According to people on the internet, coaches are an integral part of the mythic Korean infrastructure that has allowed LCK teams to dominate League of Legends esports. I dug through a bunch of articles (and my experience watching way too much StarCraft) to shine some light on who these mysterious coaches are, and how they arrived at where they are today.
Part one covers the first five LCK teams in alphabetical order: Afreeca Freecs, bbq OLIVERS, Ever8 Winners, Jin Air Green Wings, and KT Rolster.
Click here to read part 2: Longzhu Gaming, MVP, ROX Tigers, Samsung Galaxy and SK Telecom T1
The legendary StarCraft player was with SKT from the very beginning, hand-picked by SlayerS_Boxer in 2002 to join Dongyang Orion, the original incarnation of SKT. In iloveoov’s nine-year stint as a player, he won five individual titles and six Proleague championships with SKT. After serving his mandatory 21 month military service, he returned to SKT in 2013 as their head coach in StarCraft II, going on to win a seventh Proleague title in 2015.
When StarCraft II Proleague came to a close in late 2016, iloveoov chose to leave the esports franchise that defined his career to join Afreeca Freecs in an entirely new challenge.
One has to wonder what would have happened if iloveoov had done his military service at any other time. SKT founded their LoL team in December of 2012, which happened to be right in the middle of iloveoov’s military service. Had he been available at the time, surely the opportunity would have come across the desk of SKT’s most loyal, decorated and winningest player?
In his interview, Cho said he had considered joining a foreign team after Ever's success, but accepted Afreeca’s offer because of the potential the assembled roster offered.
References (Korean): Fomos, Daily Esports
Almost immediately after coach Kim joined, ESC Ever went on a miracle run in the 2015 KeSPA Cup, defeating Samsung, SBENU, SKT, and CJ on their way to the championship. It’s hard to tell from the outside how much coaching contributes to a team’s success, but in any case Kim was eventually rewarded with a sponsorship and free fried chicken from bbq.
References: Inven, Fomos
However, within the Korean the community, he’s probably better known for the memes around his alleged background as a professional kickboxer. Lecaf Oz was notorious for being an extremely strict team with a disciplinarian bent, and fans readily joked about why Oz would need someone with coach Han’s particular set of skills.
Reference: Inven
While it’s uncertain as to what Sweet did following his retirement from WarCraft III, he eventually found a gig coaching LoL for PRIME—his old WarCraft clan that had grown into a progaming team. Luckily for Sweet, he managed to switch jobs to Jin Air before PRIME suffered a catastrophic collapse.
Joining KT Rolster in 2000 when they were still named “ⓝ016,” Lee won over a dozen major and minor tournament titles as a pro FIFA player. After retiring in 2004 and fulfilling his mandatory military service, Lee rejoined KT Rolster in 2008 as member of the StarCraft: Brood War coaching staff, and was soon promoted to the head coaching position.
Between 2010 and 2011, Lee presided over golden age of KT Rolster, with the team winning its first Proleague championships ever in back-to-back finals against rivals SK Telecom (it certainly helped that Lee had Flash—known more commonly as “God” among StarCraft fans—on his side).
At the beginning of the 2014 LCK season, Lee officially began to focus entirely on KT Rolster’s League of Legends team (technically Lee’s title had been something akin to “head-head coach,” responsible for StarCraft, League of Legends, and Special Forces). While maybe it was a move made with the long view in mind, the change paid off quickly. In August, KT Rolster Arrows went on to win LCK Summer, making Lee a hero for KT Rolster in both StarCraft and LoL
References: Inven, SpoTV Games
However, playing League of Legends rekindled Zandarke’s competitive fire, and he contemplated a return to esports. While his initial application to the Najin head coaching position was turned down, he later received an opportunity to coach on KT Rolster. He accepted with his wife’s blessing, and he’s been with the team ever since.
In an industry where Korean coaches frequently switch jobs within the LCK or look abroad for a lucrative paycheck, Zandarke's four-year run with KT is especially notable (for comparison, he's been with KT longer than Kkoma has been with SKT).
References: Daily Esports, ThisIsGame
An injury put this latter venture on hold, which led Jeong to reach out to former MiG head coach Kang Hyun-Jong. Jeong had kept in touch with head coach Kang even after narrowly losing out on the MiG spot years ago, and that relationship became an unexpected opportunity. At the time, Kang was the head coach of CJ Entus, and needed someone to come coach the B-team roster (in retrospect, an impressive bunch including Helper, Trick, Bdd, Ghost, and Max). After meeting with Jeong, Kang decided to offer him the position.
Jeong later followed head coach Kang to spend a year with Afreeca Freecs, before parting ways with his mentor and signing with KT Rolster at the start of the 2017 season.
Reference: Fomos
Note: 'Head coach' (감독) is generally a managerial position that is less involved with in-depth strategies and tactics. Those are left to the 'coach' (코치). However, not all teams are the same, and this is not always the case.
Click here to read part 2: Longzhu Gaming, MVP, ROX Tigers, Samsung Galaxy and SK Telecom T1
Part one covers the first five LCK teams in alphabetical order: Afreeca Freecs, bbq OLIVERS, Ever8 Winners, Jin Air Green Wings, and KT Rolster.
Click here to read part 2: Longzhu Gaming, MVP, ROX Tigers, Samsung Galaxy and SK Telecom T1
Afreeca Freecs
- Head coach: Choi Yeonsung “iloveoov” (since Dec. 2016)
- Previous experience: Legendary StarCraft progamer, founding member of SK Telecom T1, longest tenured member of SK Telecom T1 (12 years)
The legendary StarCraft player was with SKT from the very beginning, hand-picked by SlayerS_Boxer in 2002 to join Dongyang Orion, the original incarnation of SKT. In iloveoov’s nine-year stint as a player, he won five individual titles and six Proleague championships with SKT. After serving his mandatory 21 month military service, he returned to SKT in 2013 as their head coach in StarCraft II, going on to win a seventh Proleague title in 2015.
When StarCraft II Proleague came to a close in late 2016, iloveoov chose to leave the esports franchise that defined his career to join Afreeca Freecs in an entirely new challenge.
One has to wonder what would have happened if iloveoov had done his military service at any other time. SKT founded their LoL team in December of 2012, which happened to be right in the middle of iloveoov’s military service. Had he been available at the time, surely the opportunity would have come across the desk of SKT’s most loyal, decorated and winningest player?
- Coach: Jo Gyehyun (since Dec 2016)
- Previous experience: Part-owner and coach of ESC Ever
In his interview, Cho said he had considered joining a foreign team after Ever's success, but accepted Afreeca’s offer because of the potential the assembled roster offered.
References (Korean): Fomos, Daily Esports
bbq OLIVERS
- Head coach: Kim Karam (since Oct. 2015)
- Previous experience: Coach in StarCraft II for Team SCV Life, referee in GSL.
Almost immediately after coach Kim joined, ESC Ever went on a miracle run in the 2015 KeSPA Cup, defeating Samsung, SBENU, SKT, and CJ on their way to the championship. It’s hard to tell from the outside how much coaching contributes to a team’s success, but in any case Kim was eventually rewarded with a sponsorship and free fried chicken from bbq.
References: Inven, Fomos
- Coach: Kim Minkwon “Ares” (since Dec. 2016)
- Previous experience: Jungler for Incredible Miracle, KT Rolster, and ESC Ever
Ever8 Winners
- Head coach: Park Shihan “SpawN” (since Jan. 2017)
- Previous experience: LoL coach and head coach in the Japanese LJL.
- Coach: Choi Byeongcheol “alvingo” (since Jan. 2017)
- Previous experience: LoL progamer with Xenics, Storm, Stand Point Gaming, and 7th heaven
Jin Air Greenwings
- Head coach: Han Sangyong (since Dec. 2013)
- Previous experience: Coach and head coach in StarCraft: Brood War, StarCraft II with Hwaseung (Lecaf) Oz and Jin Air Green Wings (KeSPA 8th Team)
However, within the Korean the community, he’s probably better known for the memes around his alleged background as a professional kickboxer. Lecaf Oz was notorious for being an extremely strict team with a disciplinarian bent, and fans readily joked about why Oz would need someone with coach Han’s particular set of skills.
- Coach: Lim Hyesung “Comet” (since May 2017)
- Previous experience: LoL progamer with Xenic Storm, journalist with Inven
Reference: Inven
- Former Coach: Chun Jung-Hee “Sweet” (Sep. 2014 - May. 2017)
- Previous experience: WarCraft 3 progamer
While it’s uncertain as to what Sweet did following his retirement from WarCraft III, he eventually found a gig coaching LoL for PRIME—his old WarCraft clan that had grown into a progaming team. Luckily for Sweet, he managed to switch jobs to Jin Air before PRIME suffered a catastrophic collapse.
KT Rolster
- Head coach: Lee Jihun (since Feb. 2014)
- Previous experience: FIFA progamer, coach and head coach in StarCraft: Brood War and StarCraft II, longest tenured member of KT Rolster (13+ years), maybe the longest tenured coach on any esports team in the world?
Joining KT Rolster in 2000 when they were still named “ⓝ016,” Lee won over a dozen major and minor tournament titles as a pro FIFA player. After retiring in 2004 and fulfilling his mandatory military service, Lee rejoined KT Rolster in 2008 as member of the StarCraft: Brood War coaching staff, and was soon promoted to the head coaching position.
Between 2010 and 2011, Lee presided over golden age of KT Rolster, with the team winning its first Proleague championships ever in back-to-back finals against rivals SK Telecom (it certainly helped that Lee had Flash—known more commonly as “God” among StarCraft fans—on his side).
At the beginning of the 2014 LCK season, Lee officially began to focus entirely on KT Rolster’s League of Legends team (technically Lee’s title had been something akin to “head-head coach,” responsible for StarCraft, League of Legends, and Special Forces). While maybe it was a move made with the long view in mind, the change paid off quickly. In August, KT Rolster Arrows went on to win LCK Summer, making Lee a hero for KT Rolster in both StarCraft and LoL
References: Inven, SpoTV Games
- Coach: Oh Changjong “Zandarke” (since Jul. 2012)
- Previous experience: StarCraft: Brood War and WarCraft III progamer, QA for a game developer
However, playing League of Legends rekindled Zandarke’s competitive fire, and he contemplated a return to esports. While his initial application to the Najin head coaching position was turned down, he later received an opportunity to coach on KT Rolster. He accepted with his wife’s blessing, and he’s been with the team ever since.
In an industry where Korean coaches frequently switch jobs within the LCK or look abroad for a lucrative paycheck, Zandarke's four-year run with KT is especially notable (for comparison, he's been with KT longer than Kkoma has been with SKT).
References: Daily Esports, ThisIsGame
- Coach: Jeong Jeseung (since Dec. 2016)
- Previous experience: LoL progamer with Xenics Tempest, coach with CJ Entus and Afreeca Freecs
An injury put this latter venture on hold, which led Jeong to reach out to former MiG head coach Kang Hyun-Jong. Jeong had kept in touch with head coach Kang even after narrowly losing out on the MiG spot years ago, and that relationship became an unexpected opportunity. At the time, Kang was the head coach of CJ Entus, and needed someone to come coach the B-team roster (in retrospect, an impressive bunch including Helper, Trick, Bdd, Ghost, and Max). After meeting with Jeong, Kang decided to offer him the position.
Jeong later followed head coach Kang to spend a year with Afreeca Freecs, before parting ways with his mentor and signing with KT Rolster at the start of the 2017 season.
Reference: Fomos
Note: 'Head coach' (감독) is generally a managerial position that is less involved with in-depth strategies and tactics. Those are left to the 'coach' (코치). However, not all teams are the same, and this is not always the case.
Click here to read part 2: Longzhu Gaming, MVP, ROX Tigers, Samsung Galaxy and SK Telecom T1
