Mush
2022-02-22 06:00:52
Summit first started his journey in the LCK in 2019 when he left Afreeca Freecs — a team in which he was Kiin’s substitute, another star top laner— to join Sandbox Gaming. Sandbox was the third and final exciting team to be promoted from Challengers Korea to the big league. They never managed to reach the heights Griffin and Damwon did, but they still caused some damage. The main problem was that, unlike those two teams, Sandbox were essentially a one threat roster.
Nick “LS” de Cesare has been one of the biggest voices in trying to show how Summit is to the rest of the world. The English LCK casters have been saying it for years too, and recently YamatoCannon (Fnatic’s Coach), who coached Sandbox for a Split (or a year) in 2020 underlined how good a player he is. Due to how many years LS has spent in Korea, he has a lot of knowledge of the LCK that other content creators simply do not have access to. This unique experience was key in creating the Cloud9 we see today, which is composed of a role-swapped Fudge, Blaber and three Korean players. Yes, LS is so deeply ingrained into the South Korean region that he managed to find a promising Challengers Korea player who was born in the United States, essentially dodging the import rule.
Dead on arrival
Unless you have been entirely away from the internet in an attempt to avoid Elden Ring spoilers, you know why the positive outlook my original article had has changed. LS left Cloud9 last Saturday shortly before their game against CLG, which was a loss. So, let’s put this into perspective. Cloud9 hired LS as a Head-Coach who made most of the General Manager’s role for this season. The team was hand picked by him, the three Korean players in Berserker and Winsome were scouted by him and he directly talked to Fudge about his role-swap from top to midlane. This was, for better or worse, the LS project. So how can the project go forward without its main architect?
The roster does look exciting, regardless of what the management is above it, but this was a team built solely for the purpose of playing the “LS way”. Even if Berserker turns out to be a top 3 adc in NA and Summit destroys every top laner he faces, it’s hard to believe that they will have any chances of toppling Team Liquid. If you’re Summit, a player considered the best top laner in Korea, is second place in the LCS really a success? There are three other Korean top laners in the league, but they’ve all achieved their highest successes before coming into the region. Impact is a world champion, Ssumday was one of the best top laners in the LCK’s golden era and Huni had his chances at SKT and an undefeated season in Fnatic. Summit has everything to prove, but how will he prove it here?
Perhaps the roster wouldn’t have won NA regardless of LS being there, or maybe they’ll go above and beyond and win it anyway, but it’s hard to believe that the project will work as well as it would with Nick being there.
The climb continues
Summit has had an exciting but disappointing career. After years of being surrounded by much weaker players in Sandbox, the best top laner in Korea now aims to be the best top laner in NA in a crumbling project. He is still relatively young being a 23 year old, but we all know that the clock never stops when it comes to South Korean players. Khan just recently retired at 26 due to the mandatory military service, so it is safe to assume that Summit doesn’t have many splits left. Hopefully all my negative expectations are proven wrong and Cloud9 will thrive despite the circumstances, but only time will tell.
Park Woo-Tae’s in game ID was expertly recommended by iloveoov, but it feels like the mountain just keeps on growing. Regardless of how this project goes or where Summit goes next, I hope he lives up to his name and reaches the heights his potential has shown to be reachable.