LCK 2024 off-season heats up as several world champions enter free agency
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesJust days after the end of the 2023 LoL World Championship, LCK’s so-called “stove league” has kicked off, with several world-class players released into free agency.
It’s already been an insane year with the LCS and LEC’s off-season seeing many rookies get their first chance, veterans left off of teams last minute, and the two teams exiting the LCS and its franchised league.
However, this off-season period has given way to an equally chaotic time in the LCK as official accounts have begun announcing which players have opted not to renew their contracts.
Between just Gen.G and DPlus KIA alone, some of the world’s best players are up for grabs. There’s a long off-season ahead of us yet.
LCK roster shuffle begins as world champions enter free agency
With how strong of a region Korea is, it’s no surprise that several world title holders are being shuffled between teams.
For instance, DPlus KIA have already announced that they’re terminating the contracts of Canna, Canyon, and Deft. Though they plan to retain ShowMaker at this time, that’s two of three world champion players on the roster up for grabs along with Canna.
According to DPlus KIA, all of these players have chosen free agency and decided to let their contracts expire. This leaves a 2020 and 2022 world champion up for grabs by any team who’s keen.
Additionally, DRX have let go of BeryL, making the Worlds 2022-winning bot lane eligible to be reunited if an LCK team chose to do so.
And, though Gen.G’s roster doesn’t contain any world champion players, most of the players on the team have gotten pretty close. Only Peyz remains as Chovy, Doran, Peanut, and Delight have all decided not to renew.
As if that wasn’t enough, Kingen has also opted to leave Hanwha Life Esports. However, HLE have chosen to keep both Viper and Zeka to maintain some of that star power on their team despite 2023 shortcomings on the roster.
That said, Hanwha Life Esports didn’t exactly have an easy go of things in 2023 considering their jungler got suspended in the middle of the split due to sexual misconduct. They’ll surely be looking to rebuild the team in order to get the results they’re looking for, though it seems their vision of the future didn’t involve Kingen.
It also remains to be seen if T1 retains its roster. While the organization wants to retain its players, other teams will surely be vying to get a piece of the Worlds 2023-winning pie.
