The Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) has announced two friendlies for the Korea national League of Legends team.
Korea will face the USA and Vietnam in best-of-fives on September 19 and 20 in Busan in preparation for the Asia Games 2026.
This year’s Korea team features Choi ‘Zeus’ Woo-je, Kim ‘Canyon’ Geon-bu, Kim ‘Zeca’ Geon-woo, Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok, Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Min-hyung, and Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok.
LCK team owner Arnold Hur of Gen.G criticised KeSPA for its Asia Games LoL team selection process.
Young USA LoL Team Heads to Korea
Due to the Asia Games schedule (September 30-October 2) being between regional Playoffs and LoL Worlds, most LCS players can’t attend this event.
Instead, USA Esports is piloting its National Team Development Program (NTDP) by sending a young roster of exciting talents.
Dignitas toplaner Noah ‘Denathor’ Erikson will be the only LCS talent with the full line-up as follows:
- Top – Noah ‘Denathor’ Erikson (Dignitas)
- Jungler – Perry Chen ‘Perry’ Norman (Conviction)
- Mid – Jonny ‘AoJune’ Chen (Maryville)
- ADC – Jeremiah ‘ScaryJerry’ Leathe (Maryville)
- Support – Ryan ‘Zyko’ Jung (Conviction)
USA Esports entered a strategic partnership with KeSPA earlier this year, and now promising LoL players from NA are reaping the benefits.
Jesse Bodony, president and ceo of USA Esports, admitted that the NTDP program, a pipeline for turning unproven talent into national team representatives similar to the USA Hockey equivalent, wasn’t ready to be launched.
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However, sending a team to play against Korea and Vietnam’s best LoL players was too good an opportunity, as Bodony explained:
“A few months ago, some of these players were competing in collegiate matches and now one of them is going to look down the mid lane to see Faker. The others will be battling against Gumayusi, Keria, Zeus, and Canyon.
“That experience jump doesn’t really exist anywhere else in the American system right now, which is kind of the point of the NTDP.”
This USA roster will also get to practice with the Vietnam team, which includes:
- Top
- STran (GAM)
- Pun (TSW)
- Jungle
- HLe (TSW)
- Mid
- DTran (TSW)
- Bot
- Hoang (TSW)
- Support
- Dinh (GAM)
Do you think this experience will help develop NA talent? Share your thoughts with us on the Insider Gaming Discord.
This opportunity came up after the inaugural Esports Nations Cup was postponed for a year. And for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
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