Vol'Jin joins Meta Gaming as coach

Meta Gaming’s sister teams will see action in OGN APEX Season 4, following Meta Bellum’s qualification from APEX Challengers Season 4 to join Meta Athena in APEX. With the next season scheduled to begin on August 11th, the org has brought in Vol’Jin as their new coach to replace RoyalLord.

원래 어제 공개 하려고 했던 싼티 코치님을 소개합니다! Quix 초창기 멤버셨고 그동안 아주 여러 팀들을 코치해오신 분이죠! pic.twitter.com/8A6b8IiFya — The Meta (@TheMetaGaming) July 14, 2017

The Athena side were the rookies of Korea early this year, with their tactical prowess driving them to the top four in APEX Season 2. The rise of dive compositions in APEX Season 3 however has taken its toll on the team; in the season's dive meta that demanded mechanical skill, their lack of it made their ride much tougher. Athena got through the group stage as the second seed in Group D, suffering a reverse sweep against EnVyUs and taking wins from Flash Lux and Rhinos Gaming Wings. The first playoff stage was their eventual demise from the tournament, with losses to Afreeca Freecs Blue and EnVyUs knocking them out.

Sister team Bellum will be premiering in their first season of APEX, grabbing a spot among four other teams from APEX Challengers. Their first outing in in the development league was in Season 3, where they were unable to advance to Super Week in 9th place. After undergoing a roster rework, they headed in Challengers Season 4, securing 6th place in the first group stage and 5th in the second group stage to auto-qualify for APEX Season 4.

The core of NUS, Libero, and Hoon will be greeted with the return of their old teammate Vol’Jin; the four of them were previously on Team Quix last year, and after the team parted ways, Vol’Jin, who was a player at the time, became a coach for a number of different teams. RoyalLord, Meta's previous coach, was present with the org since the APEX circuit began up until his recent departure.

Meta’s announcement comes after Athena were rumored to be making roster changes, when a miscommunication between the team and the Nexus Cup organizers said that Sayaplayer would be leaving the team. The team’s manager, Hyeong Soo, stated that the DPS player was given an offer from a western team, but he declined and decided to stick with Athena instead. He also revealed they’ll be acquiring a new player before the season kicks off.

Note: Roro and Ssanti are RoyalLord and Vol'Jin respectively.

Athena made their most recent appearance in the Bigfile Overwatch Battleroyal, where former wNv.KR support Hyeonu and former Afreeca Freecs Red tank SanSam subbed in for their 4-3 win against MVP Space. Their final roster however has yet to be determined, with APEX Season 4 scheduled to begin in more than a week's time.

Meta Athena’s roster is now:

Kim "Libero" Hye-sung (DPS)

Kim Hye-sung (DPS) Ha "Sayaplayer" Jeong-woo (DPS)

Ha Jeong-woo (DPS) Choi "Hoon" Jae-hoon (Flex)

Choi Jae-hoon (Flex) Sin "Alpha" Jae-hyeon (Tank)

Sin Jae-hyeon (Tank) Moon "ChangSik" Chang-sik (Tank)

Moon Chang-sik (Tank) Choi "Kris" Jun-soo (Support)

Choi Jun-soo (Support) Kim "NUS" Jong-seok (Support)

Kim Jong-seok (Support) Kang "Vol'Jin" Min-gyu (Coach)

The APEX lineup for Meta Bellum will be:

Dahim (DPS)

(DPS) Klocky (DPS)

(DPS) SIMJEONGSEOP (DPS)

(DPS) Hexa (Flex)

(Flex) Marve1 (Tank)

(Tank) Kim "Chara" Jung-yeon (Support)

Kim Jung-yeon (Support) Hellon (Support)

(Support) Kang "Vol'Jin" Min-gyu (Coach)

A special thank you to TISRobin311 for his help with the article.