On Feb. 8th, Liiv SANDBOX announced their newest acquisition in the bot lane, Lee “Prince” Chae-Hwan, via their official Twitter. Earlier this year, Prince joined the LPL team, FunPlus Phoenix, but was released as a free agent this month. He will be eligible to join the starting line-up in round 2 of the 2021 LCK Spring split.

Prince was more widely known in Challengers Korea, where he was once part of bbq Olivers, DAMWON Gaming, and Awesome Spear. Although he didn’t get the chance to start for FPX in the LPL, he was recognized for his talent and growth potential, and got quickly picked up by an LCK team.

The general manager for LSB commented, “We kept a close eye on him even after he joined FPX, because we felt that Prince would play a key role in helping find balance in the team’s direction. It’s rare for a player that went to the LPL to suddenly return to the LCK during the split, but I’m very pleased that nothing went wrong in the process. I want to thank the LCK for their help in making sure the process went smoothly, and FPX, for making such a huge decision for Prince as well.”

LSB also had the following to comment about Prince’s return to the domestic scene. “Based on various fan feedback, we spent a lot of resources, focusing on ways to immediately strengthen our roster. During negotiations with Prince, we told the player that LSB will become a very strong team upon his joining, because that’s what we firmly believed in. The organization prepared a plane ticket for him to return in advance, and made sure that he would be eligible to be listed on the starting roster from round 2 of the Spring split.