Hanwha Life Esports has signed ex-DRX star players, Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon and Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu. The two high-profile players will take over the mid-lane and ADC roles respectively.

Chovy and Deft had a dominating season with DRX in 2020. The team was an expected contender in both Spring and Summer playoffs, but with half of the team being rookies, they struggled to truly make a dent against stronger teams like T1 and DAMWON Gaming for a championship win.

As second-place finalists at the LCK Summer Playoffs, the team went on to try their hand at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship. With mechanics and teamwork on point, the team got out of the group stage and even took off the LPL first seed, Top Esports.

While the Worlds journey was cut short with a knockout stage defeat against fellow LCK team DAMWON Gaming, Deft and Chovy proved their worth as world-class players in a Korean franchise.

As for Hanwha, the organization is still finding its place in the LCK scene. While the team had promising players like Viper and Lehends, they struggled in teamwork and proper player use to really classify them as viable title contenders.

In Spring, HLE barely passed by as a mid-table team, finishing in eighth place with a 6-12 record. Things got even worse for the team in Summer, ending the split in ninth place with a 2-16 record.

Though 2020 was tough on the HLE squad, Chovy and Deft act as an absolute upgrade to the team’s current roster. With no real star-power on the team as of now, HLE has done its best to trim down its populated 2020 roster for a more compact line-up suitable for the LCK franchise format.

The team may not be Worlds-ready from the get-go like DRX, but with the two acting as solid pillars in gameplay and identity, we may see Hanwha rise up in the 2021 season.

READ MORE: DRX release Chovy, Deft, Doran, and Keria