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According to people on the internet, coaches are an integral part of the mythic Korean infrastructure that has allowed LCK teams to dominate League of Legends esports. I dug through a bunch of articles (and my experience watching way too much StarCraft) to shine some light on who these mysterious coaches are, and how they arrived at where they are today.
Part two covers the remaining LCK teams in alphabetical order: Longzhu Gaming, MVP, ROX Tigers, Samsung Galaxy, and SK Telecom T1.
Click here to read part 1: Afreeca Freecs, bbq OLIVERS, Ever8 Winners, Jin Air Green Wings, and KT Rolster
Unfortunately, the LG Electronics sponsorship ran into some serious problems a year later, with LG and IM disagreeing about whether or not they actually still had a sponsorship deal. As far as we know, the situation was never resolved, and IM was unable to recover the funds they claimed they were owed.
In 2015, Incredible Miracle found a new sponsor in Chinese streaming platform Longzhu, and later rebranded its team name as “Longzhu Gaming.” Unfortunately, problems popped up within a year, with Longzhu failing to pay out salaries in a timely manner.
Wow, that sounds familiar!
Given the information that’s public, it’s hard to say if this all reflects poorly on Hirai, or if he’s just really goddamn unlucky. On some level, it's kind of amazing that Hirai got these sponsorships in the first place. StarCraft II failed to garner much popularity in Korea, and the LG sponsorship (while it paid) was one of the best deals a non-KeSPA team ever got. The Longzhu sponsorship was also a steal, given IM’s consistently poor performance in the LCK. We may need to see a third act from Hirai and IM to reach a solid conclusion.
Reference: Inven
References: Daily Esports, Inven
Hell got his start in progaming as a coach on FXOpen’s StarCraft II team before moving on to coach the team’s newly formed Dota 2 squad in 2013. However, FXOpen withdrew its sponsorship at the end of the year, leading the Dota 2 team to disband, and sending coach Hell on a hiatus from esports.
In November of 2015, MVP announced its return to League of Legends after selling its teams to Samsung in late 2013. Hell was brought on as the team’s coach, and was soon promoted to the head coach position after MVP finished first place in its debut season of Challengers Korea.
Reference: Xportsnews
Before that, Saroo had brief stints coaching WE’s B-team (returning to Korea after the team failed to win promotion), and with Ever8 during its time in Challengers Korea.
Reference: Fomos
Previously a caster and broadcast talent for the esports TV channel MBCGame (now defunct), Kang took a fateful casting gig at the WCG 2011 qualifiers for League of Legends. This led to a chance meeting with Woong, which eventually led to the foundation of MiG with Kang as its first head coach.
Kang’s time with MiG/Azubu was enormously successful, with the team dominating domestic competition while producing some of the first true star players in the Korean scene (only Frost’s World Championship loss to TPA remains as a blemish).
Following MiG’s acquisition by CJ Entus, Kang experienced a steady decline in popularity. CJ Entus stagnated as a merely ‘very good’ team, which was not enough to please fans who were used to winning championships. At the end of 2015, Kang parted ways with CJ Entus and joined Afreeca Freecs as head coach.
In 2016, Kang’s Afreeca Freecs exceeded all expectations to finish 5th in both the spring and summer seasons. Perhaps, in an even more impressive feat, Afreeca ended the 2016 season with a 3-1 series record against SK Telecom T1. This run completely restored Kang’s reputation in the eyes of the Korean community, although it’s hard to say if this is more indicative of Kang’s abilities or the Korean community’s fickle nature.
Despite its successful 2016 campaign, Afreeca pressed the reset button at the end of the year, parting ways with all its players and coaching staff. Kang and number of former Afreeca players ended up signing with the ROX Tigers, and finished the 2017 spring season in 6th place.
References: Daily Esports(1), Daily Esports(2), Fomos, Sports Chosun
Starting off as a pro player on Startale, Gosu was an active player until spring 2016 where he played with the LPL’s Hyper Youth Gaming/Saint. Gosu spent the summer split as a coach on RNG, before returning to Korea in 2017 as a coach on ROX Tigers. Tigers had originally planned to head into the 2017 season with head coach Kang as the sole member of the coaching staff, but cited the new 10-ban system as the tipping point for bringing in Gosu as added help.
Reference: Daily Esports
At the start of the 2016 season, Edgar would have been a top candidate for most-hated coach in the Korean community. In a controversial interview, Edgar revealed that he had dismissed player candidates out-of-hand if they asked about salary or guaranteed starting spots. To a fanbase consisting of a younger generation of Koreans, Edgar’s “old-school” mentality represented everything wrong with the country’s brutal workplace culture.
A year and one World Championship finals run later, Edgar may have been vindicated.
Edgar—then known as “DoGGi”—jumped into esports as a StarCraft progamer in 2000, just as esports was starting to explode in South Korea. Following a largely unremarkable six-year pro career, he transitioned into coaching for his long-time team Samsung KHAN in 2007. After working as a coach with Samsung’s Brood War and SC2 squads, Edgar was reassigned to the newly acquired League of Legends team in 2013.
A year later, Samsung claimed the Summoner’s Cup at the 2014 World Championship. Almost immediately after, the entire Samsung playing roster scattered to the winds, chasing lucrative offers on other teams (for years, Samsung had been notorious for being stingy despite having an extremely wealthy mother company). Even the coaching staff departed from the team, with the sole exception of Edgar.
As the new head coach, Edgar was given the daunting task of building a new Samsung team from scratch. The first year proved to be extremely trying, with Samsung finishing dead last in LCK Spring 2015, and 7th place in LCK Summer. However, things started to click for Samsung in 2016, and the team gradually improved throughout the year to peak at the perfect time during the World Championship. Coming within a single game of toppling the SKT dynasty, Samsung signaled its triumphant return as a true contender, with its rebuild completed far ahead of schedule.
What a great story for Edgar and Samsung. Let’s try not to dwell too much on the unfortunate implications this has on personnel recruitment and workplace mentality…
References: Daily Esports, Fomos
Odin left Samsung in 2014 in order to fulfil his mandatory military service, and was quickly rehired to the LoL team following his discharge in 2016. He was immediately thrown into the deep-end, joining Samsung for its trip to the World Championship.
References: Daily Esports, Fomos
Reference: Inven
In 2008, SKT fired its entire coaching staff after a three-year Proleague title drought, bringing in new staff from the outside while also promoting from within. cCarter was one of those to receive an opportunity, becoming a coach-in-training.
Things continued to fall into place for cCarter after he finished his training. In 2009, KeSPA established a new Proleague for Special Forces, a Korean tactical FPS (essentially a Counter-Strike clone). With SKT primarily focused on ending its StarCraft title drought, cCarter was given the opportunity to lead the newly formed Special Forces team. From 2009 to 2012, cCarter and SKT earned two #1 finishes in the regular season and won a single Proleague title.
In 2012, Special Forces Proleague came to a close, but cCarter had another project in line. For some time, he had been bothering SKT to enter the growing League of Legends scene. Work had been put into assembling a roster for over a year, but each hypothetical team went up in smoke due to a variety of issues. Finally, in December of 2012, the decision was made to pull the trigger on a hastily made roster rather than delay any further. The first SKT LoL squad was announced with pro players Reapered, H0R0, UandMe, MighTiLy, and StarLast. As a tactical coach, cCarter decided to bring on kkOma, a former pro that he had seen streaming...
*cCarter was the de facto head of SKT from the start, but only received the official title of head coach in 2013
References Daily Esports, Digital Times, Inven
kkOma had been introduced to Startale by FruitDealer and Trickster, two of his former teammates during his short stint as a StarCraft II progamer (they had previously been on team oGs together). While Startale was primarily a SC2 team at the time, it saw potential in LoL’s rapid growth and decided to give it a shot. In April of 2012, kkOma was cut from StarTale for "irreconcilable differences in opinion."
kkOma spent the next few months streaming LoL and making regular guest appearances on OnGameNet’s LoL related programming. By the time SKT contacted him about a coaching position, he had already built up a decent following, enough so that kkOma considered SKT’s offer underwhelming, and hardly an obvious choice. He accepted, but only under one condition: he would be allowed to recruit a second team. A second team, he thought, was the only way to win a championship.
SKT agreed. And the rest, as they say, is history.
References: OSEN, Game Chosun, Daily Esports(1), Daily Esports(2), ThisIsGame, Inven, Fomos
References: Inven, Chosun Ilbo
Note: 'Head coach' (감독) is generally a managerial position that is less involved with in-depth strategies and tactics. Those are left to the 'coach' (코치). However, not all teams are the same, and this is not always the case.
Click here to read part 1: Afreeca Freecs, bbq OLIVERS, Ever8 Winners, Jin Air Green Wings, and KT Rolster
Part two covers the remaining LCK teams in alphabetical order: Longzhu Gaming, MVP, ROX Tigers, Samsung Galaxy, and SK Telecom T1.
Click here to read part 1: Afreeca Freecs, bbq OLIVERS, Ever8 Winners, Jin Air Green Wings, and KT Rolster
Longzhu Gaming
- Head coach: Kang Donghoon “Hirai” (since May. 2012)
Previous experience: Head coach in StarCraft II (Incredible Miracle)
Unfortunately, the LG Electronics sponsorship ran into some serious problems a year later, with LG and IM disagreeing about whether or not they actually still had a sponsorship deal. As far as we know, the situation was never resolved, and IM was unable to recover the funds they claimed they were owed.
In 2015, Incredible Miracle found a new sponsor in Chinese streaming platform Longzhu, and later rebranded its team name as “Longzhu Gaming.” Unfortunately, problems popped up within a year, with Longzhu failing to pay out salaries in a timely manner.
Wow, that sounds familiar!
Given the information that’s public, it’s hard to say if this all reflects poorly on Hirai, or if he’s just really goddamn unlucky. On some level, it's kind of amazing that Hirai got these sponsorships in the first place. StarCraft II failed to garner much popularity in Korea, and the LG sponsorship (while it paid) was one of the best deals a non-KeSPA team ever got. The Longzhu sponsorship was also a steal, given IM’s consistently poor performance in the LCK. We may need to see a third act from Hirai and IM to reach a solid conclusion.
- Coach: Choi Seungmin “Supreme” (since ???)
- Previous experience: Playing-coach and coach in StarCraft II (FXO/fOu, IM)
Reference: Inven
- Coach: Kim Jungsu (since Mar. 2017)
- Previous experience: LoL coach(OMG, Samsung Galaxy, Dignitas)
References: Daily Esports, Inven
MVP
- Head coach: Kwon Jaehwan “Hell” (since Apr. 2016)
- Previous experience: Coach in StarCraft II and Dota 2 (FXOpen)
Hell got his start in progaming as a coach on FXOpen’s StarCraft II team before moving on to coach the team’s newly formed Dota 2 squad in 2013. However, FXOpen withdrew its sponsorship at the end of the year, leading the Dota 2 team to disband, and sending coach Hell on a hiatus from esports.
In November of 2015, MVP announced its return to League of Legends after selling its teams to Samsung in late 2013. Hell was brought on as the team’s coach, and was soon promoted to the head coach position after MVP finished first place in its debut season of Challengers Korea.
Reference: Xportsnews
- Coach: Lee Jongwon “Saroo” (since Nov. 2016)
- Previous experience: Referee, coach in League of Legends (WE, Ever8)
Before that, Saroo had brief stints coaching WE’s B-team (returning to Korea after the team failed to win promotion), and with Ever8 during its time in Challengers Korea.
Reference: Fomos
ROX Tigers
- Head coach: Kang Hyunjong (Since Nov. 2016)
- Previous experience: WarCraft III caster, MBCGame broadcast talent, LoL head coach (MiG/Azubu/CJ, Afreeca)
Previously a caster and broadcast talent for the esports TV channel MBCGame (now defunct), Kang took a fateful casting gig at the WCG 2011 qualifiers for League of Legends. This led to a chance meeting with Woong, which eventually led to the foundation of MiG with Kang as its first head coach.
Kang’s time with MiG/Azubu was enormously successful, with the team dominating domestic competition while producing some of the first true star players in the Korean scene (only Frost’s World Championship loss to TPA remains as a blemish).
Following MiG’s acquisition by CJ Entus, Kang experienced a steady decline in popularity. CJ Entus stagnated as a merely ‘very good’ team, which was not enough to please fans who were used to winning championships. At the end of 2015, Kang parted ways with CJ Entus and joined Afreeca Freecs as head coach.
In 2016, Kang’s Afreeca Freecs exceeded all expectations to finish 5th in both the spring and summer seasons. Perhaps, in an even more impressive feat, Afreeca ended the 2016 season with a 3-1 series record against SK Telecom T1. This run completely restored Kang’s reputation in the eyes of the Korean community, although it’s hard to say if this is more indicative of Kang’s abilities or the Korean community’s fickle nature.
Despite its successful 2016 campaign, Afreeca pressed the reset button at the end of the year, parting ways with all its players and coaching staff. Kang and number of former Afreeca players ended up signing with the ROX Tigers, and finished the 2017 spring season in 6th place.
References: Daily Esports(1), Daily Esports(2), Fomos, Sports Chosun
- Coach: Shin Hyuk “Gosu” (since Jan. 2017)
- Previous experience: League of Legends progamer and coach (Startale, Hyper Youth Gaming/Saint, RNG)
Starting off as a pro player on Startale, Gosu was an active player until spring 2016 where he played with the LPL’s Hyper Youth Gaming/Saint. Gosu spent the summer split as a coach on RNG, before returning to Korea in 2017 as a coach on ROX Tigers. Tigers had originally planned to head into the 2017 season with head coach Kang as the sole member of the coaching staff, but cited the new 10-ban system as the tipping point for bringing in Gosu as added help.
Reference: Daily Esports
Samsung Galaxy
- Head coach: Choi Woobum “Edgar” (since Dec. 2014)
- Previous experience: Progamer and coach in StarCraft: Brood War, coach in StarCraft II (Samsung)
At the start of the 2016 season, Edgar would have been a top candidate for most-hated coach in the Korean community. In a controversial interview, Edgar revealed that he had dismissed player candidates out-of-hand if they asked about salary or guaranteed starting spots. To a fanbase consisting of a younger generation of Koreans, Edgar’s “old-school” mentality represented everything wrong with the country’s brutal workplace culture.
A year and one World Championship finals run later, Edgar may have been vindicated.
Edgar—then known as “DoGGi”—jumped into esports as a StarCraft progamer in 2000, just as esports was starting to explode in South Korea. Following a largely unremarkable six-year pro career, he transitioned into coaching for his long-time team Samsung KHAN in 2007. After working as a coach with Samsung’s Brood War and SC2 squads, Edgar was reassigned to the newly acquired League of Legends team in 2013.
A year later, Samsung claimed the Summoner’s Cup at the 2014 World Championship. Almost immediately after, the entire Samsung playing roster scattered to the winds, chasing lucrative offers on other teams (for years, Samsung had been notorious for being stingy despite having an extremely wealthy mother company). Even the coaching staff departed from the team, with the sole exception of Edgar.
As the new head coach, Edgar was given the daunting task of building a new Samsung team from scratch. The first year proved to be extremely trying, with Samsung finishing dead last in LCK Spring 2015, and 7th place in LCK Summer. However, things started to click for Samsung in 2016, and the team gradually improved throughout the year to peak at the perfect time during the World Championship. Coming within a single game of toppling the SKT dynasty, Samsung signaled its triumphant return as a true contender, with its rebuild completed far ahead of schedule.
What a great story for Edgar and Samsung. Let’s try not to dwell too much on the unfortunate implications this has on personnel recruitment and workplace mentality…
References: Daily Esports, Fomos
- Coach: Ju Youngdal “Odin” (since Sep. 2016)
- Previous experience: Progamer and coach in StarCraft: Brood War, coach in StarCraft II (Samsung)
Odin left Samsung in 2014 in order to fulfil his mandatory military service, and was quickly rehired to the LoL team following his discharge in 2016. He was immediately thrown into the deep-end, joining Samsung for its trip to the World Championship.
References: Daily Esports, Fomos
- Coach: Yeo Changdong “TrAce” (since Dec. 2016)
- Previous experience: LoL progamer (Jin Air)
Reference: Inven
SK Telecom T1
- Head coach: Choi Byounghoon “cCarter” (Since Nov. 2013*)
- Previous experience: Brood War coach, Special Forces coach (SKT)
In 2008, SKT fired its entire coaching staff after a three-year Proleague title drought, bringing in new staff from the outside while also promoting from within. cCarter was one of those to receive an opportunity, becoming a coach-in-training.
Things continued to fall into place for cCarter after he finished his training. In 2009, KeSPA established a new Proleague for Special Forces, a Korean tactical FPS (essentially a Counter-Strike clone). With SKT primarily focused on ending its StarCraft title drought, cCarter was given the opportunity to lead the newly formed Special Forces team. From 2009 to 2012, cCarter and SKT earned two #1 finishes in the regular season and won a single Proleague title.
In 2012, Special Forces Proleague came to a close, but cCarter had another project in line. For some time, he had been bothering SKT to enter the growing League of Legends scene. Work had been put into assembling a roster for over a year, but each hypothetical team went up in smoke due to a variety of issues. Finally, in December of 2012, the decision was made to pull the trigger on a hastily made roster rather than delay any further. The first SKT LoL squad was announced with pro players Reapered, H0R0, UandMe, MighTiLy, and StarLast. As a tactical coach, cCarter decided to bring on kkOma, a former pro that he had seen streaming...
*cCarter was the de facto head of SKT from the start, but only received the official title of head coach in 2013
References Daily Esports, Digital Times, Inven
- Coach: Kim Jeonggyun “kkOma” (Since Dec. 2012)
- Previous experience: KHAOS player and streamer, StarCraft II progamer (oGs), LoL progamer (Startale), LoL broadcaster and streamer.
kkOma had been introduced to Startale by FruitDealer and Trickster, two of his former teammates during his short stint as a StarCraft II progamer (they had previously been on team oGs together). While Startale was primarily a SC2 team at the time, it saw potential in LoL’s rapid growth and decided to give it a shot. In April of 2012, kkOma was cut from StarTale for "irreconcilable differences in opinion."
kkOma spent the next few months streaming LoL and making regular guest appearances on OnGameNet’s LoL related programming. By the time SKT contacted him about a coaching position, he had already built up a decent following, enough so that kkOma considered SKT’s offer underwhelming, and hardly an obvious choice. He accepted, but only under one condition: he would be allowed to recruit a second team. A second team, he thought, was the only way to win a championship.
SKT agreed. And the rest, as they say, is history.
References: OSEN, Game Chosun, Daily Esports(1), Daily Esports(2), ThisIsGame, Inven, Fomos
- Coach: Jeung Minseong “Rapidstar” (since Dec. 2016)
- Previous experience: LoL progamer and coach (MiG/Azubu/CJ, EDG)
References: Inven, Chosun Ilbo
Note: 'Head coach' (감독) is generally a managerial position that is less involved with in-depth strategies and tactics. Those are left to the 'coach' (코치). However, not all teams are the same, and this is not always the case.
Click here to read part 1: Afreeca Freecs, bbq OLIVERS, Ever8 Winners, Jin Air Green Wings, and KT Rolster
