Riot Games awarded Cloud9’s Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu as coach of the spring split and FlyQuest’s top laner Omran “V1per” Shoura as rookie of the split.
Cloud9 and FlyQuest might already be out of the playoffs, but the teams are at least taking two big individual prizes home at the split’s conclusion.
V1per was named the rookie of the split after a remarkable season as the starting top laner for FlyQuest.
V1per started his career back in 2016 as a jungler, and later that year he joined Team Liquid as a substitute top laner. He made his name largely as a streamer with a focus on playing Riven in the top lane. He joined FlyQuest in late 2018 replacing Lee “Flame” Ho-jong.
Through the regular season, V1per stood his ground against more experienced top lane opponents. He contributed to FlyQuest’s success and received two “Player of the Game” points. V1per was also able to demonstrate proficiency across a variety of champions, quickly relieving any concerns that he was just a Riven one-trick player.
The coaching award of the split went to Cloud9’s Reapered. He started his coaching career in 2015 in the LPL with Edward Gaming. After one year he moved to North America and joined the Cloud9 organization.
In 2018, Reapered was highly criticized by the fans in the community due to roster changes that temporarily deposed fan favorite veteran players. He decided to sub in players from C9’s academy team and left the LCS roster on the bench as the pro meta shifted and C9’s LCS team struggled. The shifting strategy eventually paid off as Cloud9 went from tenth place to the summer finals.
Cloud9 was the first team to so thoroughly utilize its academy roster in LCS matches and even run a consistent seven-man roster. At the 2018 World Championship, Cloud9 qualified as the third seed and made it to the semifinals, the best placement ever by a North American team in the modern era of professional League of Legends.
Reapered is also one of the most creative coaches in the LCS. Cloud9 was one of the first teams to pick Hecarim in the top lane and to play the Sona and Taric duo in the bottom lane.
