Pyosik Is Reportedly Joining Team Liquid

As revealed on Wednesday, November 30, the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) franchise, Team Liquid, reached a verbal agreement with Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon.

As rumored, the 22-year-old will join the North American squad for the 2023 season, rounding up Liquid’s second attempt at a superteam.

The 2023 League of Legends pre-season has had no shortage of unexpected and exciting roster changes, and one of the latest includes Team Liquid signing former DRX jungler Pyosik. The deal has not been finalized, nor has the player or the organization confirmed it.

However, according to reputable sources, the two parties have already reached a verbal agreement.

If the deal comes through, it will mark one of the biggest roster moves in the LCS history. It would see one of Korea’s best junglers and the reigning LoL world champion join Team Liquid, who have already made some big moves this offseason.

Team Liquid have yet to confirm any signing for the 2023 season besides announcing that the team’s support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in has extended his contract. On the other side, the NA squad has already parted ways with three members.

Last month, Team Liquid waved goodbye to its ADC Steven “Hans sama” Liv, mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, and jungler Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen. The departures followed a highly disappointing performance in 2022 when Liquid failed to qualify for the 2022 LoL World Championship.

What made the situation even worse is that Liquid were considered to be NA’s superteam, having signed some of the best Western players across LCS and LEC. Yet even though the superteam project fell through, Liquid didn’t give up on the idea, now looking to add Korean talent to the lineup.

Besides releasing three players, Liquid also decided not to continue with Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau as their top laner. The former Fnatic player will remain with the organization as a content creator.

In a bid to rebuild its LoL division, Team Liquid is reportedly eyeing Pyosik as their new starting jungler. The 22-year-old, who recently led DRX to the organization’s first LoL World Championship title, is set to join the team shortly, where he’ll lead one of the most stacked rosters in the LCS.

Although yet to be confirmed, reputable sources have revealed which five players will make up Liquid’s roster. As stated, Liquid will enter the 2023 season with Pyosik in jungle, CoreJJ as support, and Park “Summit” Woo-tae in the top lane.

Joining the three world-class talents are (supposedly) ADC Sean “Yeon” Sung and Harry “Haeri” Kang, who will get promoted to the LCS roster from the academy team.

The supposed 2023 LoL roster will feature three highly experienced players in CoreJJ, Summit, and Pyosik, and two unproven talents in Haeri and Yeon, who have no previous experience competing at the highest level.

Still, the duo has proven themselves in the academy league, helping Liquid Academy win LCS Proving Grounds 2022 Spring, NA Academy 2022 Summer, and LCS Proving Grounds 2022 Summer.

Despite failing to achieve the goals set heading into the 2022 season, Liquid seemingly decided to take another swing at creating a superteam.

That is, despite the team owner’s statement following Liquid’s disappointing performance in the LCS 2022 Championship, that the organization decided against forming another superteam and will instead focus on building a roster around home-grown talent.

Still, the 2023 roster will feature two rookies from Liquid Academy, so there is a move towards counting on younger players to deliver.

Still, it remains to be seen whether this project will work out, especially considering it will feature two Korean players and Pyosik, whose English supposedly isn’t the best.