North America welcomes back two of their former star players in Lee “Rush” Yoon-jae and Kim “Fenix” Jae-hun! They will be joining Echo Fox for the 2019 year.
Echo Fox is excited to welcome @Rush0406* and welcome back @Midfenix to the #LeagueofLegends #FOXFAM🦊 Can't wait to see them in action come January 26th! 👊💥
Post your best welcome gifs to welcome them to the squad! 👋
*pending Riot approval ☑️ pic.twitter.com/XxKGdnrILx
— Echo Fox (@echofoxgg) December 1, 2018
This news comes a few days after the team would confirm the acquisition of Colin “Solo” Earnest, Apollo “Apollo” Price and Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent. The trio would serve as a huge part of Clutch Gaming’s core last year, and should be interesting to watch alongside Rush and Fenix. Meanwhile, this also means that the entire Echo Fox roster will be different next year, save for Lawrence “Lost” Hui, who may return to their Academy team. Additionally, there is no word on the status of Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett and where he stands on the new roster. We are certain that the start jungler will not want to share time with Rush, so another move may be in the works.
Rush: A Decorated Past
For Rush, it is a true homecoming as he would begin his professional career in North America on Team Impulse. In fact, he would spend most of his career in the region. After playing on Team Impulse for a year, he would move over to Cloud9. This is where he would gain a huge part of his fan base and popularity, as his friendships with Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi and Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen would help jumpstart his streaming career as well.
Unfortunately, Cloud9 would replace Rush with Juan “Contractz” Arturo Garcia in the 2016 Summer Split. Afterward, he would spend some time on the Cloud9 Challenger team before taking a two-year break from League of Legends. In fact, Rush would drop from the grid entirely, stopping his stream and stopping all his social media activity. It was now clear that in that two-year span, Rush would hone his game and improve himself as a player. In 2018, he would finally join the star-studded roster of KT Rolster as a substitute jungler. Although he wasn’t seeing much play time, it was good to see Rush back on a competitive stage.
Fenix: A Clean Slate
On the other hand, Fenix has had a pretty turbulent career in the NA LCS. Starting his professional life with Team Dragon Knights back in 2014, he would finally find a home with Team Liquid. However, the team would not find much success, and there would be a ton of drama surrounding the team and its players. There would even be a documentary made about the organization’s troubles, aptly called, “Breaking Point”.
Through 2017, Fenix would play for North American Challenger team, Gold Coin United. There he would win the 2017 NACS Summer Split championship. However, they would fail to win relegations, throwing his career into uncertainty once again. In the 2018 year, Fenix would be acquired by Echo Fox and would end up finishing second in the regular season. Throughout his time on Echo Fox, he would share time with former Echo Fox mid laner, Tanner “Damonte” Damonte. After another big roster shift, Fenix would end up leaving the team during the 2018 Summer Split.
A New Future with Echo Fox
For both players, they look to rejuvenate themselves after a down period in the careers. Rush was able to get a push in the right direction on KT Rolster, but now must prove himself once again as a starting caliber jungler. Fenix must show that he has improved as a player, and deserves a spot on an NA LCS team. For many fans, their happiness also stems from the fact that Rush will be streaming once again. We will need to see how this team operates, especially with a huge part of Clutch Gaming’s core joining the fray.
Apollo and Hakuho would show signs of brilliance back on Clutch Gaming but was overall pretty underwhelming. The same could be said for Solo, who couldn’t seem to get his wings flapping in time. With the leadership of former TSM head coach Kim “SSONG” Sang-soo, maybe this collection of players can find some success in the increasingly competitive North American region!
What are your thoughts on Rush and Fenix joining Echo Fox? Let us know what you think in the comments below! If you want more League of Legends coverage, check us out here!
Trending
