DAMWON Nuguri diagnosed with collapsed lung heading into Worlds

DAMWON Gaming top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon was diagnosed with a collapsed lung following the team’s win against DragonX in the 2020 LCK Summer Split final.

The LCK summer champions didn’t get to celebrate their victory for long before top laner Nuguri reported that he was feeling short of breath and had chest pains. He was quickly checked into a hospital and diagnosed with pneumothorax, a collapsed lung. He underwent successful surgery shortly after the diagnosis and is now recovering.

Nuguri won’t travel with DAMWON to China for Worlds

According to DAMWON, the surgery went well and Nurugi will now have to spend a few days recovering in hospital. This means that the star top laner won’t be traveling to China with the rest of his team on the previously scheduled date. 

DAMWON is traveling to China on September 11, but Nuguri won’t come out of the hospital until September 13. This leaves Nuguri in Korea until September 18, at which point he will be traveling to China accompanied by a DAMWON manager. 

While Nuguri will only be a week late, it might still impact his performance at the 2020 World Championship. DAMWON won’t play before the main event starts, but Nuguri will lose valuable practice time. Most importantly, Nuguri might not be at the top of his game even after recovering. This opens the question if Lee “Flame” Ho-jong will replace him in the top lane during the group stage or if Nuguri will be fit to play. 

Nuguri losing out on practice, or even games at Worlds, would be a big hit for DAMWON. The young top laner finished the split with the best stats for any top laner in the LCK. Nuguri was especially impressive during the laning phase, topping the charts in gold, XP, and CS difference at 10 minutes.