Stars — Song “Rookie” Eui-jin
7 AUGUST 2021 — by League Analyst
Career Highlights
- LCK Champion (2014)
- Demacia Cup Champion (2018)
- World Champion (2018)
- LPL Champion (2019)
Most Played Champions
Rookie’s Story
Rookie’s pro career started in Korea back in 2013 when he joined KT Rolster Arrows as a midlaner. At the time, Rookie went by the name Most 3 and was only 16 years old. The newly formed KTA squad qualified for Champions 2014 Spring after winning a qualification game against Alienware Arena.
In their first OGN split, KTA managed to top the Group Stage, ahead of not only one, but two SKT teams. It was a huge upset and a big achievement for the Arrows as an organisation.
The Arrows team was built around raw individual skill and the team relied a lot on outplaying their opponents in the laning phase. Rookie was considered one of the premium midlaners in OGN at the time and drew comparison with Faker with his aggressive playstyle in the mid lane. Rookie even managed to bring down the “Unkillable Demon King” and his SKT, silencing everyone who doubted his individual abilities.
Following their stunning triumph in the Group Stage, KT lost in the quarterfinals against CJ Entus Blaze. But all things considered, it really was a good first tournament from the team, allowing them to head into the summer season as unexpected hopefuls. And rightfully so, as the team topped their group again, giving them another shot in the playoffs.
This time, they went all the way, beating NaJin White Sheild and SKT T1 S in the quarters and semis respectively. In the finals they had to face the Spring season champions, Samsung Blue, and KTA were massive underdogs going into the series.
What followed was a fantastic night of League of Legends and I would definitively recommend watching the entire finals event if you haven’t done so already.
Spoiler Alert!
In a back and forth series, the Arrows managed to upset the defending champions 3–2 to claim their first championship. The series ended with a triple mirror in the deciding blind pick game, where Rookie and his team came out on top.
The Arrows were however, not able to qualify for the World Championship after winning Champions. Only 14 days after lifting the trophy they were swept 3–0 by NaJin White Sheild, making them the first Champions Summer winner to not qualify for Worlds.
But for Rookie, his career had only just started and he was quickly rising in popularity. In a GamePlus segment, Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu mentioned that in his team, Rookie had the nickname “Substitute Faker”. A witty but respectable nickname considering that Faker was considered to be one of the best players in the world at the time.
Just after the World Championship ended in 2014, we saw one of the biggest roster migrations ever, commonly refereed to as “the South Korean exodus to China”. Two of the LCK players that decided to move to China and the LPL was Rookie and his jungler partner KaKAO.
The team receiving the two Koreans was one of the oldest organisations in China, Invictus Gaming. And with their new additions, the team quickly cemented themselves as a middle of the pack roster in the LPL, ending 5th in the Spring regular season. In the playoffs they managed to beat 4th place Vici Gaming, but lost out in the semifinals against the eventual champions EDward Gaming.
In summer, the team improved their regular season placing and ended 3rd behind only Qiao Gu Reapers and EDward Gaming. This in big part due to Rookie solidifying himself as the best midlaner in the league, consistently solo-killing enemies in lane and carrying his team with his incredible mechanical abilities.
Despite loosing to the 2nd placed Qiao Gu Reapers in round 1 of the Final Stage, IG managed to snag LPL’s 3rd and last seed for Worlds in the regional finals, getting their revenge against the Reapers in the final qualification match.
At Worlds, Invictus was put in group B alongside ahq eSports Club, Cloud9 and Fnatic. Going into the tournament IG was considered heavy favorites in the group and Rookie, the best midlaner by far, mainly because of his stellar laning phase.
But that wouldn’t be enough for IG, as they started dropping games left and right. All said and done, IG only managed to win two games and ended last in the group, a shockingly bad result for a team who most expected to top the group. To add insult to injury, Rookie had to watch from the sidelines as the other Korean midlane prodigy, who he was destined to overtake, won the championship for the 2nd time with SKT.
Heading into the 2016 season, the LPL switched to a two group format for their regular season. For IG, 2016 was a rough year overall. Despite Rookie getting the most kills of any midlaner in the region in spring, the team only managed 4th in their group and lost in round 1 of playoffs 3–0 against Snake Esports. Notably, Rookie had the most MVP’s in the league during the split with 10 awards.
Summer was more of the same for IG, 4th place in regular season and another 3–0 loss in round 1 of playoffs, this time against I May. For Rookie it was a disastrous year in terms of results, but he was still considered to be a world class player and the best midlaner in the LPL. But the supportive pieces around him simply wasn’t good enough to compete with the top teams in the region.
2017 was quite similar to 2016 for Invictus with two 3rd place finishes in the two regular seasons. The Spring Split ended in the quarterfinals against Newbee. Summer however, was a different story. IG dismantled Suning 3–0 in round 1 and upset a strong OMG team in the semifinals.
As a team, IG was improving rapidly. Especially ADC player West, who at points was considered one of the worst ADC’s in the region. This improvement was key for the team, who usually had to rely on Rookie to snowball the game.
Unfortunately IG lost out to EDG in a close 3–2 series, forcing them into the regional finals to compete for LPL 3rd’s seed at Worlds. There, IG beat OMG once again but fell by Team WE and was denied their ticket to Worlds.
At this point it was quite clear that the rest of IG would have to step it up if Rookie was to bring them a championship. And 2018 was to be the year where they finally got it together. The roster was shaken up and in came two players that most of you probably have heard of before, JackeyLove and TheShy.
With these additions, Rookie finally had a roster that could be competitive. The new IG squad dominated the Spring Split and entered playoffs with an
18–1 regular season record behind them. At this point in time, this type of dominance was unheard of in the LPL and IG was being hyped up as one of the best teams in the world.
But luck wasn’t on IG’s side. TheShy suffered a hand injury and had to be substituted out for their semifinal matchup against Royal Never Give Up. And without their star toplaner, IG would fall after a heartbreaking 3–2 series and their long awaited championship would have to wait even more.
The Summer Split would be yet another heartbreak for Rookie. Another 18–1 regular season, only to fall short in a five game series against RNG in the finals. It simply wasn’t meant to be and IG would have to set their eyes on Worlds instead.
There they were drawn into group D with Fnatic, 100 Theives and G-Rex. And going in, IG was favored to get out in first place once again. The broadcast analyst even had Rookie rated as the 2nd best player of the entire tournament, only falling short to RNG’s legendary ADC “Uzi”.
IG ended the Group Stage 5–1 and proceeded to the Knockout Stage as the 2nd seed from the group after loosing a tiebreaker against Fnatic.
This unfortunately resulted in them drawing the tournament favorite in the quarterfinal. The team in question was Rookies former squad, KT Rolster who were qualified as LCK’s first seed. Since IG just lost against FNC, looking quite shaky overall, fans and analyst were favoring KT quite heavily going into the series. But the team that showed up against KT was a whole different beast.
IG came in swinging and took a convincing 2–0 lead in the series. But after a dramatic base race in game 3, things started to shift in the favor of the Koreans.
It all came down to the fifth and final game. Can you guess what happens next? Rookie forgets to buy a starting item and starts the game with a significant disadvantage. But despite the mistake by Rookie, the team held strong and eliminated the Korean first seed from the tournament.
During the tournament, Rookie also did one of the most hilarious interviews to date, sharing his bubbly and charismatic personality:
“When you say Rekkles, all I can think of is that he is handsome. Rekkles has a lot of skill but he also has standout visuals.
Our team is lacking a bit in the looks department so it wouldn’t be a bad thing to just give us the Summoner’s Cup. I think Rekkles can earn a living by being a movie star anyway”
With the Korean giant out of the way, there was nothing that could stop IG from taking the crown. In a dominating fashion, Rookie and his team swept trough Europe’s G2 Esport and Fnatic to win the 2018 World Championship.
After the conclusion of the final, Rookie gave us one of the most emotional and heartwarming interviews to date:
After the Word Championship it was time to look forwards, towards the next LPL split and another shot at the championship. Luckily, IG’s Worlds form continued into the 2019 season and the team secured 2nd place in the LPL standings with a 11–4 record.
And after falling on the finish line so many times before, Rookie finally managed to win his first LPL Championship after defeating Top Esports and JD Gaming respectively. This also meant that IG qualified for MSI for the first time ever.
MSI started well and IG got out of the Group Stage with only one loss. But in the semifinals, they were shockingly upset by NA’s representative Team Liquid. And this would be the start of a rough slump for IG.
The team managed to qualify for the Knockout Stage in the Summer Split as the 6th place team but was swept 3–0 by LNG Esports in the first round of playoffs. But the team would bounce back just in time for the regional finals and managed to secure the last Worlds seed after beating JD Gaming and TOP Esports 3–2.
Despite making it out of groups with ease, it was clear that IG wasn’t in the same dominant form as they were when attending Worlds 2018. In the quarterfinals they took down Griffin, a rookie team that had skyrocketed straight from Challengers Korea in 2018, to winning both LCK titles in 2019, only to be taken down by a shaky IG in the quarterfinals.
And IG’s run at Worlds was nearing its end as well. As they matched up against the LPL first seed; FunPlus Phoenix, any resistance was futile. But as the defending champions fell, the flag was handed over to FPX who won the World Championship and asserted LPL’s dominance in League of Legends.
After the 2019 season, we haven’t seen much from IG in terms of results. Despite solid regular season placings in 2020, the team fell short in their first playoff series both splits.
In 2021 things have been looking even darker for the organization. Spring ended in round 1 of playoffs and in the Summer Split they only manged to get 13th place which means Rookie is missing the playoffs for the first time in his professional career.
And that brings us to today, “Rookie” is anything but a rookie anymore. His incredible skills has brought him a fruitful and long career. What happens next is still unclear, but his incredible journey so far will always be remembered in the heart of League of Legends viewers.
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