Promising League of Legends pro and former world champion Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin has been dropped from Team Liquid’s LCS starting line-up in favour of sub Yuri “KeithmcBrief” Jew.
Here’s Team Liquid’s reasoning behind the move – and how fans and pros have reacted to the news on Twitter.
KeithmcBrief actually played for Team Liquid during week one of the 2015 LCS NA Spring Split and helped the team pick up two wins, before he was dropped for Piglet.
With Piglet Team Liquid has won two and lost four, bringing their current total to four wins and four losses, tying them in joint third position with four other teams.
Team Liquid’s head coach Peter Zhang explained the move on Liquid’s website: “This decision was not made lightly. There have been ongoing issues during scrims/training that have resulted in a poor team dynamic.
“Our staff and players have put in a lot of effort toward improving the situation, but unfortunately we have not made as much progress as we would have hoped. We understand that this is not easy for Piglet, and we will continue to do everything we can to resolve the issues at hand so that he can return to the LCS in the future. But at present, this decision is in the best interest of the team.”
Here’s how Twitter reacted – with some saying the drop was due to Piglet being ‘toxic’:
Piglet got benched from CLG’s bench… what a world!
— Duncan Shields (@Thooorin) February 16, 2015
Not too surprised about the piglet thing. Keith is rough around the edges but better for the teams sanity — saintvicious (@LolStvicious) February 16, 2015
Piglet isn’t getting benched for his performance… it’s the fact he’s toxic and ruining the entire team environment
— David (@YusuiLoL) February 16, 2015
Unfortunate to hear about Piglet but this is a huge opportunity for @liquidkeith – tough schedule for them this week vs Winterfox and TSM. — Hitstreak (@hitstreak) February 16, 2015
I feel bad for piglet though T_T
— Mush (hi im gosu) (@lolGosu) February 16, 2015
Piglet is a good player , Please stop bm him. I will do the interview at LCS this weekend. Please give us some time! — Peter Zhang (@Liquidpeter) February 16, 2015
Must be a hard situation for piglet though .. team’s first interest first always
— Marcel Feldkamp (@MarcelFeldkamp) February 16, 2015
piglet and me are bestfriend,, if u watching piglet streaming, know that`s mean. and piglet never said me and sup bad PLZ…. — FeniX (@LiquidFenix) February 16, 2015
Damn, I feel like Piglet got benched in a trial by fire, but if there’s internal strife you can’t argue with that.
— Tom Searfoss (@OptimusTom) February 16, 2015
Piglet and Seraph are going to create a tag-team called Team Toxic, put on masks and try to sabotage LCS every week to destroy TL/CLG. — The eSports Writer (@FionnOnFire) February 16, 2015
For more esports/League of Legends ramblings follow me on Twitter at @Dom_Sacco
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
