Royal Club potentially scouting Korean support players
Chinese fans have been speculating that two teams in particular may be scouting Korean junglers, and one such team is Star Horn Royal Club. An image of a potential roster was posted by fans on the web featuring Huang "LaoPi" Yong-Chang, previous Energy Pacemaker Hong Kong player, corn, Challenger solo queue mid laner, and Wang "kmi" Long-Jie, Yao "Yao" Yuan, and Jian "Uzi" Zhi-Hao from Royal Club's Spring Split roster.
Perhaps in response to this photo, SH Royal Club posted on weibo that fans will see "a new Royal club" next split, potentially suggesting that the photo does not reflect the expected lineup.
Some fans have speculated that this could mean Korean players will join Star Horn Royal Club. Most rumors suggest a new jungler, since junglers have looked to be a weak point for Chinese teams on the international stage, and insideKLoL has tweeted that KT ReSEt is considering offers from Chinese teams. Yet with a post today from SH Royal Club celebrating kmi's birthday, it seems likely he will remain on the roster. He was one of the more consistent members of the team last split.
Upon searching Uzi's Korean solo queue account, Gbou, however, some have noticed Uzi duo queueing with KT Arrows' sub, Yoon "Zero" Kyung-sup.
Over the past couple days, Gbou and KT Zero have played seven games in ranked solo queue with five wins and two losses. Each time, Uzi has played an AD carry with Zero playing support alongside him in the bottom lane.
Though KT Zero has only played as a substitute jungler for KT Arrows recently, he is listed as the team's support substitute, primarily. As support is a position Royal has been struggling to fill, it isn't unlikely that they might be seeking talent on another server.
Upon further investigation of Gbou's match history, it appears he has also duo queued with M1ka, which is an account belonging to Gunza, a substitute player for Samsung Galaxy Ozone who is currently ranked Challenger on Korean servers.
Uzi has also played solo queue games with Whitezz and Royal Trol1, kmi's Korean account, but Gunza and Zero appear to be the only Koreans Uzi has queued with recently, and the fact that they're both substitute players for strong Korean teams seems like more than a coincidence. This mere act of playing together on the Korean servers gives no concrete evidence of Star Horn Royal Club's plans, but it suggests that they may indeed by scouting Korean talent in the support role.
Check back at onGamers for updates on Chinese roster changes as they become available.
