Gen.G part ways with their head coach Edgar
League of Legends coach Choi "Edgar" Woo-beom has left Gen.G in a bid to take a break from the competitive League of Legends scene, the Korean esports organisation announced today.
Edgar, who has been the head coach of Gen.G ever since he arrived at the team in May 2018 has cut ties with the Korean esports organisation this Friday and will no longer serve as the main strategist of the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) 2020 Spring Split regular-season champions. As revealed by Gen.G in their announcement, the decision was mutual.
"We want to thank everyone who has supported our Gen.G League of Legends team through 2020 LCK Spring Split," started the announcement.
"We are here to announce some changes to our coaching staff. Upon mutual agreement, we have terminated the contract with head coach Woo-beom" Edgar" Choi.
"From 2014 until now, head coach Edgar has led our team through numerous achievements including a World Championship. We truly appreciate all the dedication and hard work he has committed to Gen.G and LoL team."
Edgar began his coaching career with Samsung Blue in September 2013 and remain tied with the organisation through rebrandings into Samsung White and later Samsung Galaxy. With SSG, Edgar won Korea Regional Finals 2016 and made it to the grand finals of 2016 World Championship, where SSG finished second after narrowly losing to SK Telecom T1 (2-3). In the next season, Edgar led SSG to a runner-up finish at LCK 2017 Spring, a third-place finish at LCK 2017 Summer and ended up hoisting the Summoner's Cup at the 2017 World Championship. Edgar stayed with Samsung Galaxy after they sold their LCK slot to KSV eSports and later rebranded to Gen.G.
Since the rebrand, Edgar helped Gen.G win the Korea Regional Finals 2018 and led the team through 2018 World Championship, where Gen.G finished 13th-16th after failing to make it out of their group. In 2019 season, Edgar led Gen.G to a runners-up finish at KeSPA Cup and later finished LCK 2019 Spring and Summer Splits at seventh and sixth place respectively.
In the 2020 season, Gen.G finished their KeSPA run at a fifth-eighth place and in April secure the top seed in the LCK 2020 Spring Split. Despite their dominance in the regular season, where Edgar's men lost only four games out of 18 played, they ended up losing to T1 in the grand finals (0-3), thus finished the Spring Split with a silver medal, ₩60,000,000 (~ US $48,700) in tournament winnings as well as 70 Championship Points.
"We wouldn't be here without Edgar and his incredible contribution to the team," said Arnold Hur, Esports COO at Gen.G.
"We know Edgar has been thinking of taking some time off and we respect his decision, and we appreciate all the work he has put in to prepare our coaching staff to be ready for the season [LCK 2020 Summer Split]," added Mr Hur.
"We are tremendously thankful for his passionate work and all the foundation that we have built together at Gen.G."
Gen.G have not commented on any possible transfers which would see the arrival of a new head coach to the team. This means it's likely one of the three assistant coaches will take over for Edgar. Three candidates for the position of a head coach are Im "Tom" Jae-hyeon, as well as Ju "oDin" Yeong-dal, Yeo "TrAce" Chang-dong, who have been working alongside Edgar since late 2016.
LCK 2020 Summer Split will begin on Wednesday, June 17, where Gen.G will look to repeat their success from the previous split and secure their second Worlds appearance – after failing to attend the 2019 Worlds in Paris.
