Everyone’s familiar with DAMWON Gaming’s League of Legends roster that’s been dominating the scene for years, but few have really followed their journey in Valorant esports.
DAMWON have, in fact, been competing since the early days of Valorant Champions Tour and have managed to achieve some considerable results in the past two years.
In an effort to prepare for the next stage of the Valorant tournament, they have just signed Jung “Bangnan” Min-u, who will be the team’s main weapon in the matches to come.
Who is Bangnan?
Jung “Bangnan” Min-u began his Valorant career in Lunatic-hai, a Korean esports team that mainly competed in lower tier Valorant tournaments. He joined the newly-reformed roster on January 29th, 2021. However, this roster soon fell apart and Lunatic-hai almost a month later.
Later on, he was a part of GOMA and Team T5 squads, which is where he got his first taste of Valorant Champions Tour. His last team, Team T5, finished 7th in the VCT Korea Stage 1: Challengers. While the overall team results were unsatisfactory, Bangnan’s performance made him stand out, which then led to DAMWON Gaming reaching out and signing him to their team.
He now finds himself playing for one of the best Korean Valorant teams in the world. If he proves himself here, he could potentially skyrocket his Valorant career even further.
[Announcement: Welcome]
DWG KIA announces Jung ‘Bangnan’ Min-u has joined DWG KIA Valorant Team.
Please give big support to Bangnan, who will have a new season with new teammates. #DWGKIA #DK_Valorant #DK_Bangnan pic.twitter.com/DLHKOVV7Yx— DWG KIA_Esports (@DWGKIA_Esports) April 6, 2022
DAMWON’s Current Situation in Korea
DAMWON Gaming has always been a strong Valorant team, but they also faced heavy competition in Korea. They had to contend with DRX (former Vision Strikers) and the old NUTURN Gaming. These three teams always competed for a single Masters spot, so it was pretty difficult to qualify for major Valorant events.
The new 2022 Valorant Champions Tour season has been going well DAMWON. They qualified for the VCT Korea Stage 1 Challengers and finished in the 4th place. On Sla2ers ended up knocking them down into the lower bracket where HolyMolly ended up eliminating them.
Still, this season looks promising for them. NUTURN is no longer there and that just leaves DRX, who are still the dominant team. If DAMWON prevents these kinds of slip-ups like they did against On Sla2ers and HolyMolly, they’ll have a great shot at making it to the grand finals each time. There, with some luck and good preparation, they can take down DRX and secure seeds for those top VCT tournaments.
This is easier said than done, and we’re aware of that, but we do believe this year could be good for DAMWON Gaming in Valorant. They’re sitting at the 4th spot in the overall Korean Standings with 45, just 5 points behind HolyMolly and 10 points behind On Sla2ers.
And there’s also Bangnan with all his Jett carry potential, which will certainly help DAMWON in their efforts to become the number one team in the region.