world in his position.

After that, the toplaner tried his luck in China, then returned to the LCK with Afreeca Freecs, with less success. But his 2015 was one for the books, and MaRin will play again against Karmine Corp for the first time in over 6 years, a return that is likely to be celebrated.

The jungler of this legendary team is also likely to be a favorite of long-time fans, as he has long left his mark on LCK followers, to the point of impressing the whole world. Initially a midlaner in South Korea's very first champion team, Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong was even considered the best midlaner in the world on several occasions in the early years of Korean League of Legends. But the emergence of serious competitors on the midlane led the player to change positions, a practice that was fairly marginal at the time and difficult to take on at the highest level.

However, the Ambition roleswap will be a complete success. Now as a jungler, he spent a year adapting to his new role, with some very encouraging results, including a podium place in the LCK, before joining SSG, surrounded by a group of players who were not exactly impressive at the time. But under the leadership of their new jungler, the team will surprise everyone and achieve an unexpected qualification for the 2016 Worlds. There, considered to be the weakest of the 3 Korean teams, it shook up the established order and reached the grand final, putting up a merciless fight against T1 that will be remembered as one of the most memorable finals in the history of the Worlds, unfortunately lost by Ambition and Co.

However, the veteran is not giving up and continues for an even more impressive year in 2017. The jungler seems to be at the top of his game, and his team has made great strides around him. SSG qualify for the Worlds again, and this time they leave nothing to chance. They eliminated the best LCK team in the quarter-finals, when everyone thought they were already out, and took their revenge in the grand final against T1, becoming world champions.

Ambition retires a year later, with the same team with which he has spent his entire career. Today, he is still a streamer for Gen.G, the organisation that took over from SSG. World-renowned for his Jarvan IV, whose rise to the world title is even featured in RISE, the anthem of the 2018 Worlds, Ambition is shaping up to be quite a challenge for Closer, the new KC jungler.

Two midlaners are included in the selection of the Korean legends, and while it is not yet known exactly which of the two will actually play mid, Vladi is already guaranteed to face a world champion in his very first match for the Karmine Corp First Team. The first midlaner is a living legend. World Champion in 2014 during the Worlds that saw the greatest domination in the competition's history in the eyes of many players and fans, Heo "PawN" Won-seok has left his mark on a whole generation.

At the start of 2014, he joined Samsung, which had 2 teams at the time, and Samsung Blue, the midlaner's team, started the season as the worse of the two. However, PawN performed so well that Samsung offered him a place as a midlaner in the structure's best-performing team: Samsung White. But as soon as he arrived, Samsung Blue began to perform better than his rival, and even beat PawN twice in the LCK.

He still managed to qualify for the 2014 Worlds, but everyone predicted that their rivals would win, and SSW ended up on the second step of the podium. However, PawN and his team will destroy every team in their way, including SSB, whom they obliterate in the semi-final with a brutal 3-0 victory. They became world champions by never giving the impression that their opponents were capable of reaching them, and instantly wrote their name into the legend.

But PawN doesn't stop there. He left Korea in 2015 to join EDward Gaming, the new Chinese leader. There, he led the team to a title at the first-ever MSI, becoming the first player to knock T1 and Faker out of an international competition. After that, the legendary midlaner returned to the LCK, and even though a chronic injury tarnished the end of his career, he continued to shine and perform at an impressive level. Today, PawN is still universally recognised as one of the best midlaners in history, and his return to the rift will please more than one fan.

The second midlaner is also a world champion, and he also became one as part of one of the most dominant teams in history. PawN may have been the first to eliminate Faker internationally, but the first to really shake up the best player in history, even to the point of benching him, was Lee "Easyhoon" Ji-Hoon. After an unremarkable year with MVP in 2013, the midlaner joined SKT's second team in 2014, with Faker towering above him. Despite his team's good performances at the end of the season, when the LCK announced the ban of sister teams, everyone expected Easyhoon to leave the team, as Faker was untouchable.

However, SKT decided to keep the two midlaners and let them play equally during the early part of the season. Easyhoon showed an exceptional level, more than competing with Faker, who was already considered the best midlaner in the world at the time. Faker's very aggressive style sometimes leads to a lack of stability, which is perfectly compensated by a very calm and calculating Easyhoon, who excels particularly on control mages, a style that Faker had not yet mastered at that time.

In particular, Azir, which has just been released and is already very powerful, is causing Faker a few problems as he struggles to make it work in competition. Easyhoon, on the other hand, has made it its trademark, and is fast becoming an international benchmark with the champion. He even finished the Spring Split as SKT's only midlaner in the final, finishing as the match's MVP.

Thereafter, Faker, stronger than ever, returned to the starting line-up, always sharing a few games with Easyhoon, notably at Worlds, where Easyhoon won 2 of his team's 3 matches in the semi-final against Origen. Easyhoon became world champion, although he was not the only midlaner in his team, but he had reached and even surpassed the level of the best player in the entire world. In his honour, Riot created 6 skins instead of 5 for the first time, with T1 Azir, to reward the best supersubs.

After a brief time in China and a short career as a coach with decent results, Easyhoon returned to the land of his legendary success, becoming an influencer for T1 last April. 9 years later, things have come full circle.

The last player in this exceptional selection is probably the one who will speak least to the most recent League of Legends fans. However, Kang "Cpt Jack" Hyung-woo is one of those legends from the early years of the game who have left their mark, and above all their name, on the history of League of Legends esports.

Cpt Jack started his career quite early and instantly rose to the top of the Korean League of Legends, winning the very first LCK split, at that time named ‘The Champions’, in the spring of 2012. At the time, he was a member of MiG Blaze, alongside Ambition in particular. The team moved on to become Azubu Blaze and then CJ Entus Blaze, and remained a major contender at the top LCK level throughout 2012 and 2013, even winning international titles such as the IEM Season 7 World Championship, at the time considered one of the most important tournaments of the season.

But the ad carry will really go down in history at Champions Summer 2013. In the quarterfinals, he faced KT Bullets and picked his signature Vayne in the third game of the match. Already world-renowned as a mechanical monster, Cpt Jack is about to add another layer in the 45th minute, when he is about to be caught by a gold card from the opposing Twisted Fate. The adc uses his purge instantly, with the perfect timing, allowing him to save himself without stopping for a single tenth of a second.

The rest of his career was quieter, playing in the Korean mid-table until the end of his career in 2016, but Cpt Jack never left the scene that made him famous. LCK caster, coach and even streamer, the legendary ad carry has been through it all. Now a Riot Games analyst for the past 2 years, he's currently busy transmitting the legends that succeeded his own, but his name is forever set in the public mind, and his return to the Rift is sure to please long-time League of Legends fans.

The match between the five Korean legends and the new Karmine Corp LEC team (with Fleshy replacing Targamas, who will not be present) will take place on June 2 at Espot, 150 rue de Rivoli in Paris. This showmatch will be the highlight of a 2-day event celebrating Korean esports: ‘Life's Good, Let's Play’, organised by LG, which is confirming its important place in European and global esports.

Already sponsoring the LEC, GenG and Karmine Corp, LG is using its influence in League of Legends Esport to create exceptional events and unforgettable memories for esport enthusiasts, bringing them all together for memorable celebrations. Join us in Espot or on Kameto's stream on the evening of Sunday 2 June to be sure you don't miss it!

For full details and to register for the event, visit lg.com/fr/event/lifesgoodletsplay