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A Shot at the Best
5 rising players seize the chance of a lifetime with the United States National
Talent Development Program
From lecture halls facing professors to the halls of Busan's famed Cinema Center facing world champions, America's tier 2 talent will be tasked with their toughest challenge yet.
The National Talent Development Program (NTDP) of USA Esports will be matching up against some of the most decorated athletes in the history of League of Legends esports. USA League of Legends Head Coach Nick 'Inero' Smith has hand selected a group of up-and-coming players in each role to represent the United States in a friendly match against Team Korea, all in preparation for the upcoming Asian Games.
Given the short notice of the event and the constraining calendar of both the League Championship Series (LCS) playoffs and similar leagues, Coach Inero was tasked with finding available rising stars to wear the stars and stripes. His picks bring plenty of promise, all boasting their own North American Challenger League (NACL) experience, including former Winthrop University student Noah 'Denathor' Erikson, a toplaner who leveled up and competed for Dignitas in the LCS this past Summer. The rest of the roster features Perry 'Perry' Norman in the jungle, as well as three products of Maryville University: Junhao 'Aojune' Chen in the midlane, and the bot lane duo of Jeremiah 'ScaryJerry' Leathe and Ryan ‘Zyko' Jung.
"This is my first time participating in an event this size, on an international stage. I'm very lucky to be representing USA Esports and hopefully we can put up a bit of a fight against some of the best in the world! I'm grateful for the opportunity to travel and compete at KESPA."
- Junhao ‘Aojune' Chen, USA National Talent Development Program Midlaner
KeSPA has given USA Esports the rare chance for American players to face top-level competition and truly hone their craft..
Team Korea is headlined by the most influential athlete in the history of esports, midlaner Lee 'Faker' Sang-hyeok, and his unit teem with talent in every role including reigning Midseason Invitational (MSI) teammates Choi ‘Zeus' Woo-je, Kim ‘Zeka' Geon-woo, and Lee ‘Gumayusi' Min-hyeong, as well as 3-time champion support Ryu 'Keria' Min-seok and 2020 world champion jungler Kim 'Canyon' Geon-bu. These six have all won a world championship since the turn of the decade, and for Faker, Keria, and Gumayusi – come off the back of a three-peat.
The USA League of Legends coach had this to say about the U.S. team's talent:
"We wanted to use this opportunity to give younger players a chance to travel to Korea and experience playing versus their idols. A lot more opportunities are beginning to appear for international travel across (Tier 2 and Tier 1), so we wanted to use this timing to show some love to upcoming players in the US that are still working towards reaching those events."
- Nick 'Inero' Smith, USA Esports League of Legends Head Coach
Streamed exclusively through Disney+ Korea on September 19th at 12pm CEST, thanks to an exclusive partnership with KeSPA, fans of the American teams can follow along on USA Esports socials for updates including game scores, as well as other pre match and post match content.