World champions Damwon Gaming sign legendary coach kkOma

Just an hour after T1 announced the signing of former Damwon coaching staff members Daeny and Zefa, Damwon Gaming announced that three-time world champion coach Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun would be joining DWG to “continue to create the success story of Damwon Gaming.” 

안녕하세요. 2021년, 김정균 감독님과 담원게이밍이 함께 갑니다. 김정균 감독님에 대한 힘찬 응원과 앞으로도 담원게이밍에게 많은 기대 부탁드립니다. 감사합니다. pic.twitter.com/ty7bnA88yW

— DWG_Official (@DamwonGaming) November 13, 2020

Damwon, who are coming off the back of a Worlds championship win, signed the legendary coach after his year on LPL’s Vici Gaming, where he raised the team from a 2nd-last placement in the 2019 Summer Split to 9th in the 2020 Spring Split.

Before that, kkOma built a career as a coach on SK Telecom T1 and brought them to 3 World Championship victories, 2 MSI Trophies, 8 LCK Championships over the course of seven years. No other coach comes remotely close to that level of success.

kkOma left Vici in September as he wished to return to Korea to spend time with his family, as he is an expecting father. The prevailing thought was a return to T1 or taking a step back from coaching was on the cards, but few would have expected him to go to a different LCK team entirely. 

Farewell, kkOma!https://t.co/c4inqDbVVL pic.twitter.com/GzHZbPWqlH

— VICI Gaming (@VICI) September 10, 2020

With this signing, Damwon Gaming and T1 now set up perhaps the greatest storyline since the rise of Griffin in 2019 and the GE/ROX Tigers in 2015 and 2016.

It is the story of the most prestigious coach in League of Legends history seeking to take down the team he raised to become the most renowned team in the esport. In particular, it’s kkOma versus Faker: the undisputed greatest coach of all time against his protege, the undisputed greatest player of all time. 

• Read more: Watch T1’s Faker join forces with BTS on variety show Run BTS

It doesn’t end there. For Zefa, it is a chance for him to rival kkOma and show that he’s the new face of League of Legends coaching. Last time he was on T1, the team’s season ended with a 3-1 Worlds semifinal loss to G2 Esports. Fresh off of winning this year’s edition of the tournament, he seeks to take down the very team he just led to international acclaim. 

These two titans of the LCK will battle for the first time in the 2021 LCK Spring Split, the first year where the LCK will be franchised. Even before then, the players of these two teams will be showing off their skills at the 2020 All-Star Event, where Faker, Canna, Canyon, and BeryL look set to attend. 

The current #LCK leaders in the #AllStar2020 vote Powered by @Alienware!

TOP: Canna (46.9%)
JGL: Canyon (65.3%)
MID: @faker (56.5%)
BOT: Deft (36.8%)
SUP: BeryL (59.1%)

Vote here: https://t.co/OJsRQll9fG pic.twitter.com/JQlt7KXWMB

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) November 12, 2020