Gen.G Esports is arguably one of South Korea's greatest orgs at the moment.
South Korea has long been a pioneer of professional esports that dates back to the 1990s with the introduction of one of Blizzard's most popular titles, StarCraft and its successor, StarCraft II. The country's own government even officially recognised esports as a legitimate profession and sport in the early 2000s, which has since paved the way for many organisations to have such a strong foothold from very early on.
While T1 remains the number one esports org in South Korea, Gen.G Esports could give it a strong run for its money in the near future. Over the last few years, Gen.G's esports teams have steadily grown to become a household name in the professional scene, especially in two of Riot Games' most popular IPs: League of Legends and VALORANT. Most notably, Gen.G's LoL and VALORANT squads recently won an international LAN in the past six months - the Mid-Season Invitational and VCT Masters Shanghai.
They would be the org's first-ever international titles in two different titles with both being won a month apart from each other. Before this year, Gen.G had never won an international LAN event with its greatest accomplishments being regional dominance, particularly in League of Legends and more recently, VALORANT as well. Gen.G have had a stranglehold of the region since the Summer of 2022 where it has won four LCK titles in a row, a feat not even T1 had been able to accomplish.
The same can't be said for its VALORANT squad just yet but having only been part of the franchise since the start of last season, Gen.G already has one VCT Pacific title under its belt after winning Kickoff earlier this year. They also managed to follow that up with a second-place finish at Masters Madrid, followed by another second-place ending during VCT Pacific Stage 1. Right after that was its Masters Shanghai victory, which has since solidified the team as a main threat for the season.
Gen.G - League of Legends Dominance
Gen.G Esports was established in August 2017 when it was previously known as KSV eSports. Despite having teams in multiple titles, it was in League of Legends where it truly made its mark. Having acquired Samsung's esports division in November 2017 after it won the League of Legends World Championship just a few weeks prior, the team would go on to play just one split with the KSV name before it rebranded to Gen.G Esports in May 2018.
And it wouldn't be until the LCK Summer Split in 2022 that Gen.G won its first regional title and has since gone on to win three more in a row. This also included the recent MSI victory against the LPL's Bilibili Gaming, who they have already faced and lost to twice during the 2023 season. As the MSI title was Gen.G's first time winning it, they can now add it to a growing collection of trophies that now also include Samsung White's Worlds 2014 title as well as Samsung Galaxy's Worlds 2017 championship victory.
Image credit: LoL Esports
The Gen.G League squad have gone through various iterations over the years whilst still being able to go on a run of four consecutive LCK titles, all of which were against T1, arguably South Korea's biggest esports organisation. Being able to take down the four-time world champions is an exemplary feat and it goes to show just how much work has been put in behind the scenes. Gen.G's eye for talent scouting has been an underrated utility that is now bearing fruit.
While Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon was already seen as the next superstar to come out of Korea, his tenure in Gen.G so far has coincided with the org's best run to date. Of the five players in Gen.G's League roster, Chovy has been with the team the longest with Siwoo “Lehends” Son in second after he resigned with the team during last year's off-season. Gen.G's Academy and Challengers squads' have also unearthed some rare gems like Kim “Peyz” Su-hwan, who has been a revelation for the team since joining at the end of the 2022 season.
Gen.G's decision to also shore up enough experience on the squad with the inclusion of Kim “Kiin” Gi-in, a severely underrated toplaner in the LCK to go along with the Worlds 2020 championship-winning jungler, Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu was a masterful stroke of genius. This brought enough versatility and experience to the squad that has allowed it to succeed in a short period of time. T1 may still hold the record for most LCK titles with a combined total of eight spread across its various iterations, but Gen.G is close behind with four over the last four splits across two-and-a-half years.
But its MSI win is what has set its League team apart from the rest. Having started from the Bracket Stage, Gen.G was able to take four straight series wins in a row to claim its first-ever international title. They first managed to 3-0 Fnatic in the quarter-finals, which was followed by a close 3-2 win against Top Esports in the semifinals.
Gen.G also faced BLG twice at both international events last year and this year was no different. Gen.G took the upper bracket final in a fairly easy 3-1 victory to head straight to the grand finals. While BLG was able to defeat T1 in a back-and-forth lower bracket final series to book a rematch, it would not be the LPL's year at MSI as it was Gen.G who took the trophy home with its second 3-1 win over BLG in the tournament.
Gen.G - Recent Successses in VALORANT
During VALORANT's infancy, Gen.G competed in North America from 2020 to 2022, which featured a mixture of players from the US and Canada. But when Riot announced its partnership to participate in the VCT Pacific International League, Gen.G would move its VALORANT operations to South Korea, a country where it has already found plenty of success in another popular Riot IP. They soon picked up its first all-Korean roster to kickstart the 2023 season and the first in the VCT.
Unfortunately, they didn't get off to the best of starts at the first international event of the year, VCT LOCK//IN where Gen.G lost its first and only series of the tournament against LOUD. This was followed by a fourth-place finish at the VCT Pacific League that also saw them narrowly miss out on qualifying for Masters Tokyo. While they still had one more chance to make it to VCT Champions, Gen.G fell short during the Pacific Last Chance Qualifiers and had to settle for third in the end.
Gen.G ended up releasing most of its roster that also included its coaching staff as they looked to build around Kim “Meteor” Tae-o. They would end up bringing in the starting roster that we know today, which includes the likes of Na-ra “t3xture” Kim, Jong-Min “Lakia” Kim, Sang-beom “Munchkin” Byeon, and Kim “Karon” Won-tae. Gen.G also updated its coaching staff at the start of the 2024 season, which has since brought success to the org for the first time in its history in VALORANT.
They started VCT Pacific Kickoff with back-to-back wins against Rex Regum Qeon while dropping a series against Paper Rex in the process. Gen.G went on to finish first in the Play-In group bracket to secure a playoff spot with its first series being against another of South Korea's finest in DRX, which they won 2-0 after a close first map on Bind that went to overtime. The Korean org would go on to get its revenge over PRX from the group stage as they resoundingly won 3-1 in the grand finals to lift its first-ever VCT Pacific title.
Their Masters Madrid showcase was another sight to behold as Gen.G breezed through the Swiss Stage with a quick 2-0 start to book a playoff spot. There, they would defeat PRX once again as well as Sentinels to head straight for the grand finals. Unfortunately, it was for nought as Sentinels was able to get its revenge over Gen.G with a 3-2 grand finals victory in a Cinderella story-like fashion. Despite it being the team's first international LAN together and the org's second overall, it was still an all-around great performance from Gen.G.
However, their VCT Pacific Stage 1 showing did leave something to be desired as they still managed to finish first in their respective group, despite being level on points with Team Secret. Gen.G would make it to its third grand finals in a row for the season but it ended up being its second straight loss, this time against PRX. Both teams would still end up going to Masters Shanghai but it was Gen.G who would have to play more games as they started from the Swiss Stage.
Image credit: VALORANT Esports (Photo by Liu YiCun/Riot Games)
They ended up having the highest round difference during the Swiss Stage with a +14 differential, the highest of any team at that point. Gen.G's playoff run also included some exceptional victories including two clean sweeps against some of the finest teams VCT Americas had to offer in 100 Thieves and G2 Esports. Fnatic was the only team that managed to take a map off of Gen.G during the quarter-finals but that was all she wrote.
With this being Gen.G's fourth straight VCT grand finals appearance and its second on the international stage, it was only a matter of time before they would finally win it. Its grand final match-up was against another VCT EMEA org in Team Heretics, who had looked to defy all the odds to make it to the end with a stand-in. Unfortunately for them, it turned out to be Gen.G's time to shine as they prevented an early victory and took the last two maps on Lotus and Split with aplomb to lift its second trophy of the year and its first on international soil.
What's next for Gen.G?
Both the Gen.G LoL and VLR squads are currently amid their LCK Summer Split and VCT Pacific Stage 2 matches at the moment. However, the Esports World Cup will be taking place in a few weeks and will see Gen.G's LoL squad head over to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia alongside T1 as two of the LCK's invited teams at the third-party tournament. Gen.G will just need to get to the playoffs of the LCK Summer Split to solidify its placement at Worlds 2024 later this year.
As for its VLR squad, Gen.G holds a slim lead over PRX in the VCT Pacific Championship points. Provided that Gen.G doesn't lose any more of its games in Stage 2, they have a high chance of making it to its first-ever VCT Champions event. This shows just how monumental the Masters Shanghai victory will mean to them as the crucial three points earned from the tournament was what gave them an edge over the rest in the Pacific region.
Gen.G is poised to have two teams in its corresponding major tournament of the year in both League and VALORANT with the chance of taking two of Riot's biggest titles home by the end of the season.
