There is some behind-the-scenes drama stirring ahead of the Worlds 2019. Griffin, Korea’s 2nd seed and defending champs Invictus Gaming have parted ways with their respective head coaches. Find out the details below.

Coaching Changes Ahead Of Worlds 2019

Team Griffin

After two consecutive 2nd-place finishes, cvMax was under fire from management. For those who are unfamiliar with the LCK, Griffin rose to prominence after qualifying in the LCK 2018 summer split. In just their first split, they managed to get 2nd place in the regular season. They then fell to KT Rolster in a 5-game series. They followed that up with a 1st place regular season finish the following split, but SKT swept them in the finals.

In the summer split, Griffin continued their regular season dominance and again finished first place, but lost 3-1 against SKT in the final. Nevertheless, both runner-up finishes gave them enough points to auto-qualify for the Worlds as the second seed. Apparently, three second-place finishes for a newly-qualified team from Challenger wasn’t enough success for the management. With the huge breach of trust between him and management, he decided to leave the team.

TSM started their Acad jungler before Worlds qualification and didn’t make it through gauntlet. iG started their Academy jungler and qualified for Worlds. Griffin parted ways with their Head Coach right before Worlds. Some speculate it will cost them playoffs iG: Hold my beer. — Kelsey Moser (莫凯西) (@karonmoser) September 26, 2019

Invictus Gaming

It has long been known, even right after winning last year’s Summoner’s Cup, that IG was an extremely volatile team. There were rumors that Ning was a difficult person to handle, even for their head coach, and often clashed with teammates. We know little else of the inner workings of IG, but they apparently relieved their Korean head coach, Kim “Karam” Ga-ram, two weeks before the start of the Worlds Group Stage.

For clarification, this is not Coach Kim that led IG to the title last year. That Kim is now coaching Damwon Gaming. This new coach joined the team in March and, according to a vlog by IG themselves, he seemingly had little to no input regarding the team’s workings. IG may have brought him aboard solely for strategic preparations. Nevertheless, he was reportedly relieved after they lost in playoffs. This news only came up to the rest of the world because Mafa, their drafting coach, is now officially the head coach of the team.

Two weeks is still a long agonizing time for us to wait before we see our favorite teams clash in the biggest tournament of the year. News like this only adds fuel the fire and the hype for Worlds 2019. Stay tuned for more League of Legends news.