❘ Printed: 2022-12-03T08:30:00
❘ Up to date: 2022-12-03T08:59:30
League of Legends world champion Hong ‘Pyosik’ Chang-hyeon is Group Liquid’s new jungler for the 2023 season. The participant made waves throughout his crew’s 2022 Worlds run, however his fascinating journey to LoL stardom predates that title.
Pyosik turned knowledgeable participant in 2019 and has spent his total profession with DRX, or DragonX, because it was previously named. He began within the group’s academy system and was shortly referred to as as much as the primary crew, debuting with DRX within the 2019 KeSPA Cup.
Earlier than becoming a member of DRX, Pyosik was a Grandmaster-level participant and streamer. He was a Kindred one-trick, taking part in the champion virtually solely. His identify in Korean means ‘mark’, which is a reference to the champion’s principal skill to mark enemies and jungle camps. The then-teenager was invited to check out for the DRX academy squad due to his spotlight clips on social media — a far cry from what number of different gamers flip professional by making an attempt out for groups or climbing up the ladder with newbie and semi-pro sides.
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He gave his first interview with Inven International as knowledgeable participant in 2020 after ending within the prime 4 on the KeSPA Cup. Pyosik has develop into often known as a charismatic participant who is just not afraid to bounce or rejoice for the cameras: in his first interview, he stated he hoped to be a participant that followers would know and be capable to strategy comfortably and laid out a purpose that he would ultimately obtain.
“My purpose is to win Worlds. I have to consider in myself, and I believe it’s attainable if all of us do our greatest,” Pyosik stated.
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Pyosik as a professional earlier than becoming a member of Group Liquid
Pyosik was not a highly-touted prospect when he began his profession.
When Pyosik began taking part in on the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) stage, he wasn’t precisely a highly-touted jungle prospect. His crew on the time had two of the most effective solo-lane gamers within the league, prime laner Choi ‘Doran’ Hyeon-joon and mid laner Jeong ‘Chovy’ Ji-hoon, together with South Korean legend Kim ‘Deft’ Hyuk-kyu because the bot laner.
Throughout his first season, the younger jungler would discuss how he didn’t suppose he was taking part in on the stage required to be within the league. Many admired Pyosik’s mechanics (his Lee Sin play was at all times thought of top-notch), however the cerebral features of taking part in jungle weren’t his strongest swimsuit.
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In Pyosik’s first season, DragonX positioned third within the spring break up and second in the summertime break up, with the crew’s veteran gamers main the way in which. These performances have been sufficient to earn DragonX a spot on the Worlds, the place the crew would place within the prime eight, dropping within the quarterfinals to eventual champions DAMWON Gaming.
Success proved to be extra elusive in 2021 for Pyosik and DRX. The younger participant would go from being surrounded by veterans and touted prospects to being the chief of a younger and inexperienced group. DRX signed just one new participant for the 2021 season in prime laner Hwang ‘Kingen’ Seong-hoon, selling gamers from the academy crew for the remaining positions.
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The 2021 LCK summer season break up would show to be Pyosik’s worst break up as a professional participant because the crew solely managed two collection wins within the common season and he missed out on the playoffs for the primary time in his profession. The only real spotlight from 2021 for the younger participant was reviving Udyr from the lifeless in professional play, selecting the champion for the primary time in 5 years.
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The rise of Pyosik in 2022
Pyosik and DRX rode on a wave of enjoyable to a world title.
2022 was when the world develop into reacquainted with Pyosik as a dependable jungler. With Deft again on DRX, and Pyosik having grown extra as a participant and chief, the crew picked up kind within the spring break up as they completed fourth within the common season and fifth within the playoffs.
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All year long, Pyosik was open to taking part in many alternative champions. Viego and Lee Sin have been his prime picks with 22 video games logged for each, he additionally performed a complete of 17 totally different champions with Poppy, Trundle and Xin Zhao as a few of his most performed. Over the whole season, Pyosik averaged a +10 expertise lead at quarter-hour and took part within the first kill 40% of the time, in response to gol.gg.
In the summertime break up, the crew managed to sneak into Worlds because of the LCK Regional Finals, the place they might breeze by way of the play-in and the group stage to succeed in the playoffs. That is the place the legend of DRX was born because the crew have been dropping each follow match earlier than their quarterfinal conflict in opposition to Edward Gaming.
From there, DRX’s coach steered that the crew ought to play for enjoyable, with out worrying about the results of the collection. Pyosik would go on to have a few of the greatest performances of his profession after altering his mentality, together with a number of stolen targets from enemy junglers in key moments.
The younger South Korean participant additionally offered a few of the most memorable post-match moments of Worlds 2022. He danced like his namesake Kindred after successful the championship, shadowboxed the digicam throughout his grand last introduction, and helped Deft by way of a tearful post-match interview after defeating EDG.
In a current stream look, Pyosik confirmed that he was leaving the LCK and that his subsequent crew had a “good surroundings for gamers” and good work advantages. Liquid Common Supervisor Kang ‘Dodo’ Jun-hyeok has said that he goals to create the “hardest working surroundings”, which might be essential for the crew’s younger gamers to proceed their improvement.