Throughout
LoL history, many of Europe’s greatest talents have departed the LEC to play as imports in NA. But on Saturday, Canadian star midlaner Joseph “
Jojopyun” Joon Pyun made history by flipping that script for the first time. With
Movistar KOI’s series win over
Karmine Corp, Jojopyun and his team have
qualified to the Mid-Season Invitational, making him the first ever NA player to represent EMEA in an international tournament.
Jojopyun was already
the first NA player to play in the LEC at all, let alone qualify for an international. Now that his team has qualified to MSI, they’ll be heading to Vancouver, Canada, meaning a visit to Torontonian Jojopyun’s home country.
It’s been a decade since the first MSI, where in 2015, the two first European imports to represent NA at this tournament competed, TSM’s Danes Søren “
Bjergsen” Bjerg and Lucas “
Santorin” Larsen. Years later, a debuting Jojopyun would defeat that very same pair, then on TL, in 2022, defining his early career by taking down NA’s import GOAT. Since then, Jojopyun's career has made him something of a reverse-Bjergsen, leaving his home region, making waves in his new one, and punching his way to MSI.
The qualification marks Jojopyun’s third international appearance to date. He first made MSI in 2022 in his debut split on Evil Geniuses, before later qualifying for Worlds that same year. At Worlds 2022, a young Jojo had his first encounter with his current mid-jungle duo partner in Javier "
Elyoya" Prades. Then, Jojo and EG delivered a crushing 3-0 to knock out Elyoya’s MAD Lions. Now, the two are working together and setting their sights on earning an international trophy together.
To see how often the inverse of Jojo’s situation still happens, where EMEA players represent NA at internationals, one should look no further than
FlyQuest, where Jojo’s former duo jungler, Kacper “
Inspired” Słoma, plays. At last year’s MSI, FLY qualified from the LCS with three different European players. Now, should they make it again, the LEC’s NA player Jojopyun may face off against the LTAN’s EU player Inspired in an intense backwards reunion.
