A 17-year-old rookie is leading the LCK in kills halfway through the 2023 Spring Split

The sparks have continued to fly as the 2023 LCK Spring Split rages onward, and after four weeks of exciting League of Legends play, one rookie marksman has risen to the top with the most kills in the league.

Gen.G’s rising AD carry prospect Kim “Peyz” Su-hwan has 94 kills through 19 games played, while also sporting the second-highest KDA of any LCK player, according to competitive stats aggregate Oracle’s Elixir. He is actually only eclipsed in KDA by his bottom lane partner Yoo “Delight” Hwan-joong, who has a 7.4 KDA with 191 assists.

At the end of 2022, the 17-year-old stepped into the undesirable role of filling in for Gen.G’s former superstar marksman Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, who left the region to join JD Gaming this past offseason. With one of the greatest ADCs in history leaving, Peyz had massive shoes to fill in his first season as an LCK starter. There was also the added pressure of being a serviceable carry alongside the likes of internationally-renowned talent like Han “Peanut” Wang-ho and Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon.

His champion pool is pretty standard, with a majority of his games coming on picks like Zeri, Varus, Jhin, and Lucian, while also getting plenty of resources throughout his matches. Peanut spends a good amount of time ganking the bottom lane to get the team’s duo ahead so they can snowball into the later stages of a game with ease.

Peyz’s opening successes—along with the rest of his team’s overall firepower—have propelled Gen.G to second place within the LCK regular season standings with a 6-2 record and a 13-6 overall game record. The team will, however, be facing off against their toughest competition yet with a match against the indomitable T1 on Sunday, Feb. 19.