Evil Geniuses are making their second big trade of the offseason, acquiring 100 Thieves AD carry Bae "Bang" Jun-sik for their 2020 League of Legends Championship Series lineup, league sources told ESPN.
The new LCS team will send an undisclosed amount of cash to 100 Thieves in return for the multi-time world champion AD carry, sources said. The two teams have discussed the option of Evil Geniuses sending AD carry Matthew "Deftly" Chen to 100 Thieves after the fact, in the event 100 Thieves does not land a better replacement for Bang this offseason, according to sources. Evil Geniuses first acquired Deftly as a part of a four-player transfer with Cloud9 that saw Evil Geniuses acquire him, Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam and Colin "Kumo" Zhao.
Bang will join an Evil Geniuses roster that is building from scratch after it bought the LCS slot formerly owned by now-defunct Echo Fox, who were removed from the league, for $33 million in September.
The new Evil Geniuses lineup will center on Svenskeren, Zeyzal and now Bang, as the team evaluates its options for the mid and top lanes. It will have one remaining import slot to use, if Svenskeren -- originally from Denmark -- declares himself a North American resident this offseason. Svenskeren became eligible for that designation after competing for 48 months in the LCS by the end of the 2019 season.
100 Thieves remain in the market for AD carries and are looking to assemble a more developmental-focused roster under the leadership of new general manager Christopher "PapaSmithy" Smith. Before being hired by 100 Thieves in September, PapaSmithy served as one of the English-language commentators of the League of Legends Champions Korea league.
On Monday, the team came to terms with former Bombers mid laner Tommy "ry0ma" Le of Australia, who could start depending on the rest of the offseason, as reported by ESPN. The team also announced the return of jungler William "Meteos" Hartman, who 100 Thieves previously traded in June 2018. 100 Thieves top laner Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho remains under contract with the team through 2020.