The 16-year-old Johnson “Gryffinn” Lee is facing a challenge in League of Legends that many consider impossible: As an American, he wants to make it into the South Korean LCK, the toughest LoL league in the world, where superstars like Faker or Showmaker are waiting for him.
Why is this such a difficult goal?
- The South Korean professional league LCK is made up solely of South Koreans: The 10 teams in the LCK currently field a South Korean in every position on the roster.
- Even the 10 Challenger teams, so to speak the youth teams in the second league, only feature South Koreans. Although “Brion Challengers” at least had a Vietnamese player in the roster a year ago.
- South Koreans are so good and so dominant in LoL that they not only dominate the LCK, but also regularly provide the best players in the USA and China: The LPL in China is particularly filled with South Korean top stars like Kanavi, Ruler, Rookie, Tarzan, or Scout. Even in China, apart from South Koreans, there are hardly any foreigners, maybe occasionally a player from Taiwan like world-class jungler Karsa.
16-year-old US talent undergoes trial training for LCK youth team
Who wants to go into the LCK now? 16-year-old American Gryffinn is a jungle talent. As Dotesports reports, he is currently undergoing trial training for various LCK teams. This is reported by Korea expert LS, who has worked as a coach in South Korea and the USA. The goal is apparently to bring the 16-year-old into an academy team so that he can eventually play in the LCK in 3 to 4 years.
Apparently, Gryffinn is the first from North America or Europe in a long time to participate in trial training for a team in South Korea. LS mentions that he is the first to be allowed to undergo a “real trial training” since 2018 (via twitter).
Getting an invitation to trial training is already something special
Does he have a chance? It would already be a sensation: As Dotesports reports, the 16-year-old does not speak Korean, but has to rely on pings and simple English to communicate with his teammates.
LS has announced that he will take him to various trial trainings of the academy teams from Monday to Wednesday. The coach seems proud alone to have gotten his protégé into these trial trainings.
The 16-year-old seems to have what it takes, as in May he reached the top of the “North American Challenger” while simultaneously going to school full-time and being active on Twitch.
Even if it doesn’t work out with the LCK, he has already made an impression in the scene just by being invited to the trial training and will certainly find it easier to find a place in the USA. Perhaps that was LS’s goal. The experiences that the 16-year-old will gain in South Korea will surely be valuable in the long run.
Even if it doesn’t work out with the big dream.
How good South Koreans are, the US league LCS has now had to learn:
LoL: Team shows how to become champions in the USA – buy Koreans, train your top killer as support
