Kim “Lakia” Jong-min joins GenG Valorant for VCT 2024

Today, on the 25th of October, GenG Esports Valorant announced the third player to join the VCT 2024 roster. Dplus Korea’s Kim “Lakia” Jong-min has joined Kim “Meteor” Tae-o and Kim “t3xture” Na-ra as part of Gen.G Valorant’s roster overhaul.

The Tumultuous Summit:

Lakia is considered one of the best Sova player in Korean Valorant. Despite his undeniable talent, he spent the majority of time away from the international limelight. Starting his career with PROPARTY after spending a few weeks with Vision Strikers.

He left PROPARTY at the start of 2021 to join NUTURN gaming alongside Park “allow” Sang-wook. With NUTURN, Lakia broke Vision Strikers’ (now DRX) 104-0 streak to qualify for the first International Valorant LAN.

Kim "Lakia" Jong-min at VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavik 2021 representing NUTURN Gaming (credits: Coling Young-Wolff // Riot Games)

At VCT Stage 2 Masters Reykjavik 2021, NUTURN Gaming placed third after losing to Fnatic in the Lower Finals. Lakia was the MVP of Day 4 of the event. He was later recruited by Vision Strikers for VCT Stage 3 Masters Berlin 2021 and Valorant Champions 2021. With the team, Lakia played only two international games.

The reason behind seldomly playing the undeniably better player in Lakia was always a doubtful decision, the community suspected Vision Striker’s tendency to hide strategies to gain a competitive advantage being the reason.

Lakia transitioned to DRX with the team but left to join IGZIST and then DAMWON Gaming but to no avail. Most of Lakia’s time was spent playing second fiddle to the DRX roster. With Valorant Leagues announcement, everyone expected Lakia to be the first player picked by T1 or GenG but once more, Lakia had to spend his time competing in T2.

Dplus Esports was a powerhouse in Korea and dominated both the splits of VCL Korea. Unfortunately, they bailed out of the VCT Pacific Ascensions group stage. Lakia announced his departure from the team shortly after.

GenG Valorant rebuilding phase:

GenG did not necessarily have a great season. Despite looking like a strong team at the start of the VCT Pacific 2023, they fumbled and struggled to get a single win after their loss to DRX in week 5.

The team did qualify for the playoffs, but could not qualify for VCT Masters Tokyo 2023 and then failed at VCT Pacific LCQ 2023, concluding their season. GenG announced the roster’s departure shortly after retaining only Meteor.

They announced t3xture not too long ago, following it up with Kim "HSK" Hae-seong's announcement. And now have added Lakia to the mix. Lakia is definitely a solid addition to any team. Being denied the Tier 1 spotlight, Lakia will definitely make the best of this opportunity and hopefully take GenG to the top of Valorant world.

Follow GenG and Lakia's adventures on Strafe.

Featured Image Credits: VCT Pacific // Riot Games

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