After being on the sidelines in the latest series heading into the LTA North Split 2 playoffs, jungle General Eom “UmTi” Sung-hyeon has decided to leave Team Liquid (TL) and the LTA.
UmTi leaves LTA after one and a half years with Team Liquid
The announcement came from both the player and the organization through posts on social media and a YouTube video. In the farewell video, UmTi explained he was facing ‘severe levels of stress’, which ultimately caused him to underperform on stage.
“I think it was stacking, stacking, and stacking,” he explained in the video. “And then when I exploded, it was a very bad feeling; emotion-wise, it was very hard, high stress, and then I think I lost a lot of confidence. I was very harsh on myself: Why did I sweep like this? Why am I camping like this? Why am I warding like this? I was being harsh on every detail, and I think I lost myself.”
Despite TL Head Coach Jake “Spawn” Tiber requiring UmTi to improve his performance, he also advised him to take a break to prioritize his mental state: “Just watching UmTi fall a little bit into despair about where we were versus where he wanted to be, I think that he had sacrificed so much of his individual game to make the team game work that when the team game started to fail, he wasn’t really coping with that all that well. Then you take the stuff out of game, homesickness, everything else. That’s where the person matters a lot,” said Spawn. According to TL general manager Kang “Dodo” Jun-hyeok, UmTi had already expressed concerns about his mental health and wanting to go back to Korea during the last off season.
The General leaves NA between highs and lows
UmTi joined TL during the 2023-2024 offseason, after spending three years of his career with the LCK team BRION. While he wasn’t considered one of the top-tier junglers during his team in the Korean league, UmTi stood out for his ability to play around his team and his overall versatility as a jungle player. Since joining Team Liquid, he has helped the team win two domestic titles (LCS Spring 2024 and Split 1 this year), and led the team at all the international tournaments during his tenure, including a top six-finish at MSI 2024.
Over the last few months, the jungle was one of the roles Team Liquid’s coaching staff evaluated alternative options for the Korean jungler. In the end, TL decided to pick up Mongolian jungler Ganbat “Yuuji” Ulziidelger from the NACL and allow him to gain valuable experience by sharing on-stage games with UmTi. In the latest weeks, however, Yuuji was often the starter and played a large majority of the LTA North Split 2 Playoffs. With now UmTi leaving, Yuuji will be the starting jungler for TL heading into Split 3.
