LoL: Impact parts ways with Team Liquid

South Korean toplaner Jeong "Impact" Eon-young has announced his departure from Team Liquid after several years with the club. At 30, Impact is leaving TL but is not retiring, keeping the door open for new projects. In a message to fans, he apologized for the team’s disappointing year. Despite an encouraging start—winning the split and participating in the First Stand—the team was eventually overpowered by FlyQuest, who claimed the last two splits of the year, and failed to qualify for Worlds.

It was a disappointing end to the year for Team Liquid, who finished fourth in Split 2 and were surprisingly eliminated by Shopify Rebellion. Split 3 was even tougher. The departure of Um "UmTi" Sung-hyeon and the arrival of Ganbat "Yuuji" Ulziidelger did not improve TL’s results—in fact, the team failed to even qualify for the cross-conference stage to try for a Worlds spot, being swept by 100 Thieves.

Impact is far from a rookie. Having started his career in his home country of Korea before moving to North America, he can boast a high-level career longer than most. He began in the early days of professional Korean League of Legends in 2012 with Xenics Storm as a support. After role-swapping to toplane, he caught the eye of Kim "kkOma" Jeong-gyun, who was assembling a young roster aiming for Worlds. He joined names like Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong, Chae "Piglet" Gwang-jin, and especially Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok. This roster won multiple trophies together, laying the foundations of Korean LoL and forever etching their names on the Summoner’s Cup in 2013.

In 2015, the LCK cut its teams in half, going from 16 to just eight, and naturally, many players had to leave. At the same time, leagues worldwide were growing and saw an opportunity to attract top players to help develop and promote their competitions. This led Impact to join Team Impulse and later NRG Esports, though without major success. His first real achievement came in 2016 with Cloud9, qualifying for Worlds twice.

He then joined Team Liquid for the first time at the start of 2018, winning four consecutive NA LCS splits, with the highlight of his NA career being the MSI 2019 final, lost to G2 Esports after defeating Invictus Gaming in the semifinals. After a difficult 2020 at TL, Impact joined Evil Geniuses, surrounded by promising young players like Kacper "Inspired" Słoma and Joseph Joon "Jojopyun" Pyun. EG won Spring and participated in both international events, though they couldn’t replicate TL’s previous success.

The toplaner had a short stint with FlyQuest before rejoining Team Liquid in early 2024, winning Spring and reaching the Summer final. A long career and an equally long story, demonstrating how Impact has been a model of longevity and consistency, winning titles from his debut in 2013 until his departure from TL in 2025.