The thieves are welcoming a legend for the organization back, as well as a new LCK Challengers talent.
After coming into the 2023 Season by strengthening their roster with two of the most legendary players in the LCS history, Peter “Doublelift” Peng and Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, 100 Thieves finished the Spring Split early in the playoffs with a loss to Golden Guardians. Followed by the sudden retirement announcement of Bjergsen meant a lot of fan expectations on the Thieves’ side.
Promising four big announcements ahead of the LCS 2023 Summer, 100 Thieves revealed today two of these changes that will happen to the LCS roster’s solo lanes. The first signing announced was the Korean mid laner Lim “Quid” Hyeon-seung. The 19-year-old started his professional career three years ago, spending all three on different Gen.G squads competing in LCK Challenger and Academy leagues.
Despite not finding a lot of team success in the LCK Challengers, Quid was a player highly regarded by analysts and fans. Gen.G also has a robust Academy system that fed a lot of new talent to LCK, the most recent of them being Kim “Peyz” Su-hwan who won the league in his debut split with Gen.G’s main squad. Quid signing with 100 Thieves is also the continuation of the trend of LCS teams moving toward LCK Challenger talent when it comes to their import choices.
Top lane for 100 Thieves will also have a new but familiar face in the Summer. After an up-and-down split for the rookie top laner Milan “Tenacity” Oleksij, 100 Thieves decided to bring in a veteran to strengthen their title chances. Former LCS champion with the Thieves, Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho, is making his return to the organization after spending one split away from home, with Evil Geniuses. Ssumday had signed with EG at the start of 2023 but left at the end of April when EG released almost all of its roster.
Called up an old friend.
Welcome home, @Ssumday pic.twitter.com/Y9hcz1zfUR
— 100 Thieves Esports (@100T_Esports) May 12, 2023
Despite finishing the LCS 2023 Spring at fourth, Ssumday’s Evil Geniuses stint didn’t go that hot. While fourth place was too low for a team with EG’s aspirations, Ssumday’s individual performance did not impress the fans either. Still, it was only two years ago when Ssumday lifted the LCS trophy in a 100 Thieves jersey. The Korean top laner was also inducted into the 100 Thieves Hall of Fame after the announcement of his departure.
Joining Ssumday and Quid will be Jang “Cain” Nu-ri as the team’s new head coach, taking over the duty from Erlend “Nukeduck” Holm who is moving into an assistant coach position. While this is the legendary coach’s first time with the Thieves, he previously worked with the bot laner Doublelift on Team Liquid. After starting his career in Korea on Najin Sword, Cain famously coached TL during their four-peat years. Since leaving TL and NA, Cain spent two years coaching Kwangdong Freecs.
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