One of the strongest teams of this year’s first International Tournament, Gen.G are looking to erase the mistakes of the past.
On Tuesday, the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational’s first day will be held in London! While everyone’s attention is on the teams that will play in the Play-Ins, but if you look a bit further, you’ll find the strongest League of Legends squads in the world at the moment – and among them is Gen.G, who could easily be the best team right now.
The Journey of Gen.G
The organisation of Gen.G has been on a roll these past years: they are always among the top teams of the world’s most renowned League of Legends tournament, the LCK, and they have attended every Worlds since 2018. While T1 or Dplus KIA have bested them in the past repeatedly, they have come into their own after 2021, where they finished in the top 4 of Worlds. In 2022, they managed to win both the Summer Regular Season and Playoffs of the LCK but couldn’t get past the semi-finals of Worlds – but at least, they got knocked out by the team that became the Champions, DRX.
Before the start of the 2023 season, Gen.G said goodbye to it’s legendary botlane duo, Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, who joined JD Gaming in the LPL and Son “Lehends” Si-woo, who is now the support of LCK’s KT Rolster. In their place the team signed some incredible young talent: Yoo “Delight” Hwan-joong of T1 Academy and Fredit Brion became the team’s support, while ADC Prodigy Kim “Peyz” Su-hwan was promoted from GEN Challengers to the main team.
Together with Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon, Han “Peanut” Wang-ho and Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, they had a great Spring Split in the LCK. While Gen.G only finished second in the regular season, they managed to beat teams such as Dplus KIA, Hanwha Life Esports and Liiv Sandbox – but failed to best Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and T1 even once, along with Leheds’ new team, KT Rolster.
In the playoffs, Gen.G has won their first match against Hanwha Life, beating Chovy’s old team 3-1 in the second round. Afterwards, they faced off against T1 in the Winner’s Bracket Finals, but as in the Regular Season, they couldn’t beat Faker and co. However, after gaining some momentum with the win against KT Rolster, they turned the tides of the LCK Playoffs, defeating their rivals 3-1 where it mattered the most, claiming the first place of the Korean Spring Split!
Players to Watch on Gen.G
Of course, all eyes are on the 17-year-old prodigy, Peyz, who has managed to fill the shoes of 2017 World Champion Ruler in the team. Peyz has mostly played meta Champions this Spring, such as Zeri and Varus, but did so to an almost perfect degree. He also had 4 matches with Draven, out of which he won 3, played Jhin 3 times, and even busted out the Ziggs on a strange occasion. The young player seems to be able to do it all – hopefully, he doesn’t crack under pressure.
Next to him, Delight has really proved to be an exceptional support, always making space for Peyz, protecting him, or complementing his damage with picks such as Lux, Kalista or Pantheon. Karma is his pocket pick, which he played 7 times even though the Champion is not really popular anywhere else in the world.
The secondary carry of the team is of course Chovy, and the Church will open its gates shortly. Chovy can literally play anything in the midlane, from assassins such as Akali through control mages akin to Lissandra and Viktor, AD picks like Tristana, Irelia and Jayce, to even tanks, as he played K’Sante 3 times this spring.
This means that he and Doran makes a killer combo in the Pick/Ban phase, as Gen.G’s toplaner played the Pride of Nazumah the most this split. That doesn’t mean that he can’t step up though, as he has 11 Jayce matches under his belt, and played 2 Fiora and Camille games, so if the situation demands it, he is more than capable to help his team out in this fashion.
2017 MSI-Champion and Worlds-finalist Peanut is the glue that holds the whole of Gen.G together. His Wukong and Vi is legendary, but he played 5 matches of Elise as well, getting the most out of the short time the Spider Queen was the best jungler on the Rift. He’s also not afraid of a blast from the past, as he had an Olaf and a Poppy game this Spring as well – really surprising his opponents.
Gen.G didn’t beat T1 by accident in the LCK Finals even though they got beaten by Faker and his teammates 3 times prior. They are able top adapt to the situation and their mechanical prowess is unquestionable. Moreover, the LCK Champions are working well as a team, so they truly have a chance to win the whole tourney – of course, we had the same thought last year before Worlds.
Where to watch Gen.G
Hopefully, Gen.G can live up to the expectations this time around. You can catch Chovy and co. playing from May 9th, after the Play-In stage has concluded on lolesports.com, the official LolEsports YouTube channel and Riot Games’ Twitch channel. Follow ESTNN for the Previews and Predictions of the MSI and the latest news of the League of Legends esports scene!
