Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin is a retired esports player, mainly known for winning the 2013 World Championship with SK Telecom T1 alongside mid lane legend Faker. From his glorious days as a world champion to his struggles in the LCS, let’s take a look at his professional career.
© Riot Games
Piglet started his competitive career in February when he joined the second team of SK Telecom T1 in what was supposed to be a roster full of talented rookie players picked up from the solo queue. Joined by Faker, Impact, Bengi, and PoohManDu, Piglet found himself surrounded by a world-class team.
Not only did the team take first place in the group which featured powerhouse teams like CJ Entus Blaze and Najin Sword, but they were able to finish third in their first-ever tournament, getting a seed in the following HOT6iX Champions Summer 2013. The second team played better than the first team, so Piglet and his teammates ended up renaming to SK Telecom T1, with the #1 team getting dropped. In other words, it was basically a coup d’etat.
Image Credits: Daily Esports
At HOT6iX Champions Summer 2013, the team dominated most opponents all the way to the finals, when they went to face KT Rolster, leading to the start of the famous Telecom war. It was a memorable final, with the two rosters fighting all the way to Silver Scrapes, including the legendary play by Faker against Ryu in the Zed vs Zed mid lane mirror matchup.
In all those matches, Piglet wasn’t probably the flashiest type of player, but he was insanely consistent, getting over 8.5 KDA in the group stage. While the Korean ADC played great all the way to the finals, he and PoohManDu struggled against KT’s bot lane, showing that there were still things worth working on.
Entering the world stage, spectators were once again skeptical regarding SKT T1 due to the name plates and the fact that those players were playing competitively for so little time. That said, SKT T1 took no time to prove people wrong, with Piglet playing a major role in destroying all the other teams in their group, ending with a 7-1 score (one loss to OMG).
After quickly beating Gamania Bears, SKT T1 found their first real opponent against Najin Black Sword, forcing them to a five-game series and barely making it through. Piglet and the rest of the team would then have to face the Chinese team Royal Club, led by Uzi and the man to beat Piglet.
Image Credits: Riot Games
When most thought the series would be close, SKT dominated, taking down Royal Club with a quick 3-0. This lineup of solo queue talents lifted the Summoner’s Cup in less than a year, and Piglet ended up winning the best-ADC of the year award, becoming one of the most recognized players in pro play.
Coming into 2014, SKT were still extremely strong. However, their local opponents in Korea had immense improvements. This was evident with the team’s dip in performance, finishing 5-8th place in both the Spring and Summer Split of the Champions series. Faced with their poor performance early in the year, their only option to land a spot in Worlds was in their face-off against Samsung White, which they unfortunately lost 0-3.
In September 2014, SKT started looking for new players due to the disappointing results, and one of the departing members happened to be Piglet, who was let go alongside PoohManDu. While fans knew the Korean ADC would find a new home soon, people didn’t expect him to join Team Curse, marking his move to North America. Everyone knew he had the talent, and Team Curse hoped he would raise the competitive level and bring the LCS to new heights.
Coming to NA, Piglet completely dominated solo queue and was individually outstanding, which further increased the expectations for the team going into 2015.
After being unable to play due to visa issues, Piglet played as a starter from week 7 and brought the team, which rebranded to Team Liquid, to a 9-9 record, qualifying for the NA LCS Spring Playoffs with the sixth seed after defeating Team 8 in a tiebreaker game. In playoffs, though, they were stopped by C9 in the semifinals. Luckily, they were able to beat the “fourth-place” curse from the previous team by taking down Team Impulse.
Image Credits: Jacob Wolf
Team Liquid picked up where they left and with Piglet starting the split immediately, the team had no issues qualifying for the 2015 LCS Summer Playoffs. Since then, though, things started crumbling down. TL dropped to TSM in the semifinals, and they failed to make it to Worlds after losing to Cloud9 in the Regional Finals, ending their season abruptly.
Despite the disappointing result and the rumor that Piglet would leave the team, he stuck to the team with two new supports by his side: Smoothie first and then Matt.
Unfortunately, the new arrivals didn’t change the tides for TL, as they were relegated to fourth place in the 2016 LCS Spring Split. While it wasn’t a disastrous result, the team was internally struggling to make things work. IWDominate quit competitive and the new jungler Dardoch, despite being incredibly talented, created a lot of internal friction, especially with Piglet. The two had different reads on the meta, which led to worse results than what the team could potentially achieve.
If you want to know what went down that season, the organization published an amazing documentary called Breaking Point, one of the best rundowns I have seen about esports in nearly 10 years.
Image Credits: HTC Gaming
The conflict was so deep that Piglet was relegated to the academy team with the hopes of fixing the team’s performance. Unfortunately, it was not enough and the team failed to make it to Worlds again.
The academy team, with Piglet’s addition, had a strong summer split but lost in the finals to Cloud9 Challenger in five games, after controversially being denied a remake when Piglet mistakenly locked in Rammus in game five. Despite qualifying for the promotion tournament, Echo Fox beat them and relegated Team Liquid Academy back to the Challenger Series.
Piglet returned to Team Liquid’s starting roster for 2017, and with Dardoch leaving, he and the org hoped to achieve the results they had been chasing since his hiring. They even brought in Korean jungler Reignover, which would’ve helped Piglet with the communication.
But it was yet another cold shower: Team Liquid was fighting for the bottom places and finished the 2017 spring split 9th with a 4-14 score. Things were messed up that Piglet had to play mid for a short stint, following Goldenglue’s break from competitive. In both splits of 2017, TL found themselves fighting in the promotion tournament to maintain the spot and on both occasions, they barely managed to defend it.
However, the streak of poor results was not a good sign for TL and Piglet, which saw the relationship end at the end of the season. After three seasons, the Korean ADC left an organization that he was supposed to elevate. Unfortunately, the various circumstances didn’t make things work, and Piglet’s level of play was also slowly fading away.
Image Credits: Team Liquid
In 2018, Piglet remained in North America, joining the newly formed Clutch Gaming Academy. After joining the roster late, they were only able to finish top six in playoffs.
Things got better in Summer, with the team finishing fourth with a 10-8 score. Piglet got also the chance to play on the main roster in the LCS, but he only recorded two losses. It was a rather uncolorful season. The positive news, though, was Piglet getting the green card and becoming an NA resident at the end of 2018, which would’ve increased his value now that he didn’t occupy an import slot.
Image Credits: Riot Games
For 2019, Piglet was promoted to the main Clutch Gaming roster, along with his academy support Vulcan. Clutch Gaming started great with a 2-0 first week but collapsed in the following weeks. In Week 9, Piglet again changed positions and played mid lane for the final two games but ended up losing both games. CG and Piglet closed the split in ninth place with a 5-13. For Piglet, this was the last competitive split he joined as a competitive player: he retired in December later that year.
After stopping for the entire 2020 season, Piglet went back to where everything started in T1, becoming a coach for T1 Rookies, the trainee lineup that competes in the LCK Academy Series. He stayed there until February of 2023. Since then, Piglet seems to have moved away from the competitive scene.
From the glorious days of becoming world champion in his rookie year, to the struggles in the LCS, it probably wasn’t the career most people would hope for in esports. Regardless, Piglet had been for a while one of the best marksmen in the world, and he should be remembered as such in the decades to come.
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