With DRX, Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu recently became World Champion in League of Legends. Despite persistent rumours of a possible end to his career, he has now moved to league rivals DAMWON KIA.
During the Worlds there was often talk of “Defts last dance”. This meant the end of the career of the professional player who could almost be described as a League of Legends grandfather. Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu has been active in Riot’s popular MOBA title for more than ten years. Initially playing with MVP Blue and Samsung, he then moved to China for just over two years in the LPL and EDward Gaming. Until his World Championship triumph a few weeks ago, it was the time with the eventual World Champion EDG that was most successful for Deft
After two more years with KT Rolster and his associated return to South Korea, it was off to DRX, formerly known as Kingzone DragonX (until October 2019) and later DragonX (until November 2020), until a few hours ago. Since then, the AD Carry has been causing havoc on Bot Lane and finally crowned his career spanning more than ten years with the world title. The perfect end to a successful professional career, but apparently the League of Legends World Championship victory provided a further boost of motivation, so early retirement will apparently have to wait a little longer.
Thank you, Deft. pic.twitter.com/dtjt3sz3RD
– Worlds 2022 Champions DRX (@DRXGlobal) November 23, 2022
But instead of continuing to compete for DRX and work towards a possible title defence, the newly crowned World Champion is switching to a former World Champion: DAMWON KIA. Via tweet, the 2020 Worlds champion announced the switch, while an official statement from DRX followed soon after. “We thank DRX Deft for taking on the challenges with an unwavering heart. Because of you, we were able to light up under the DRX banner this year!”. The new contract runs until November 2023.
Both DRX and DAMWON KIA will meet again in the 2023 Korean LCK as part of the Spring Split.
