Image: Ubisoft/Kirill Bashkirov
SANDBOX Gaming has signed Park "Mephi" Ju-wan from Spear Gaming following the exit of Song "SyAIL" Dong-seon on Dec. 12.
This marks a fourth departure from them Spear Gaming roster, which has effectively disbanded.
Former Cloud9 coach Kim "SummerRain" In-yeong, who is now a Korean-language caster for the game, described the new SANDBOX as the "best roster ever in Korea".
SANDBOX attended the Jönköping Major, Berlin Major, and Six Invitational this year but exited each tournament in the group stages. This included finishing with zero points in November's tournament, one year after reaching the quarter-finals at the 2021 Sweden Major.
Following this result, SANDBOX have opted to make changes before the upcoming 2023 Six Invitational Closed Qualifier, starting with SyAIL's departure. He was one of three players who remained from the prior Cloud9 lineup.
In his place comes Mephi, who played the entirety of the 2022 season on the Spear Gaming roster (previously T1). During this time, he finished in sixth, seventh, and eighth place in the APAC North League but was notably the fourth-best player by SiegeGG Rating during Stage 2.
Joining SANDBOX, he will reunite with both Arukaze and Lim "Fanxy" Jun-hyuk, the SANDBOX coach. Both of them had been members of T1's Stage 1 roster alongside Mephi before they moved to SANDBOX in June.
The team will now have until Jan. 14th to get accustomed to the new lineup before the closed qualifiers take place for the 2023 Six Invitational.