SeolHaeOne Prince make VALORANT team official

GOnGO Prince began as a League of Legends team known as APK Prince, working their way up the tiers in South Korea. Eventually, their hard work paid off, as in 2019, the organization earned qualification to League of Legends Champions Korea (the LCK), the highest level of League of Legends in the region. Now rebranded to their current name, the organization is a year deep into their LCK tenure, and with their spot secure for now, have looked to expand into other games. First it was PUBG, and now, SeolHaeOne Prince have entered VALORANT.

SeolHaeOne Prince’s roster consists of Lee "Carry" Jong-ho, Yoon "Lawrence" Hyun, Hwang "SEOKWOO" Seok-woo, Park "Slash" Jin-sol, and Kim "YuNae" Yoon-hoi. YuNae, by far the most accomplished in other games, was a South Korean PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS player, who represented unsigned team World Class and then OP.GG SPORTS. World Class were one of the final South Korean teams eliminated from qualifying for the PUBG Global Championship 2019, and with OP.GG SPORTS, he finished second at the ₩ 80,000,000 Intel Battlegrounds Smash Cup 2020.

Lawrence is the only player with VALORANT experience previous to SeolHaeOne, beginning in May with a Round of 16 finish at KOV Masters 2020. He later locked down a squad known as Team NoX or Maxtill, playing with them in Clan Battles #2 and #3 and the WESL VALORANT Battle Season 2. They reached the quarterfinals of Clan Battle #3, and finished second at the WESL event.

This team has already played under the SeolHaeOne Prince banner, making it all the way to the semifinals in the Clan Battle Act 2 #1 First Strike qualifier, but ultimately fell out after a loss to aNg DarkHorse. Lawrence was the team’s main fragger, playing Jett and Raze and posting a 252 ACS, while Carry played Breach, Slash Cypher, YuNae Omen, and SEOKWOO mostly Sova, with a Sage game as well.

The South Korean scene somewhat lags behind the other regions in terms of organizational involvement, though the dominance of DRX in the Asian scene means they definitely aren’t behind in terms of skill. It is great to see another big organization get involved, and SeolHaeOne will be able to rival the likes of Cloud9 Korea, T1 Korea, and Lunatic-hai in the ultimate battle to attempt to take down Vision Strikers. While their great run in the first Clan Battle Act 2 means they have a good shot at qualification for First Strike, they’ll be taking on the second edition, Clan Battle Act 2 #2, this week to attempt to lock their spot down.

SeolHaeOne Prince are:

Lee “Carry” Jong-ho Yoon “Lawrence” Hyun Hwang “SEOKWOO” Seok-woo Park “Slash” Jin-sol Kim “YuNae” Yoon-hoi

Koo “KocNine” Nam-in (Head Coach) Jo “It’s BRO” Jang-hee (Coach)