Fans keeping a close eye on the LCS Global Contract Database will have noticed that earlier today FlyQuest signed mid laner Song "Quad" Su-hyeong to a 3 year contract. Jensen fans need not worry, as according to Sheep Esports' LCS Eevee, this signing is for their Challengers roster. In an interesting turn of events, Team Liquid announced their Challengers roster on X earlier today as well, featuring mid laner Jo "Roamer" Woo-jin. The global contract database reveals that he is on a 2 year contract with TL.
Many North American fans are understandably apprehensive about importing foreign talent instead of developing native players. Over the years we've seen many players on the sunset of their careers come to the LCS and perform rather poorly before retiring soon after. It's clear that this year teams haven't stopped importing entirely, but are adopting a different approach. In 2023, both TL and FLY are running rosters with only 1 non-resident (Bwipo for FLY and UmTi for TL) and a resident mid laner. Instead of importing a competing LCK pro, or throwing their rookie imports straight into the LCS, it seems these teams plan to develop them in Challengers, allowing them to adjust to the North American environment and improve their English while proving themselves on the NACL stage.
It's especially interesting in the case of Team Liquid, since their whole roster except for their mid laner are Korean speakers. Roamer was one of the best performing mids in the LCKCL this past summer on HLE.C, tying for the most Player of the Game points of any mid laner with DRX.C's SeTab. Notably, the mid laner he tied with, SeTab, got promoted into to DRX's LCK roster for 2024. He's only 20 years old and has shown a lot of potential, and if he performs well in NACL I would not be surprised to see him get a shot on the starting roster in 2025 or even 2024 summer. Of course, APA deserves his chance as well, and if he continues to perform well there isn't a need to start Roamer. However, TL certainly has a very solid safety net in the mid lane going forward.
FlyQuest's signing of Quad is a bit more curious. Quad played in the LCK briefly on DRX in both 2020 and 2021 when he was only 18-19 years old under the tag SOLKA. In the only split where he started full time (2021 spring), DRX reached 5th place with a respectable 9-9 score. The organization struggled a lot with finding a cohesive roster that year, so all things considered, he did rather well. At this time in his career he suffered from issues relating to stress and handling feedback, eventually resulting in his departure from the organization that summer. He got a second opportunity this year on Nongshim Red Force, playing 12 games for them, mostly in the beginning of the summer split. Ultimately, the team didn't mesh well and they ended up fielding FIESTA in most of their games after a disappointing 7 game loss streak with Quad. Similar to 2021 DRX, Nongshim struggled to form a cohesive team all year, rotating between several mid and bot laners, and the roster they settled on wasn't particularly successful either. Quad has clearly had a tumultuous career in Korea and hopes to find more success in North America. He finds himself on teams consistently because he has a reputation for being a hard worker and shown a high ceiling of potential. Despite Quad's comparatively long career when contrasted with Roamer, he himself is only 21 years old; he simply began his career very early. He's even had a couple of years to grow since his difficulties on DRX. As their current mid laner Jensen approaches 30 years old, it makes sense for FlyQuest to invest in a highly mechanically-skilled young mid laner for their Challengers roster in case Jensen doesn't perform well or decides to retire. With Inspired's acquisition of a green card earlier this year, they have an open import slot if they ever want to promote Quad to their LCS roster.
The signing of these kinds of players shows a certain growth in the philosophy North American organizations are taking towards importing as we go into 2024. The only 2 LCS teams that maintained their Challengers teams signed young Korean mid lane talent with a lot of potential to multi-year contracts. This action makes it quite clear that LCS organizations have learned from past mistakes and plan to give their imports time to adjust, learn English, and prove themselves at the Challengers level before throwing them into a starting position. Jensen is a well-respected veteran and APA a promising young native talent that deserve their starting spots, but in the event that either of these players don't work out on their new teams there are young eager players ready to step in and change their team dynamics. Regardless of your feelings on importing, this is undoubtedly an improvement on how things have been in past years.
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