After spending the first four weeks of the LCK Summer Split away from competitive play, Heo “PawN” Won-seok has returned to KT Rolster’s active roster.
Formerly KT’s starting mid laner, PawN took a leave of absence from professional play just before to the current Summer Split began in order to recover from physical injuries. In the announcement of PawN’s break in early June, KT assured fans that PawN would return for the second half of summer. The LCK Summer Split is just about to hit its halfway point this week, PawN’s return is right on time.
In addition to PawN rejoining the roster, KT have also promoted trainee top laner Hwang “Kingen” Sung-hoon, and support Choi “Mia” Sang-in to the active bench. A prominent name in Korean solo queue, Kingen has two accounts in challenger ranked in the top 50.
KT wasn’t the only team to make additions to their lineup post-Rift Rivals. LCK champions KINGZONE DragonX have ended Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee’s indefinite suspension, putting the top laner back on their roster.
Rascal, alongside Afreeca Freecs AD carry Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram, and Hanwha Life Esports Yoon jungler “SeongHwan” Seong-hwan faced punishment from their teams in March for offensive comments made online. Both Rascal and Aiming were suspended for the remainder of the 2018 Spring Split. Aiming’s suspension ended last month, and the AD carry has since returned to play for Afreeca.
KT, KINGZONE, and Afreeca are all returning from a disappointing Rift Rivals tournament, where they lost to China’s LPL in the finals 2-3 alongside SK Telecom T1. Despite the LCK’s overall loss though, KT went the entire event undefeated.
Afreeca will open week four of the LCK Summer Split on July 11 when they face the league’s first place team, Griffin.
