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Summit reportedly agrees to join Team Liquid
According to a tweet by independent reporter Brieuc "LEC Wooloo" Seeger, Korean "League of Legends" toplaner Park "Summit" Woo-tae has agreed to join Team Liquid of the League Championship Series (LCS) after being considered by the LCS's FlyQuest and MAD Lions of the League European Championship (LEC).
The 23-year-old began his career as a starter with Liiv SANDBOX of League Champions Korea (LCK), where he played for three years and gained renown as one of the best toplaners in Korea. Summit joined the LCS's Cloud9 in November 2021 and won the 2022 LCS Spring Split MVP award, but a 3-0 loss to Evil Geniuses in playoffs exposed weaknesses in Summit's champion pool and playstyle, and he left the team. Summit then joined FunPlus Phoenix of the League of Legends Professional League (LPL), who placed 7th-8th in the LPL Summer Playoffs and missed the 2022 League of Legends World Championship.
Summit replaces Belgian toplaner Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau, who said on his Twitch stream that he will be teamless in 2023 after one year with Team Liquid.
A leak on top of a leak
Independent journalist Travis Gafford initially reported Summit as a possibility for Team Liquid on Nov. 18, before firming on the prediction in a Nov. 21 video featuring his final 2023 roster predictions. Gafford also reported that he believed Team Liquid would sign a Korean import jungler. A few hours later, Summit publicly provided a probable name for the spot in a tweet responding to LEC Wooloo's report.
https://twitter.com/FPXSumm1t/status/1594943932177453056
Korean jungler Eom "UmTi" Seong-hyeon has played in the LCK since 2017 with the Jin Air Green Wings, KT Rolster and Fredit BRION, and while no journalists have officially reported that UmTi is joining Team Liquid as of this article's publication, Summit's tweet lines up with Gafford's Korean import jungler prediction. Also, the 23-year-old UmTi doesn't have a team at the moment, as he left Fredit BRION on Oct. 31.
UmTi would replace Danish jungler Lucas "Santorin" Tao Kilmer Larsen, who reportedly agreed to terms with the LCS's Dignitas according to LEC Wooloo. Leaguepedia reports that UmTi can speak English, which would make him one of three known bilingual players on the team alongside support Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in and reported midlaner Harry "Haeri" Kang.
The rest of the roster
Team Liquid announced on Nov. 18 that they hired legendary Korean toplaner Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan as coach, and they've reportedly promoted Academy midlaner Haeri and Academy botlaner Sean "Yeon" Sung to replace midlaner Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg and botlaner Steven "Hans sama" Liv, who left Team Liquid on Nov. 11 and Sept. 19 respectively.
Support CoreJJ will remain with the team. The 28-year-old and 2017 world champion has been with Team Liquid since November 2018 and is the second longest tenured player in the LCS after Cloud9's Robert "Blaber" Huang, who joined C9 in July 2018.
Featured photos courtesy of Cloud9 and Riot Games.
