CoreJJ Acquires Green Card

Professional League of Legends player Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in has acquired a green card and is now officially a resident of the United States. As a result, the superstar support can now join Team Liquid in the LoL Championship Series (LCS).

After more than a month of waiting, Team Liquid fans can now finally rest assured that their favorite LoL esports team will be able to participate in the LCS 2022 Spring with a full roster. Up to now, the team had to play without their superstar support, CoreJJ.

Team Liquid was very active during the offseason and wholly rebuilt its LoL roster. Of the 2021 roster, Liquid kept only two players in jungler Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen and support CoreJJ, but made changes elsewhere.

Liquid signed two European star players in Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau and Steven “Hans sama” Liv as top and ADC, respectively. Besides the two European signings, Liquid also got its hands on Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg as the new mid laner.

The new roster featured not a single North American native player, which raised the question of the import rule. As per LCS rules, each team can have only two import players, which set a question mark above Liquid’s ability to field its entire roster in 2022.

Bjergsen and Santorin both have green cards and don’t count as imports, whereas CoreJJ, had not had it until recently. Although the Korean support has been competing in the LCS since 2018, he could not acquire a green card ahead of the 2022 season.

As a result, Liquid had to field Bill “Eyla” Nguyen as substitute support for the season’s first month. But after a bit of waiting, it was revealed that CoreJJ has acquired his green card and now officially counts as a NA resident.

This effectively allows Team Liquid to field CoreJJ in its roster without the Korean player taking up an import slot. As a result, Liquid now have a full squad ready for the next round of the LCS 2022 Spring.

CoreJJ has long been regarded as one of Liquid’s best players since he joined the team in 2018. By many standards, he was the most impactful player of Liquid in 2021, so having to miss him for the opening weeks of the 2022 season was a huge blow for the four-time LCS champions.

Still, even without CoreJJ, Team Liquid got off to a solid start to the season. The team went 3-1 across the first two weeks of play, which is good for a five-way tie at the top of the league standings.

Over the four outings, Liquid won against Immortals, Cloud9, and FlyQuest, but lost their season-opening game against 100 Thieves. Nevertheless, their current record is solid, considering Liquid had to play with substitute support.

Still, Eyla has not performed poorly for the team. The Australian LoL esports player has averaged a 2.5 KDA, 64.8% KPAR, and a 5.6% KS with an 11.8% GS.

But despite Eyla’s strong showings, it’s fair to say that Liquid will look much more potent with their old support back.

With CoreJJ back in the lineup, Liquid will have a star player in every position, and his return comes just in time for Liquid to take on another LCS title contender, Evil Geniuses. The two teams will clash on Saturday, February 19, at 15:30 local time (PST) in their first season meeting.

The most exciting development to follow is how dominant the CoreJJ – Hans Sama will be whether they gel together. Widely considered as two of the best players in their respective roles, Hans Sama and CoreJJ will carry a lot of weight on their shoulders as a duo responsible for their team’s success.