The 22-year-old esports pro has returned to compete in his native Korea only a few weeks after leaving the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), where he played for Excel Esports in the LEC 2019 Summer Split and LEC 2020 Spring Split.
Mickey has history with APK Prince, where he played for a short stint between December 2018 and May 2019 while they were still competing in the second-tier Challengers Korea (CK). Although the Korean esports organisation have made a handful of roster changes since then, their newest signing reunites with support Park “Secret” Ki-sun and ADC Kim “Trigger” Eui-joo after one year and three days apart.
With his return to Korea, Mickey will look to improve upon his performances in the LEC, where he was one of the most inconsistent players in the league. Although he had his flashes of greatness, the former IEM Season 11 World Championship semi-finalist struggled to impress on a regular basis.
Throughout LEC Spring Split, Mickey averaged some of the worst marks out of all mid laners. He ended the regular season with the fourth-lowest KDA (2.69), fifth-lowest KS (28.3%), second-lowest CSPM (8.26) and fifth-highest average death count per game (2.72). While his aggressive playstyle often backfired, Mickey also had the league’s highest KPAR (69.1%) and one of the deepest champion pools.
Excel Esports entered the 2020 season with high hopes following the signing of ex-Fnatic head coach Joey “YoungBuck” Steltenpool and ex-Splyce support Tore “Tore” Hoel (formerly known as “Norskeren”). But while they were in playoffs contention for most of the season, YoungBuck’s team lost four consecutive games in the last two weeks to finish in seventh place with a 7-11 record.
Excel’s poor results led to roster moves, which saw the Korean duo of top laner Ki “Expect” Dae-han and Mickey let go in April. The team signed Swedish youngster Felix “Kryze” Hellstr?m in May to replace Expect, a day after they promoted mid laner Joran “Special” Scheffer to fill Mickey’s old spot on the main roster.
The LCK 2020 Summer Split’s return on Wednesday, June 17 will mark Mickey’s first appearance in the Korean top flight since August 2017, when he helped ROX Tigers (now Hanwha Life Esports) finish seventh in the LCK 2017 Summer.
]]>During the off-season, Afreeca Freecs ($1.03) were busy with upgrading their roster and will now have a chance to show off their strength at KeSPA Cup. While the team will still heavily rely on their top-laner Kim “Kiin” Gi-in, Afreeca Freecs made some much-needed changes in other places to bolster their ranks.
They brought on Song “Fly” Yong-jun from Gen.G and LPL duo Jin “Mystic” Seong-jun and Nam “Ben” Dong-hyun who previously played together at Team WE. As we see it, the whole roster is built to help Kiin snowball and win his team the game, but, we cannot underestimate Mystic and his carry potential for this team either.
The potential for Afreeca Freecs to contest top spots in LCK is there, however, we believe the new roster will need some time to gel together following the departure of Park “Senan” Hee-seok and Son “Ucal” Woo-hyeon.
Their opponents Rockhead ($8.42) earned a spot in the KeSPA Cup by finishing CK 2020 Spring Promotion Qualifiers as one of the top three seeds, which is a solid achievement for the team, but in the greater scheme of things, there is no going around the fact Rockhead are a far inferior team compared to Afreeca Freecs.
In theory, Afreeca Freecs could stumble a bit, seeing how they will need some time to get their members in sync, however even if they slightly underperform it’s hard to expect Rockhead to do any serious damage. Not only do Afreeca Freecs have an exceptional top-laner, but also a completely new bottom lane, who previously dominated in LPL and should do some serious damage against LCK teams, let alone CK teams such as Rockhead.
APK Prince ($1.38) will make their debut appearance in the LCK this season after a dominant performance in the Korean Challenger League. While a force to be reckoned with in the lower league, we have some doubts whether APK have the needed quality to stand up against LCK teams.
During the off-season, APK Prince failed to make any huge moves beside the departure of Lee “KaKAO” Byung-kwon and arrival of Sung “Flawless” Yeon-jun who previously played for JD Gaming in China. The said move is somewhat risky and while Flawless can be very consistent, he will have huge shoes to fill.
As it stands now, we don’t know for sure how strong APK Prince will be next season, however, we will get to see the first glimpse of their strength during KeSPA Cup, starting with their clash with Brion Blade.
Their opponents Brion Blade ($2.73) are no stranger for APK Prince, who have previously met them several times throughout 2019 Challenger Korea season.
Brion Blade will enter the 2020 season with three new players in Kwon “Jiin” Ji-in, Park “Hena” Jeung-hwan and Yang “Minit” Hyeon-min as well as Kim “Kite” Yong-yeon as their new coach.
The biggest concern we have with Brion Blade is the departure of Yoo “FATE” Su-hyeok who moved to SANDBOX Gaming and got replaced by Jiin, who is without a doubt a downgrade.
Last season, APK Prince and Brion Blade met five times, with APK claiming three out of five possible wins against Brion, including a 3-1 win in the CK Summer playoffs, which APK ended up winning.
Based on off-season moves, it seems like Brion Blade have downgraded in quality, which won’t help their cause here. That being said, we would not feel comfortable saying this match will be a completely one-sided bout.
With KaKAO leaving the team, the flow of the APK’s game will change and until they find their rhythm, we believe they are vulnerable to losing at least one map. With that in mind, we will predict Brion Blade have the needed tools to push this series the distance.