Ambition and Crown announce they are leaving Gen.G

Two members of the former world champions have announced they are leaving Gen.G following a disappointing showing in the League of Legends 2018 World Championships. Where might the two end up, and who might be in line to replace them?

It’s hard to get to the top, but it may be even harder to stay there. Two years ago Samsung Galaxy were hoisting the League of Legends Summoner’s Cup as the 2017 World Champions. Now, rebranded as Gen.G, they have lost two-fifths of that championship roster.

According to an Inven Global report, the first major domino in the LCK offseason has fallen as mid laner Lee “Crown” Min-ho and jungler Kang “Ambition” Chan-Yong are both parting ways with Gen.G. This news is a critical hit to Gen.G, who were still reeling from a disappointing performance at 2018 Worlds, where they went 1-5 in the group stages and failed to make the knockout round as the defending champions.

Crown has been one of the more promising young mid laners in the LCK since arriving onto the pro scene in 2016. He has spent the past three seasons as a part of the Samsung/Gen.G organization and now looks to move on to another team that may be rethinking their stance on the mid lane now that one of the best in Korea is available.

Other than SKT’s Faker, Griffin’s Chovy, and Kingzone’s BDD, there really isn’t another team that can definitively say they wouldn’t consider Crown to be an upgrade over their current mid laner. Even KT Rolster, the number one seed for Korea entering Worlds, would want Crown over current mid laners Kuro and Ucal.

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If Crown does decide to leave Korea for a bigger money contract that will certainly be available in China or North America (though far less likely), he would have his pick of the litter there too. Although the current World Champions Invictus Gaming would probably pass on Crown in favor of their current mid Rookie, powerhouses like RNG and EDG could both consider Crown as an upgrade for a run at the 2019 title. As for North America, the most intriguing option would be Team Liquid, who would certainly consider Crown a vast upgrade to Pobelter and have one import slot available to use.

As for Ambition, as one of the longest-tenured junglers in LCK, he will also have a great number of teams calling him. One of the most notable would be SK Telecom, who are reportedly heavily scouting junglers to replace Blank after failing to qualify for Worlds for the first time in the organization’s history. The Dot Esports has reported that they are making inquiries to bring back current Kingzone jungler Peanut, but he had an uneven showing with SKT in the 2017 season. Ambition’s versatile style and leadership ability would synergize perfectly with Faker, and create a solid core to build around.

Of course, other strong Korean teams like Kingzone, Afreeca Freecs, or even potentially KT Rolster would inquire about Ambition. He would also have plenty of interest from foreign teams.

This leaves Gen.G with three-fifths of the former championship team intact – top laner Cuvee, AD carry Ruler, and support CoreJJ – but now exposes a gaping hole in their roster. Currently, their only active jungler and mid laner options would be Haru and Fly. Both are serviceable players, but they are certainly downgrades from Ambition and Crown. Worse yet, there aren’t many strong junglers or mids leaving their LCK teams for free agency at present, so there is no clear upgrade for a Gen.G team that was already facing questions.

Where do you think Ambition and Crown will end up? Do you think one, or both of them, will end up leaving Korea for a big-money deal?