In South Korea, the Liiv Sandbox team has signed 21-year-old player Jeon “DangMoo” Su-jin for the professional roster of their second team in League of Legends. This has never happened in LoL in South Korea before. The support player is expected to play for the team “LSB Challengers”, the youth team of the professional club.
This is the signing:
- Liiv Sandbox announced on December 28 that they have signed DangMoo for their Challenger team, LSB Challengers.
- The 21-year-old has a one-year contract, which runs until November 20, 2023.
- The South Korean is a support player known for her skills with heroes like Ahri or Lulu. She made headlines as early as 2021.
In 2021 she became Challenger with Lulu – Faced ridicule from men
Who is the player? DangMoo is a South Korean player of League of Legends and creates videos of her games on YouTube (248,000 subs) and Twitch (186,000 followers). She appears with a virtual, green-haired avatar.
She made a name for herself as a “female Challenger” player back in 2021 on the Korean server. She mainly played Lulu at that time.
“Support mains don’t count”
How is she known? The success of becoming Challenger in 2021, as one of the few women, was dismissed by male professionals at the time (via gamerjournalist).
From the bot lane of the top team DAMWON KIA, it was said that she was only a “support main”, a Lulu player who just stays in the back. The team later had to apologize for this.
Other professionals like PawN also said that “Support Challengers” are not real “Challengers” and later had to apologize for that.
This was the Twitch clip when she became Challenger back then – warning, the lady is quite loud:
Some see her signing as “breaking the glass ceiling”
Why is this special? DangMoo is the first female player to make it into a professional roster in South Korea.
Some observers say she has “broken a glass ceiling” – because normally such a signing simply does not happen, although officially there is nothing against signing a woman.
Generally, there are very few women who are successful and known for playing LoL at this high level.
LoL is considered an extremely toxic game: Many male players are suspected of having prejudices and stereotypes against women. Unfortunately, this is repeatedly confirmed by incidents. Well-known streamers like IShowSpeed serve as extremely bad role models.
This is what the team says: The CEO of the team says (via twitter), he has spoken with many candidates. DangMoo deserves the chance with her will and her skills. People should cheer for her. All players of his team have either a single room or a double room. DangMoo will receive the same room.
So apparently a single room.
Player is 3 to 6 years older than her teammates, likely to be a backup player
What’s behind this: The signing of a female professional is definitely a milestone in the history of LoL, but still far from a real breakthrough:
- On one hand, DangMoo has “only” a spot in the Challenger league, not with the superstars, not in the LCK.
- On the other hand, she does not have a starting position secured, but is listed as a backup player. With Hong “PlanB” Jun-seok, the team already has a main supporter, a 16-year-old South Korean.
Therefore, there is a suspicion that the signing could also be a kind of “PR stunt”: While the player proved in 2021 that she deserves a chance, objectively speaking, at 21 she is a bit late for starting a professional career. All her teammates in the youth teams are significantly younger than her, the boys are between 15 and 18 years old.
DangMoo is 21 years old – that is still incredibly young in almost every sense, except for LoL pros. Where 21-year-olds like superstar Chovy say they feel too old already and can’t dodge skill shots as well as “in their youth.”
There is a well-known case of a professional female player in the West that ended tragically:
The first professional player of the LoL league LCS dies at 24
