Kwangdong Freecs have locked their roster for the 2025 LCK season. The Korean organization have announced the re-signing of toplaner Lee "
DuDu" Dong-ju and midlaner Lee "
BuLLDoG" Tae-young. But that's not all, KDF have also announced the arrival of jungler Hong “
Pyosik” Chang-hyeon, AD Carry Kim “
Berserker” Min-cheol and support Kim “
Life” Jeong-min. The team has thus completed its roster for next season after just one day of Free Agency.
A World Champion in the lineup
The team will have a 2022 World Champion in the jungle next year. After his title with
DRX at Worlds 2022 and a disappointing stint with
Team Liquid in the LCS, Pyosik made his return to the LCK last year with
KT Rolster. A season that could be described as perfectly mid, as KT finished fifth throughout the entire LCK season before missing out on qualification for Worlds by losing 3-2
to the future World Champions T1 during the Regional Finals. This will be the third new project in three years for Pyosik by joining KDF, who are determined to improve on last year's performance.
Pyosik winning the Worlds 2022 with DRX, (Credit: Collin Young-Wolff / Riot Games)
Back to Korea
On September 20th,
Cloud9 (C9) announced the departure of one of their star players, Berserker, after three years of dedicated service. According to our sources, the player had interest from several Western teams but he wanted to return to the LCK. So ultimately, the AD Carry turns the page on his American chapter and returns to his home country of Korea, with KDF.
Initially trained in T1’s academy in 2020, alongside a certain Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun and Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, who followed a much different career path, Berserker did not make it to the main roster like his teammates. Instead, he stayed with T1's LCK Challengers team (LCK's second division), where he claimed his first career title in 2021 by winning the Spring Split. By the end of the year, he caught the attention of Nick "LS" De Cesare, who had just been appointed coach at Cloud9 and convinced the player to join the LCS for the 2022 season.
T1 Rookies in October 2020, with Zeus, Oner, Fisher, Berserker and Delight (formerly “Crescent”). Sources: T1.
Despite recent mixed team results, he won multiple titles and claimed several distinctions during his time in the USA: LCS 2022 Championship, LCS 2023 Spring Split, MVP of the 2023 Spring Split, inclusion in the LCS 1st All-Pro Team for both splits in 2023, and Finals MVP in Summer 2022. Next season, Berserker will look to prove his talent and bring his major-league experience to help KDF climb to new heights they have never before achieved.
But he is not the only one coming back to his home country. Indeed, Life is also making his return to the LCK. After making its league debut with Gen.G in 2018, the bracket had its fair share of second and third-place finishes, since back then the team wasn't yet the steamroller it's been able to be over the past two years in Korea. After four LCK podiums and a Worlds semi-final elimination between 2019 and 2021, Life got his chance in other Korean teams like KT and Hanwha Life Esports, where he was never successful.
Change of scenery for 2024, as he flies to China to join FunPlus Phoenix. Unfortunately, things didn't go so well once again, finishing in the top half of the mid-table and failing to qualify for international tournaments. For his return to the league in which he started, Life will be able to count on a well-constructed KDF roster to try and achieve better results than in his last competitive seasons.
Life during his time with Gen.G (Credit: Photo by Riot Games)
Consolidate KDF's foundations
While KDF have announced the signing of three new players, they have kept a base of their 2024 roster by re-signing DuDu and BuLLDoG, considered by some to be good talents. KDF are therefore banking on experience to surround their two players, who have a bit of bottle age as well, having made their debuts respectively with HLE in 2020 and KDF in 2022. The Korean team is therefore lining up a roster with a wealth of experience while not starting from scratch, which on paper seems to be rather positive for achieving results.
In 2024, KDF finished 6th and 7th in the standings, consistently overshadowed by the league's dominant powerhouse teams. Historically, KDF’s best performance was a second-place finish in Spring 2018, but since then, they've struggled to rise above mid-to-lower table placements, never reaching the top 4 again. The objective is therefore quite clear: to improve on the performances of previous years and try to compete with the league's elite teams.
KDF DuDu and BuLLDoG (Credit: Picture by LCK Live)
KDF roster for the 2025 season:
- Top: Lee "DuDu" Dong-ju
- Jungle: Hong "Pyosik" Chang-hyeon
- Mid: Lee "BuLLDoG" Tae-young
- ADC: Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol
- Support: Kim "Life" Jeong-min
For more roster changes, check out our Transfers Hub. Header Image Credit: Riot Games / KDF / Sheep Esports
