Kanavi to rejoin JD Gaming

After being in the middle of contract issue with his former team, Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok will rejoin JD Gaming after previously being on loan for the 2019 Tencent League of Legends Pro League (LPL) Summer Split.

Announcing the move on Chinese social media platform Weibo, JD Gaming announced 19-year-old Kanavi will join the team for the upcoming 2020 League of Legends season, assuming the team’s starting jungler role. Kanavi says he is “filled with anticipation” as he joins the team, while also expressing “worry” as this will be the young player’s first overseas experience. Despite him being in new territory, Kanavi added he he “hopes to live up to the expectation to deliver good results.”

Kanavi played for Team Griffin for the majority of 2019, but was previously a part of JD Gaming’s LPL 2019 summer split team who finished 10th in the tournament, while also racking up a third-place finish at the LPL 2019 regional finals. Kanavi became a free agent from JD Gaming following an investigation by Riot Games involving former Team Griffin director Cho Gyu-nam who allegedly pressured Kanavi into signing a contract with the team while the player was still legally a minor.

Team Griffin has recently been in the news after Riot Games announced an investigation into the team over physical and verbal abuse allegations from head coach Kim "cvMax" Dae-Ho, as well as issues regarding the contracts of players. Riot Games has since announced that they will be re-opening the investigation into Team Griffin after oversight on the developer’s behalf and will look to involve a third-party counsel to oversee the new investigation.

With Kanavi’s experience in Solo Q fans of JD Gaming are hopeful that the 19-year-old can maintain his high-caliber play heading into 2020.