Former SKT players go global: Untara to Fenerbahçe, others to XTEN

Former SK Telecom T1 jungler Park “Blossom” Beom-chan and substitute mid laner Kim “Sky” Ha-neul have joined Latin American esports organization XTEN Esports.

Heading into the LLA closing season, XTEN is getting reinforcements from two former SKT players. Blossom joins after a short hiatus from the game, finishing out his contract with SK Telecom T1 in November and remaining teamless since then. Sky left SKT back in 2017 when he joined Brazilian organization Red Canids.

Blossom shared playing time with fellow former SKT jungler Kang “Blank” Sun-gu, while Sky didn’t have any stage time since he was the substitute for star player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok.

After signing Blossom and Sky, XTEN became the second team in the LLA with Korean imports. The newly franchised league is attracting more attention from investors in the region. The new flow of money is allowing the organization to sign imports in hopes of making the region more competitive, both domestically and internationally. So far, Latin America teams have failed to make any significant impact at international events in League of Legends.   

Meanwhile, another former SKT player is moving to another region as top laner Park “Untara” Ui-jin joins the TCL. Untara is moving to Turkey after signing with spring champion 1907 Fenerbahçe Esports. Untara took one split off to improve his performance privately and to stream.

Fenerbahçe recently took part in the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, where they failed to qualify to the main event stage.  1907 Fenerbahçe gave it a good fight but still fell short, losing in a tiebreaker versus host team and eventual main stage qualifier Phong Vũ Buffalo.

Untara is replacing star top laner Kim “Ruin” Hyeong-min, who recently signed with Counter Logic Gaming in the LCS. Jungler Thomas “Kirei” Yuen and support Bahadır “Japone” Çolak have also finished their contracts with 1907 Fenerbahçe, leading to a rebuild for the reigning TCL champion.