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Team Liquid Alienware botlaner Yeon walks into the Team Liquid Alienware facility before instantly making his way over to the League of Legends practice room. He takes his seat in the chair, reviews his VODs before gearing up for a day of practice.
This has been the routine that Yeon has done every single day to become one of North America’s premier League of Legends talents. For years, Yeon has been a reliable carry option for Team Liquid Alienware. He has collected numerous All-Pro appearances alongside the respect of his peers.
However, the LCS 2026 season marked a newfound mindset for Yeon that has shaped the way he has been trying to evolve his game while also starting to think about what it means to be a true competitor.
Improvements one step at a time
Developing his own voice as a League of Legends pro has been a tough adjustment for Yeon, who admitted to the challenges of balancing both communication and his in-game mechanics. It wasn’t until a conversation with his coaches about communication and its importance that Yeon placed it as a priority in practices.
“These days, I’m a carry so I have to be very vocal about when we should fight and when I need to fight,” Yeon said. “I think carries have a lot of responsibility during the game when they are strong enough to actually say when to fight. That’s the one thing I’ve been improving on this split compared to other splits.”
When Yeon was promoted to the main Team Liquid roster full-time at the start of the LCS 2023 season, he had a team of veterans who were decisive in their “own theory” of how they wanted to win games. He would watch how his veteran teammates would have a certainty about what fit within their scope of controlling a game. That same cadence followed him in 2024 and 2025.
“I knew how to do my own thing and play well, but I wasn’t really actively thinking about how to push a game,” Yeon said. “I was letting other people do it like Umti, Impact, and Core.”
Yeon is taking steps to continuously evolve his game. However, the initial steps towards even reaching this point don’t come from living a dream. It comes from a place of embracing the known.
Why Yeon Pursued a career in esports
Becoming a professional League of Legends player is often a dream that many are unable to fully achieve.
For Yeon, League of Legends wasn’t his dream. It was the only thing going for him in life.
“To be blunt, I don’t know what I really want, so I’m just playing,” Yeon said. “I have nothing else going for me and nothing better to do. This is why I’m playing.”
Yeon remembered the early conversations with his parents about becoming a professional League of Legends player. In his Senior Year of high school, he was prepared to attend college undeclared, trying to figure out where life would take him next. That’s when life took him by storm, as an opportunity to play League of Legends professionally began to surface.
Soon after, he took that risk to compete in the LCS Academy, giving himself one year to try and build something in League of Legends. Since then, he has attended the League of Legends World Championships twice and won two LCS titles. Despite all of his success domestically and qualifying for various international events, there is still one key milestone that Yeon has always wanted to achieve in his League of Legends career.
However, the 2026 season is a key milestone for him because it could make a career-long dream a reality if things go well.
The Dream of Worlds in North America
One of Yeon’s dreams ever since becoming a professional League of Legends player was to attend the League of Legends World Championship in North America. Yeon wasn’t a full-time LCS player during the LoL 2022 season, the last time the World Championships were in North America. For the first time, the LCS 2026 season marks an opportunity for Yeon to turn his League of Legends dream into a reality.
Yeon understands that his dream of competing on the international stage in front of a home crowd is one many other LCS pros share. However, despite the competitive landscape of the LCS, Yeon has his sights set on taking things one at a time to ensure he and Team Liquid will be on the international stage at the end of 2026.
“Worlds is in North America, and everyone wants to go to Worlds in NA, so I have to work really hard for that,” Yeon said. “I really want to make sure I can go to Worlds and play well.”
His goal of attending the League of Legends World Championships in North America is why he is placing this pressure on himself to perform extremely well.
“To be honest, I’m going into this split and the next Summer Split as if it’s going to be my last year as well,” Yeon truthfully admitted.
Currently in his seventh year as a professional League of Legends player, Yeon’s sights are set on redemption in 2026. After missing out on the League of Legends World Championships in 2025, the opportunity to play in front of a home crowd is the only thing Yeon has his sights set on.
For now, the process towards achieving this goal comes from the day-to-day and maintaining his focus on what is in front of him.