solo named new Head Coach of DWG KIA

Among the plethora of roster changes that have taken place over the last couple of weeks, a new change comes from Dplus as Kang "solo" Keun-chul joins the team as their new head coach. The announcement was made through a Facebook post which states:

“DWG KIA announces the Asian Monster Kang 'solo' Keun-chul has joined DWG KIA Valorant team as a Head Coach. Please give big support and interest to our new Head Coach solo, who will lead DWG KIA Valorant team to victory with his knowledge and experience.”

Last month, Solo took to Twitter to announce his retirement from competing professionally. He has participated in VALORANT, Counter-Strike, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, among other shooter games throughout his career, which began in the early 2000s with Counter-Strike on e-STRO, WeMade FOX, and redCode switching over to CS: GO in 2016 and competed with MVP PK until he transitioned to NUTURN in September of 2020.

Despite changing games, solo’s performance remained unaffected earning NUTURN a spot at Masters Reykjavik after guiding them through Stage 2 Challengers without dropping a map, beating Vision Strikers and DWG KIA. After dropping into the bottom bracket and losing 1-2 to Fnatic, the team had to settle with third place at VCT 2021 - Stage 2 - Masters Reykjavík, the first international Valorant event. Following Masters Reykjavik, solo had mentioned his plans for retirement but assured NUTURN’s fans that he would continue until they had found a replacement. Solo continued with the team until the team’s last tournament in the VCT: VCT 2021 - APAC Last Chance Qualifier losing to DWG KIA 2-0 in the Lower Bracket stage. During his brief career playing Valorant, solo achieved a Rating of 0.96 with an average of 192 ACS playing Breach, Killjoy, and Cypher. After NUTURN confirmed his departure, solo stated that he would be looking for coaching opportunities.

Given his extensive resume around tactical shooters, it didn’t take long for a team to acquire him as their coach. DWG Kia had a good start to the year with a 3rd-4th place in VCT 2021 - Stage 1 - Korea - Challengers 1 where they were one of the event’s best teams, not losing a map and securing themselves the ₩4,000,000 prize for topping their group.

However, Jung "RyZzi" Ki-jin and [3109], who had placed 11th and 13th event-wide in Rating were released from the roster and the team’s performance encountered a setback in Stage 2. Nonetheless, after the addition of Kang "iNTRO" Seung-gyun, they returned to their original form and almost made it to the Grand Finals of VCT 2021 - Stage 3 - Korea - Challengers Playoffs.

Since they had enough circuit points, they were given the chance to compete in VCT 2021 - APAC Last Chance Qualifier as well where they eliminated NUTURN, solo’s last team before retirement. DWG reached the Lower Bracket Finals, but Full Sense was able to defeat them as well as the Grand Finalists to earn a spot at VCT 2021 - VALORANT Champions 2021.

DWG Kia’s roster remains unchanged, with the following players in their main lineup:

Kim "Secret" Ha-jin Kim "Eugene" Su-yeong Kim "t3xture" Na-ra Lee "Jeong Hi" Jung-ha Kang "iNTRO" Seung-gyun