Gumayusi joins HLE completing stacked roster… Will they challenge Gen.G and T1?

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 24/11/2025

Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Min-hyung has completed his move to Hanwha Life Gaming (HLE), completing the roster for the 2026 season.

The back-to-back-to-back Worlds Champion ADC departed T1 after being declared the Worlds Final MVP.

Gumayusi signing completes stacked roster

The signing of Gumayusi completes the changes for HLE, who saw Park ‘Viper’ Do-hyeon depart the organisation and Han ‘Peanut’ Wang-ho retire to enter mandatory military service.

Gumayusi’s former T1 teammate, Choi ‘Zeus’ Woo-je, is amongst the three players who re-signed for the 2026 season, with Kim ‘Zeka’ Geon-woo and Yu ‘Delight’ Hwan-jung also returning.

The Gumayusi announcement swiftly followed the signing of Top Esports Jungler, Seo ‘Kanavi’ Jin-hyeok.

The move sees Kanavi return to the LCK for the first time since 2019. Kanavi won five LPL titles in his time in China and won MSI with BLG in 2023.

Despite not playing in the LCK, his LPL exploits have led many to regard Kanavi as one of the best current junglers in the world, making HLE an extremely exciting prospect for the 2026 season.

Can the new HLE roster rival Gen.G and T1?

The combination of Zeus, Gumayusi, and Kanavi has got fans excited for HLE’s potential to challenge Gen.G’s LCK dominance and T1’s Worlds dominance.

HLE won the LCK Cup and First Stand last year, but faded later in the year in comparison to their rivals, resulting in a quarter-finals exit to Gen.G at Worlds 2025.

With two members of T1’s famous ZOFGK roster, and with Kanavi’s talent, they look closer in composition to their rivals, but fans have some misgivings.

Specifically, surrounding Zeka’s champion pool and Delight’s overall level and tendency to make mistakes.

While Delight may feel the benefits of playing with Gumayusi, Zeka will have to do a lot of good work on his own to maintain map control and vision in mid as teams try to gain advantages.

If Zeka cannot fulfil that role, we may see the T1 duo of Zeus and Guma disconnected from each other and unable to affect games as they should.

Over a season, HLE may struggle to keep up with Gen.G’s consistency in that sense, but in the playoffs, they will now benefit from Gumayusi, who was outstanding in Worlds 2025 playoffs and many others.

The composure and clutch factor that Gumayusi brings could be a pivotal factor for the roster, both mentally and mechanically.

T1 showed at Worlds 2025 that mentality is king when it comes to League of Legends’ greatest tournament, and Guma has shown incredible mental strength in a year that saw him benched, only to return and get Worlds Final MVP.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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