APAC North's newest team of GC Busan Spear has been acquired by the reigning LoL World Championship winning organisation DWG KIA in what amounts to a major signing in APAC Siege.
The GC Busan Spear roster came initially from the Axiomatic roster that finished third in Korea in Season 11 of the Pro League. After failing to qualify for the 2020 APAC North League, the team joined Spear Gaming, which later partnered with the City of Busan -- the second biggest city in South Korea -- to form the current organization.
Now, six months later, the lineup sees the initial Axiomatic players of Jeon "JaekDow" Yeong-jin, and Jeon "aLx3inE" Won-kyun (previously known as Chanzo), be joined by the two ex-Cloud9 players of Kwon "h3dy" Yu-geun and Heo "CATsang" Se-woong, and the ex-SCARZ player of Yoo "yass" Sang-hoon.
Kim "TemplaT" Yosep, meanwhile, will be leaving the squad after a weak Autumn season of the Korean Nationals to form the new Spear Gaming roster.
This has effectively created a Korean super-team that has already finished 2020's national tournaments in second and third, and made it to the ongoing edition's grand final.
These performances put them in the four-team APAC North Relegations for Korea, where they beat SCARZ and SGA eSPORTS to replace the former team in the league for 2021.
APAC Winners' Group SGA v GBS Game 2 is 7-2! With a total set score of 2:0, GBS will advance to APAC North!
Now, ahead of the Korean Open 2020 - Winter Grand Final this weekend, the team will leave GC Busan Spear to join DWG KIA.
Previously known as DAMWON Gaming, DWG is best known for its League of Legends (LoL) team, which has competed in the LCK league since 2019 and was crowned the 2020 World Champions. Since then the organisation has also acquired two Fornite pros from Korea and Japan and a Korean PUBG lineup, neither of which achieved the success of their first team.
Most recently, the organisation also picked up a Korean Valorant team which also included an ex-Cloud9 player from the since disbanded C9 Korea roster. The majority of this team finished the recent First Strike Korea Major in joint third place, making it a regionally competitive lineup.
This sudden expansion is likely due to the organisation's new partnership with automotive manufacturer Kia Motors, which lead to the name change and what looks to be the start of the biggest year in the organisation's history.
DWG will now compete in the 2021 league alongside much of the same teams we saw in the 2020 tournament, with just the exit of the Electrify Esports organisation and most of the Nora-Rengo roster so far.
With wins against Cloud9 and Talon Esports this year, as well as an 8-7 loss against FAV -- teams that finished first, ninth, and fifth in 2020 -- they currently look to be a mid-tier team going forward as Korean R6 continues to grow year to year.
Internationally, DWG remains one of only two teams across all eight sub-regions to have defeated the incumbent during the 2020 relegations with the EU Relegations having taken place last weekend, and the US Relegations canceled. The only other team to succeed in the same is ROFLCOPTER GG in the Oceanic region, which replaced Rhythm following a three-map matchup, while Overknight was auto-promoted in the Mexican Championship.
Above: A tease concerning this change. The first letter of each 2020 op spells out GBS while 2021 spells DWGKIA.
DWG KIA's first game with the following roster will be against Cloud9 in the Grand Final of the Korean Open 2020 - Winter, on the 23rd of January at 7 PM KST (UTC+9), with the following roster:
Yeongjin "Jaekdow" Jeon Yugeun "h3dy" Kwon Sewoong "CATsang" Heo Sanghoon "yass" Yoo Wongyun "aLx3inE" Jeon Junhyeok "Fanxy" Lim (coach) Donguk "DongUk" Kim (coach)
