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LoL – Former World Champion Nuguri taking a break

According to reports, 2020 World Champion top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon will be taking a break from competitive League... | 23. November 2021

According to reports, 2020 World Champion top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon will be taking a break from competitive League of Legends. As first reported by Ashley Kang on Twitter, Nuguri will be taking a sabbatical for the season. This is after his release from LPL fan favorite organization FunPlus Phoenix.

FPX, after being considered a favorite by a lot of analysts and fans in the 2021 World Championship, failed to deliver during the group stages, finishing last in their group below Damwon Kia, Cloud9, and Rogue. Despite their unfortunate World Championship run, FPX placed second in both splits of China’s LPL.

Nuguri is taking a break

Ashley Kang further reports that Nuguri began carefully considering all of his options upon the start of his free agency period, including taking a break for at least a split. Around the 16th of November, Nuguri took some time off with his family while still considering the possibility of not competing to take a break first.

On the 19th of November, Nuguri’s agent reached out to all of the teams that had displayed some form of interest in acquiring him for their organization. This was followed by a clarification that Nuguri will, in fact, not be playing in the coming split at the very least, declining all offers. In addition, while he has received offers from several Korean and Chinese teams, he is said to not have started any full-fledged negotiation.

Why is he taking a break?

The reasons for Nuguri taking a step back from competitive play are unknown at the moment, and neither he nor his agent have released any public statement about his status at present. Some teams have previously been reported to have been reaching out to him, most notable of which is Damwon Kia, where it has been claimed that Heo “ShowMaker” Su and Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu have expressed interest to reunite with him and play together once again.

Without Nuguri, it is unclear who the 2020 World Champions and 2021 World Finalists will go for, as Kim “Khan” Dong-ha is going to enlist for his mandatory military service in the following year. It has also been rumored that T1 may have been trying to acquire him, but it as they already had two top laners in Kim “Canna” Chang-dong and Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, they were perhaps only inquiring and were not intent on committing to acquire him.

Nuguri has been an active player for five years, starting his career in Challengers Korea.