Four of five of ROX Tigers’ initial starting roster announced their departure from the team on Twitter yesterday, leaving Han “Peanut” Wang-ho as the only remaining starter. With their contracts expiring, Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho, Lee “Kuro” Seo-haeng, Kim “Pray” Jong-in, and Kang “Gorilla” Beom-hyeon all stated that they were leaving the League of Legends team via social media, with ROX helping them find new contracts for the 2017 season.
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Peanut is the only member of the starting roster left on the team and while his contract doesn’t finish until the end of November, it looks unlikely that he will remain with the team, based on the loss of his other teammates.
The Tigers (then known as the KOO Tigers) shot to prominence after getting all the way to the finals of last year’s League of Legends World Championships, to be knocked out by winners SK Telecom T1. ROX then managed to reach the semi-finals this year, to again be knocked out by eventual winners and fellow Korean team SK Telecom T1.
Following the bankruptcy of initial sponsor KOOTV, rumours have been abound about the status of the team, with ESPN Esports reporting ROX’s plans to disband once player contracts had expired after Worlds this year. ROX Tigers fiercely denied these rumours at the time but it seems that ESPN were correct to report these findings.
Thanks ESPN Esports.