Griffin were eliminated from LoL Champions Korea on Wednesday with a 2-0 loss to SANDBOX Gaming.
The South Korean League of Legends team rose to prominence in an unprecedented 2018 rookie split, where they automatically qualified for the LCK finals due to their stellar match record and lost 2-3 to KT Rolster. Made up of five rookie players, Griffin's strength was that they were the most cohesive and unified team in the LCK.
With that same qualifying roster, Griffin finished in the LCK top spot in the 2019 spring and summer splits but lost to SK Telecom T1 (now T1 LoL) both times in the LCK finals. They qualified as South Korea's second seed at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. At worlds, the team's play was overshadowed by an ongoing internal dispute between the organization and recently released coach Kim "cvMax" Dae-ho, who revealed that Griffin had manipulated substitute jungler Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok into a "slave contract," prompting an eventual government investigation.
The original lineup of the team split in the 2019-20 offseason. Top laner Choi "Sword" Sung-won, jungler Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong and bot laner Park "Viper" Do-hyeon remained on Griffin. Mid laner Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon and support Son "Lehends" Si-woo left for DragonX and Hanwha Life Esports, respectively. In 2020 LCK Spring, Griffin finished in last place with a 5-13 series record and 16-29 game record and was dropped into the 2020 LCK Promotion tournament.
In the first series of the night, Team Dynamics qualified for LCK with a 2-0 victory over the veteran lineup of Seorabeol Gaming. Team Dynamics finished second in the regular season of 2020 Challengers Korea Spring with a 9-5 series record and are the reigning Challengers Korea champions after beating Spear Gaming 3-1 in the finals. With LCK franchising next year, Team Dynamics will have a $2 million discount on an LCK spot in 2021, should they apply and qualify.
Seorabeol Gaming, a roster composed of veteran League of Legends players like Lee "KaKAO" Byung-kwon and Gwon "Sangyoon" Sang-yoon, will face SANDBOX Gaming for the final 2020 LCK Summer spot Thursday.