Team Liquid have announced that they’re parting ways with LCS head coach and 2015 World Champion MaRin after just a single split. According to Team Liquid’s statement, the decision was made “due to differing opinions and MaRin’s personal issues.”
It’s safe to say that Team Liquid was one of the most hyped rosters coming into 2023. It stood as a bit of an experiment for Team Liquid, a team build from the ground-up to be Korean-speaking with some strong import talent.
Park ‘Summit’ Woo-tae and 2022 World Champion Hong ‘Pyosik’ Chang-hyeon headlined the roster as the two who took up import slots, while Sean ‘Yeon’ Sung and Harry ‘Haeri’ Kang came in as LCS rookies from Team Liquid’s Academy roster. Jo ‘CoreJJ’ Yong-in was the only player who remained from the previous roster.
What started as a hyped roster that, for many, seemed like a top 4 team wound up not even making it to Playoffs. Shortly after they failed to qualify, head coach Jang ‘MaRin’ Gyeong-hwan has departed the organization.
MaRin leaves Team Liquid after failed LCS Spring Split run
Before he got signed as Team Liquid’s head coach, MaRin had been out of the public eye for a while. He hadn’t competed as a player since late 2018, and hadn’t been all that involved in League of Legends since. To many, his signing was a surprise. But not an unwelcome one.
Considering he was a World Champion player at one point who had some mixed success after winning his title in 2015 alongside Faker, he clearly knew what it takes to win. However, his expertise as a player doesn’t seem to have translated well to coaching.
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Though CoreJJ was confident that Team Liquid will have a better go of things in Summer when we talked to him, MaRin won’t be a part of the team going forward.
An Update from Team Liquid: pic.twitter.com/ygP3Y4IcjG
— Team Liquid Honda LoL (@TeamLiquidLoL) April 7, 2023
Team Liquid’s statement about the situation was vague, but it clarified some of the reasons why they’ve decided to part ways with their head coach after just a single split of competition.
“We have reached a mutual agreement to go our separate ways due to different opinions and MaRin’s personal issues.”
This came off of Team Liquid failing to perform with a star-studded roster in 2022 as well. If Team Liquid wants to get back to the top of the LCS, they’ll have to really work to bring up their level of performance in the later half of 2023.