Barring Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok deciding to test the waters of free agency, we might have our biggest fish of the 2016-2017 League of Legends offseason in South Korean superstar AD carry Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu. Deft has made it to the bracket stage of the last three World Championships, but he's failed to make it to the Summoner's Cup Final in his trio of trips, falling in the semifinals in 2014 on Samsung Blue before moving to China's EDward Gaming where he's lost in the quarterfinals in consecutive years.
So, given his announcement of leaving EDG come the end of November, where will one of the best players in the world land come the new year? And while his teammate and former world champion mid laner Heo "PawN" Won-seok also announced his departure from the Chinese club, it remains to be seen if he'll continue playing professionally after only starting half of the 2016 campaign due to lingering health issues.
Deft, though, from all reports and indications, is leaving the team for one reason: to win. He broke down in tears following the loss to sister team Samsung White in the semifinals of the 2014 World Championship, and he collapsed once again when proclaiming how much he wanted to win a world title after EDG lost to Europe's Fnatic in 2015. After a summer split in the China's League Pro League where EDG went undefeated en route to the domestic championship but only made it to Worlds quarterfinals again before being eliminated from the tournament, it feels like Deft has met his ceiling on a hybrid-regional team.
What's next for the teamfighting guru? Let's speculate.
China, Europe or North America?
If Deft wanted to, he could probably live out the rest of his pro gaming years in China, making more money than most can imagine while streaming to thousands of rabid fans and not worrying too much about the results produced in the LPL or its secondary league. However, all indications show that Deft is leaving EDG so that he can compete for a world title and have a chance to finally hoist the ultimate prize he's worked tirelessly for since becoming pro.
For all intents and purposes -- no offense to the non-South Korean regions -- that means he isn't going to another mixed-language roster in China, North America or Europe. So while it's interesting to think about what Deft could add to a team in the Western region, the signs point to Deft wanting to win, and as the last four years have shown us, that can only be possible in his homeland of South Korea.
SKT Deft?
People are going to speculate it, so why not dive in? SK Telecom T1 Deft, truthfully, could be amazing. He's the type of player that could mesh well with Faker, and the team wouldn't need to change its ways in playing the game to cater to him. Faker and Deft are friends. In an alternate universe where Samsung Galaxy beat SK Telecom T1 in the 2016 Summoner's Cup Final, maybe -- just maybe, this could happen. But seeing as SKT T1 has won two straight titles with the bottom lane of Bae "Bang" Jun-sik and Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan, it'd be certifiably insane to break up the tandem unless one of them left in free agency for a bigger contract from China or North America.
We can debate who is better between Bang and Deft, but Bang currently is the best marksman in the world, a back-to-back world champion, and a proven winner on SKT T1. The rivalry between Deft and Bang should be one of the distinct narratives of the 2017 campaign, and that'll almost certainly come in the form of SKT Bang versus Deft on a new South Korean club.
ROX Deft?
We still don't know what will happen to the Tigers when free agency begins, yet, even so, if the core does stay intact, why would they trade away Kim "PraY" Jong-in? Again, Deft is a great, world-class player, but why would the defending South Korean domestic champion, if it can keep its starting five together, trade out an experienced AD who has now made it to the World Championship semifinals on three different occasions?
You can go over in your head what went wrong in New York City that left the Tigers losers of a semifinal that they were 2-1 up on against SKT T1, but none of that blame can fall on the shoulders of PraY. He was great throughout the United States road trip, and without him, the Tigers wouldn't truly feel like the Tigers we've come to know and love over the past two years.
SSG Deft?
This is where things become very interesting. If you're Samsung Galaxy, do you pull the trigger? They used a good bit of money last offseason to sign veteran jungler Kang "Ambition" Chan-yong to captain the team, and the rebuilt process for SSG worked to perfection with the team only one map away from becoming the world champions in Los Angeles.
The question is whether Deft is worth the risk of disrupting a team that is starting to jell as one of the world's best. On paper, the acquisition of Deft would give Samsung a superstar that they've lacked since Samsung White and Blue (which included Deft) bolted to China; however, rookie AD carry Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk has the potential to become one of the world's best marksmen in his own right. He plays a wild, upfront style that differs from Deft, and his somewhat reckless way of playing was a key part to Samsung's comeback against SKT in the Summoner's Cup Final. When SSG was on the back foot and minutes away from being swept, Ruler's instincts to play a bit brash are what got his team back into the series.
Right now, individually, you'd take Deft over Ruler ten times out of ten. On this current iteration of Samsung Galaxy, though, and with more time under his belt as a professional, Ruler can become his own type of superstar that SSG can rally behind.
KT Deft?
KT Rolster has arguably been one of the best organizations in the world since it started in League of Legends, and yet it still hasn't made it to even a Worlds semifinal while its arch-rival SKT T1 is working on a three-peat and four championships in five years. The ROX Tigers have made the top four twice in its two years of existence, and even Samsung Galaxy, after a two-year rebuild, made it back to the Summoner's Cup Final before KT Rolster could even make it for the first time.
Is it time for KT Rolster to invest in a huge signing to put them over the top? When it comes to the topside of the map, you could argue that KT is the best team in the world with their top laner and jungler duo of Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho and Go "Score" Dong-bin. The addition of Deft in the bot lane would give KT three of the top 15 players in the world. Letting go of current starter No "Arrow" Dong-hyeon, though, would be difficult. Maybe a year ago it would have been easy to swap him out, but Arrow has improved rapidly in the last year alone, and his last few weeks of play for KT Rolster were the best of his career. He showed an instant connection with Jhin, the game's newest champion, and was arguably the best Jhin in the world until it was taken away from him in qualifications for Worlds.
KT Rolster was inches (and arguably two Baron hit points) away from winning the summer season of League Champions Korea after reverse-sweeping SKT T1 in the semifinals. The team lost to the Tigers and Samsung by the narrowest of margins, and it's clear now KT Rolster is one of the top four teams in the world alongside the three other Korean clubs that made the semifinals of Worlds.
Arrow has been with the organization for years and is coming into his own. Would you take the chance of switching him out following a summer season where the team was a break or two away from making Worlds and possibly winning it? The Tigers and Samsung failed to beat SKT T1 in a best-of-five, both losing by the score of 3-2, but KT did beat SKT with its starting five of Arrow in the AD carry role.
Longzhu Deft?
This would be the logical destination for Deft. A team with lots of money that needs to scrub away the failure of a year where it didn't make the playoffs even with a supposed "super team" lineup. Longzhu tried three different starters at the AD carry position last year, so it's not like it would be the same as Deft taking the job away from an Arrow or PraY.
MVP Deft?
If MVP could somehow scrounge up the funds to do it, this would make perfect sense for both sides. The weakest point for MVP last year was its erratic play in the bottom lane. Deft would bring stability to that position, and it'd give the team a true veteran leader that it could play behind. MVP would finally earn itself an identity with Deft at the forefront. The team has a lot of interesting prospects, and it almost made the playoffs last season in its first season from the minor leagues. Before Deft was a Samsung player, he started as an MVP Blue standout; what better way for Deft to come home to South Korea than attempting to bring a championship to the organization that saw talent in him as a rookie?
LeBron James returned home to Cleveland to bring a championship to the team that drafted him. Maybe Deft, surrounded by young talents Kang "ADD" Geon-mo and Kim "Beyond" Kyu-seok, could do the same for the new version of MVP.