Deft

Biography

2013 Season - MVP Blue

Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu made his debut in the competitive scene when he joined MVP Blue as their new AD carry in February of 2013. His first professional tournament was OLYMPUS Champions Spring 2013 in which Blue failed to make it through their group. Blue was able to attend HOT6iX Champions Summer 2013 but Blue failed to make it through groups again. Blue and their sister team, Ozone, were picked up by the Samsung organization to form Samsung Galaxy Blue and Samsung Galaxy Ozone, respectively.

2014 Season - Samsung Blue

The new Samsung Blue team played in PANDORA.TV Champions Winter 2013-2014 and they finally made it to the quarterfinals but were stopped by the undefeated SK Telecom T1 K. The competitive experience Deft acquired in these seasons allowed him to develop into one of the sharpest AD carries Korea offers. His Blue teammates could not ask for a better player at the position, as they victoriously marched towards HOT6iX Champions Spring 2014 where they overcame sister team Samsung White 3-1 in the semifinals on the way to the 2014 OGN Summer Finals. Blue ended up beating NaJin White Shield 3-1 in the finals to win their first OGN title. Blue also made the finals of HOT6iX Champions Summer 2014 but they actually ended up losing 3-2 to the KT Rolster Arrows. Samsung Blue had enough circuit points to attend the 2014 Season World Championship as the top seed from Korea but they lost 3-0 in the semifinals to White. In his solo queue adventures, Deft favors Ezreal and Lucian, but he has shown to be able to play any role at the top of the Korean Challenger solo queue circuit. During his tenure on Samsung Blue, Deft favored skill shot based AD carries over auto attack based and was noted for his ability to react and dodge. In particular, he had a strong reputation as a Corki and Kog'Maw player. At the 2014 World Championship, Deft was noted for doing an absurd amount of damage to champions per game.

2015 Season - Edward Gaming

On October 31, 2014, Deft announced his departure from Samsung Blue. Ten days later, he announced that he had joined EDward Gaming. In his first games with EDG, the team won a convincing 3-0 over the team's biggest offseason rivals, Team King in the G-League 2014 finals. EDG played in the 2015 Demacia Cup Spring where they went undefeated from the round-of-sixteen until the finals which ended in a crushing 3-0 victory against Invictus Gaming.In 2015 LPL Spring, Deft played all 44 games with Edward Gaming. The team placed first in the regular season, losing only six games in total. He played 11 different champions, but primarily specialized in Corki, Sivir, and Jinx. He struggled the most on Kalista and Urgot. In the LPL Finals, Deft would notably end Game 5 against LGD Gaming with a pentakill, clinching EDG's spot to represent China at the Mid-Season Invitational. At MSI, EDG pushed their way to the finals and upset the heavily favored SK Telecom T1 by baiting Faker into picking LeBlanc and picking a comp to counter it. EDG won the series 3-2 and took home the title of best team in the World. EDG participated in the 2015 Demacia Cup Summer Season where they won again by taking a 3-0 set against OMG. They ended in first place once again in the 2015 LPL Summer Regular Season but in the 2015 LPL Summer Playoffs they faltered, dropping a 3-0 set to LGD and a 3-1 set to IG to end in fourth place overall. They still qualified for the 2015 Season China Regional Finals and managed to take the second seed from China to the 2015 Season World Championship with a 3-1 victory over IG. EDG were placed in a group with SK Telecom, H2k Gaming, and the Bangkok Titans. They came out of the group in second place and were drawn to play Fnatic in the quarterfinals but lost to them 3-0.

2016 Season - Edward Gaming

EDG had a rough start to the 2016 LPL Spring Season and played several games without ClearLove. They were however able to bounce back and finished 2nd in Group B, slightly behind Royal Never Give Up. In the playoffs, EDG was able to sweep Snake Esports 3-0 and then won automatically against Qiao Gu Reapers due to QG forfeiting the match. In the finals, EDG faced off against Royal Never Give Up and despite EDG being the favorites going into the match, they lost 1-3 and finished in 2nd place, failing to qualify for the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational. Once summer came, EDG was placed in Group A of the 2016 LPL Summer Season. This split would be the start to EDG's resurgence as the team finished with an undefeated 16-0 regular season. In the 2016 LPL Summer Playoffs EDG would defeat Team WE 3-2 in the semifinals which set them up for a rematch against Royal Never Give Up. In clean fashion, EDG was able to defeat RNG in a 3-0 sweep and reclaim the LPL championship while also qualifying for the 2016 Season World Championship as China's #1 seed.

At Worlds, Deft and EDG were grouped against H2k-Gaming, ahq e-Sports Club and INTZ e-Sports and finished as the 2nd seed after they lost the tiebreaker match against H2k. They were then seeded against ROX Tigers in the bracket stage and lost the series 1-3. After Worlds, EDG made an announcement that Deft will be leaving the team after the 2016 Demacia Cup, which they won after a win against I May in the Finals. On November 30, KT Rolster announced that Deft would be the team's new ADC in the upcoming season.

2017 Season - KT Rolster

In the 2017 LCK Spring Season performed well and finished at the top of the standings. However in the playoffs KT fell short and lost 0-3 to SK Telecom T1 in the finals. Although their regular season run in summer was a bit more successful, their playoff run was worse and they fell 2-3 to SKT again but in the semifinals this time. In the 2017 Season Korea Regional Finals KT was taken down 0-3 by Samsung Galaxy and failed to qualify for the 2017 Season World Championship.

2018 Season - KT Rolster

After a disappointing year, Deft chose to remain on KT Rolster. The team kept their core players and proceeded with a shake-up in the coaching staff along side the addition of two substitute players, Rush and Ucal. While the team failed to qualify for Worlds, KT Rolster was still painted out to be Korea's potential "Super Team". As the LCK Spring Season debuted, KT Rolster ended up in 3rd place, finishing split with a score of 13-5. Heading into playoffs, the team did not find much better success as they once again were defeated by the Afreeca Freecs 1-3 and were forced to stay at home while the eventual winners of the tournament Kingzone DragonX went on to represent Korea at the Mid-Season Invitational.

While the spring split turned out to be disappointing for Deft and the KT Rolster players, it was a reinvigorated KT Rolster that headed into Rift Rivals and, while Korea did not win the tournament, KT Rolster racked up an impressing score of 3-0 against the other Asian representatives, notably beating Invictus Gaming who would go on to win the 2018 World Championship the same year.

Returning to Korea, KT Rolster quickly picked up the pace and finished 1st place in the LCK Summer Season with the same score of 13-5, earning themselves the first seed going into the playoffs. Deft and his teammate seemed like a entirely new team with the transition of Ucal into the starting mid laner position. As the finals approached, it turned out that KT Rolster would be matched against Griffin, one of Korea's youngest bloods and most impressive teams at the time. Dominated in the first game of the finals, KT quickly bounced back and won themselves the second game of the match. Later on, Griffin would win the third game, going into match points and pushing KT Rolster at wit's end. While game 4 looked grim for Deft and his team, his teammates Smeb and Mata fiercely showed their impressive team play and skill as they turned the game around and sent the match into game 5, narrowly escaping the jaws of defeat and eventually winning KT Rolster their LCK Summer Playoffs title, earning Korea's first seed going into the 2018 World Championship.

Heading into the tournament, Deft and his team were placed into Group C with EDward Gaming, Team Liquid, and MAD Team. The Korean team quickly proved their dominance as they ended the Group Stage in first place with a score of 5-1, only dropping one game to EDward Gaming. Sadly for Deft, KT Rolster were faced with a tough opponent in Invictus Gaming in the very first round of the Knockout Stage, eventually getting defeated 2-3 by the Chinese team, being eliminated in their very own country. While they fought to the bitter end, their performance was not enough as Invictus Gaming would proceed to win the entire tournament, not dropping a single other game after their match against KT Rolster.

It was shortly after their loss at the World Championship that Deft would leave KT Rolster and join Kingzone DragonX.

The team then competed in the 2018 LoL KeSPA Cup during which they were defeated in their very first round 0-2 by Gen.G.

2019 Season - Kingzone DragonX

After the tragedy at the 2018 World Championship, Deft joined previous LCK winners in King-Zone DragonX, to play botlane along side TusiN. He was also reunited with his good friend PawN, who got benched at KT Rolster during the previous split due to medical issues. KZ started off the Spring Split wildly inconsistent but picked up the pace later on as they ended the regular season with a 6 match winstreak to finish in 3rd position, behind only SK Telecom T1 and Griffin. They came into the semi-finals slightly as underdogs, and lost 3-0 in an unfortunate BO5. SK Telecom T1 would move on to win the LCK Spring Cup in convincing fashion, with a 3-0 sweep against the tournament favorites in Griffin. Deft would end the Spring split in second place when it comes to individual MVP standings, being only 100 points (1MVP) down on Chovy.

Summer Split started of great for KZ, fluctuating between place 1 and 3 in the close standings, before dropping significantly after week 5. Deft couldn't repeat his carry performance, and along side internal problems, the team ended the split in a disappointing 7th position. They had one chance left to go to Worlds, the Regional Finals. KZ, despite coming in as heavy underdogs due to their lack of performance in the last couple of weeks of LCK Summer, beat both Afreeca Freecs and Sandbox Gaming. In the finals against Damwon Gaming however, they lost 3-2, despite an amazing Baron Nashor steal from Deft in game 2.

It was shortly after 2019 Season World Championship that KZ announced the renaming of their team to DragonX, DRX. Deft immediatly announced that he would stay, eventhough the entire team left. In the following weeks, DRX announced that Spring Split MVP Chovy would join in the midlane, aswell as Doran in the toplane. Jungle and support positions would be filled by rookies Pyosik and Keria.

2020 Season - DragonX/DRX

LCK Spring Split 2020 started very well for DragonX, by winning their first 4 games, before dropping games against T1 and Gen.G in week 3. DragonX would continue to fight in this way, and ended Spring tied for first with earlier named teams. Due to worse win/loss record, DragonX finished the Split in third position, which would match them against Damwon Gaming in round 2 of the playoffs. Deft and his teammates defeated DWG in a grueling 5 game series. In round 3 of playoffs, with the finals in their eyes, DragonX lost against T1 with a 3-1 record. T1 would eventuelly go on to beat Gen.G 3-0 in the finals. In comparison to LCK Spring 2019, Deft only secured 200 points in the MVP Standings.

DragonX was matched with 2018 World Champions in Invictus Gaming, LPL Champions JDG and Gen.G in the Midseason Cup. After a flamboyant 2-0 start, with victories over IG and Gen.G, DRX would end up in a triple tiebreaker after losing against JDG. DragonX would lose both tiebreaker games and ended third in its group with a 2-1 record.

LCK Summer split started of very well for the renamed DRX, being at the top of the standings for the entire split. However, due to better win/loss record, DWG got the first place heading straight to the finals. DRX played semi finals against Gen.G and won a tiring 5 games series after a 3hour pause. The finals was done quite fast, after a 3-0 sweep. DRX however, was already qualified for Worlds due to having the highest amount of Championship Points in LCK 2020 season. Deft would have a "better" personal split, and acquired 500 MVP points. With Deft qualifying for Worlds, he could once again pursue his dream, which is winning the World Championship.

2021 Season - Hanwha Life

On 24th of November 2020, Hanwa Life Esports confirmed Deft as their new AD Carry player for the 2021 LCK Season. Over the next few weeks the roster would get filled with the likes of Chovy, Morgan and a few other players.

Season 11 started of really well for the team of Hanwha Life eSports, with collecting wins over Gen.G and a very close 2-1 loss against World Champions DWG KIA. The team slowed down however, and their performance started to drop down towards the end of the split, losing series against all top teams including T1. Deft's individual performance wasn't the best, only securing 4 MVP's in the entire split, and not making it into any of the 3 LCK All Pro Teams. Hanwha Life eSports eventually ended their split in 3th place, after winning 3-2 against Nongshim RedForce, before dropping 3-0 against DWG KIA in the semi finals. Hanwha Life ended the LCK 2021 Spring Split in third place. The LCK 2021 Summer Season didn't bring much joy to Hanwha Life nor Deft. The team started the split with a single win in their first three weeks. The next few weeks didn't bring anything better, the team ended the split in eight place, a disaster for the organization, given the players' quality. The players and coaching staff didn't find a way to play competitive, resulting in a 7-11 record at the end of summer, thus not granting them access to the playoffs. The regional finals were a bright light in the darkness from the 2021 season for Deft. Hanwha Life eSports was able to beat both Liiv SANDBOX and Nongshim RedForce in the regional best of 5, in respectively 3-1 and 3-0. Deft's individual performance was much better, and fans finally saw the "vintage Deft". Winning these 2 crucial BO5's granted HLE access to the 2021 Season World Championship. This way Deft became the first player to attend Worlds with 5 different teams.