League of Legends LCK: Grading the offseason so far

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Madrid, Spain – November 3: — during Worlds 2019 Semifinals at Palacio Vistalegre on November 3, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games) /

Jin Air acquires Light, re-signs Grace

Jin Air goes green again at the ADC role, signing rookie Kwon “Light” Sun-ho and re-signed mid laner Lee “Grace” Chan-ju.

Light Grade: B
Grace Grade: F

Light is an unproven commodity, so I can’t really comment whether he will be better than their recently departed AD Route. However, if there’s one thing Jin Air actually does well it’s evaluate AD talent (before Route, they had current SKT ADC Teddy) so I think he’ll be fine.

On the other hand, Grace is a known commodity and what is known is that he stinks. He was my lowest-graded mid laner of all LCK players last summer, so I don’t know why JAG wouldn’t take a flyer on a young player with some upside instead.

Sandbox acquires Route

Speaking of Jin Air ADCs, Sandbox made a move to acquire Moon “Route” Geom-su.

Grade: B+

In his first year of professional play, Route wasn’t exactly a world-beater, but he put up decent numbers on a terrible team paired with some of the worst supports in the LCK. That’s not a slam-dunk, but it’s certainly an upgrade over Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun, the clear weak link on an otherwise very underrated Sandbox team.

Gen.G acquires Bdd, Rascal, and Clid

After a disappointing 2019, Gen.G blew up their roster by bringing in Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong from KT Rolster, Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee of DragonX, and, in a real stunner, acquiring SKT jungler Kim “Clid” Tae-min.

Bdd Grade: A-
Rascal Grade: B-
Clid Grade: A+

Everything was a mess for Gen.G other than their bot lane in 2019 and they took some big swings to atone for their past failures. Bdd may not be the same dominant force he was a few years ago, but he still has the skill to be a star and is miles ahead of the rotating cast that Gen.G was trotting out there.

Clid, similarly, is a slam-dunk signing. He was easily one of the best junglers in Korea and at Worlds he proved he is a world-class jungler. To compare him to Gen.G’s 2019 jungler, Han “Peanut” Wang-ho is like comparing a rocket ship to a box with flames drawn on the side.

Rascal is the only acquisition that I don’t think is a sure-fire upgrade over their existing roster acquisition. I thought Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin was at least serviceable last year and his pedigree as a former World Champion probably entitles him to be brought back.

SKT acquires Cuzz

After letting Clid leave in free agency, SKT replaces him with DragonX jungler Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan.

Grade: A+

I never would have thought that Clid leaving SKT would ultimately work out for them. Incredibly, they were able to somehow upgrade by adding the best Korean jungler not named Tarzan.

Next. Grading Day 3 of LCS free agency. dark

Sandbox acquires GorillA, sign FATE

To help shepherd their young ADC, Sanbox added famed LCK support Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyun of Misfits and add rookie Yoo “FATE” Su-hyeok.

GorillA Grade: B-
FATE Grade: D+

GorillA was, quite frankly, not productive during his time in the LEC. One saving grace for why this acquisition could work out is that his experience paired with the young, talented Route could revitalize his career.

On the other hand, I don’t know how to feel about the acquisition of FATE. Unlike Jin Air with Light, Sandbox could be a contender for a spot at Worlds with their talent. Their mid laner Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon was certainly competent last year, so I’m not sure if this risk is worth the potential upside.

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