Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon will play for LCK’s Liiv SANDBOX ahead of the 2022 League of Legends season, switching to top lane in the process.
This will be the second stint in SANDBOX for Dove, announced by the organization officially today. The 23-year-old spent the 2019 and 2020 seasons in their colors when they were still SANDBOX Gaming. Last year, he left the team to join KT Rolster, ending both LCK Splits in seventh place.
Role swaps are risky bets that very few players take during their career. LPL player Xiaohu notably became the first professional League player to win international trophies in two different roles, first as a mid laner and then top laner.
For Dove, this decision had already been considered in the past. A report from Naver mentioned he already considered swapping to top lane when he used to play for SB.
“Lots of mid laners found success by role swapping to top lane, and we all feel that Dove will be successful as a top laner,” said the team’s general manager Becker Jung, according to Inven Global’s translation. “We’ll make sure to work hard to make this role swap work.”
The team has begun overhauling its roster by parting ways with five players earlier in the month, then signed former T1 midlaner Lee “Clozer” Ju-hyun two days ago.
It’s still unclear what the team will look like in 2022, since they have yet to reveal their bot lane. Jeon “Howling” Ho-bin could become the starting support, or SANDBOX might still sign someone else. Dove’s roleswap, however, will have many fans keep their eyes on this team when it steps back onto the LCK stage with a new roster.
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