Vici Gaming is a Dota 2 powerhouse, taking second place at this year’s $11 million The International 4. Now they may be the next League of Legends powerhouse, too.
Today the team officially announced the signing of Li “Vasilii” Wei-Jun, former marksman of Chinese League Championship Series team LMQ, adding another player with experience outside of China to what’s becoming an increasingly formidable roster of players.
The squad already signed four players from the Samsung organization that dominated Korean League last year, including two world champions from Samsung Galaxy White, Choi “DanDy” In-kyu and Cho “Mata” Se-hyoung.
Li’s signing comes as a bit of a surprise, considering Vici Gaming already has two other marksmen on the roster, He “BoBo” Wen-Bo and Byun “Skatch” Se-Hoon, a former substitute for Samsung.
The team now has 10 players under contract, with four of them from Korea, leading to plenty of speculation as to just how the starting lineup will shake out. Chinese esports governing body ACE recently vowed that Riot Games’ interregional movement policy applies to the Chinese region and adopted a single team system, similar to the League Championship Series.
That means Vici Gaming’s four Korean players, Choi, Cho, and Samsung Galaxy Blue support Lee “Heart” Gwan-hyung, will not be able to play in the same lineup in the Tencent LoL Pro League (LPL). Vici Gaming will also not be able to buy up a second LPL league spot, as many expected them to do with so much talent signed.
The signing of Li is a bit more flexible, if still a headscratcher. As a Chinese native, Li will not count against the foreign player cap despite spending the last year competing in North America, though Li will give up his status as an exempt foreign player. He’s doing so to join a team that seemingly doesn’t need him.
From the players’ perspectives, it’s tough to understand Vici Gaming’s signing spree. Why join a team where you may not even get to play? But for Vici Gaming, stockpiling talent may be just what they need to do to win the LPL and challenge at the Riot World Championships.
Adding Li, a fourth player with experience at Worlds, certainly won’t hurt.
Image via Riot Games/Flickr
