Appreciating LCS 2022 Rookie of the Year, jojopyun
In a year with insanely talented LCS rookies, Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun still easily earns Rookie of the Year.
I'm no stranger to getting excited for NA rookies, I'm sure most of us aren’t. Since my original stint as an LCS fan was from 2018-2019, it happened distinctly with Licorice and Blaber for me. It was easy to love them, and I still do. Now it's jojopyun’s turn. There’s a lot to say about this young prodigy, maybe too much to say since I couldn’t help but turn into his #1 fan this year.
Humble Roots, Confident Words
academy jojo <3
In the offseason, jojopyun was promoted from EG Academy, after just a year in academy. Rumors flew around that EG could have signed Jensen and Doublelift, but decided to stick with Jojo and Danny instead. Jensen and Doublelift have massive fanbases, but Jojo was a hyped prospect and Danny was the 2021 ROTY, so fans had very mixed feelings. I understood that I was coming from a place of bias, so even though I also strongly missed Jensen and Doublelift, I wouldn’t hold anything against Jojo and Danny. I’d give Jojo a chance to show what he’s made of, like anyone.
Although at the time, most of us didn't really… know anything about Jojo yet. (I say most because of course EGA and Jojo did have fans, shoutout to my friend Andrea.) He’s a 17-year-old from Toronto who used to play Fortnite at a pretty high level, what else? I was just getting back into LCS (much had changed, so it was confusing at first), and I still had no idea that I would become a jojopyun loremaster one day.
EG came out swinging in Lock-In, though you could caveat that they were one of the only teams with their full starting roster. Jojo established himself as a Twitter trash-talker, which I found hilarious. Of course, some people will always complain about trash talk in the league, but more personality is always better. Doublelift-style. Whether people became fans or haters, rooting for him to succeed or fail, his boldness toward the game got people to pay attention to him.
A Star in the Making
Jojo was born with a competitive drive and the resolve to become the best at whatever he does, but he’d eventually get bored of the games he played… until League of Legends. He didn’t even start playing the game seriously until about 2 years ago, and he realized he could go pro when he hit high elo.
“I like the competition a lot, like even more than the game. The reason why I enjoy playing League is because I enjoy the competition and just being the best at whatever I try doing. So I feel like that’s one of the main reasons that I enjoy playing in the LCS.”
And Jojo takes criticism very well, which is part of why he’s been able to improve so quickly. “He doesn't care if someone criticizes him, then he can get a lot of feedback and it feels like he learns pretty fast. So I feel like by the end of the year, he'll be the most scary mid in NA,” his support Vulcan said in the EG Files- and he was right, jojopyun’s grown into NA’s most formidable mid laner.
The people around Jojo- EG’s staff and his teammates- nurture him a lot. His smart, experienced, MVP jungler Inspired has especially made a point of teaching him, knowing that he could help bring out Jojo’s potential. On stream, Inspired mentioned he used to have to micromanage Jojo more, but Jojo’s learned to do more on his own now, understanding things like good recall or roam timers.
“I was very hyped to play with Jojo because I heard he’s like the next NA superstar in the mid-lane... I just had to rewatch a couple of his games to see that he has a lot of potential.”
besties besties besties
In an interview with Travis Gafford, Jojo mentioned “one of the main reasons why I improved so fast is because if there's something im not good at, I’ll try my hardest to improve on it, and you can never be the best right, you can always be better.” That’s the mindset it takes to keep improving and actually become the best.
Although EG’s success didn’t come instantaneously, it’s this growth mindset that contributed to Jojo’s rise to stardom in his very first year of LCS.
The Endearing Maknae
Jojo’s the youngest, he’s quite playful and excitable, and he’s a bit clueless IRL (in an endearing way), so his team have to take care of him in different ways. Like when Jojo asked for help from Coach Turtle and Inspired to literally fill a bowl of noodle soup. Or performance lead Artemis making coffee for him. Or Inspired giving him a massage. Or when Jojo was eating with his team + family and goes “I’m staaarviiing”. And Impact considers Jojo a bit childish for his jokes, particularly the your mom jokes that he’s known for. This list could go on and on, but I’ll stop before it gets too long.
it’s cute though
“1, 2, 3, 4. Inspired’s mom in my door.”
He’s also the youngest in his family, so he’s probably used to being the youngest.
During the break week between summer split week 3 and 4, Jojo went home (Toronto) and spent time with his family.
LCS showed this picture on broadcast.
Jojo calls himself a high school dropout, although Andrea, my EG Academy expert friend, swears that he did finish high school during his year in Academy on a special program. So I’m not really sure. Either way, he said on EG Files that he didn’t like school much. His sister also mentioned that he would skip school just to play games. (I mean, when you’re that good at games, I can’t really hold that against him. Worth!)
(Edit: vulcan on stream confirmed that jojo still goes to online school. What a hard worker he is, balancing school and LCS…)
But it’s not like Jojo’s just a clueless kid- he’s a quick learner and quite an eloquent speaker when it comes to interviews. It takes a lot to move away from home and pursue a pro esports career. I’m glad he found a second home with EG.
“My life definitely shifted, from Toronto and moving to a whole new city without my family or friends, it’s just totally different, so I’ve grown in that way to be more independent and to take care of myself more and be more just everything- organized, more responsible.”
Road to the LCS Championship
jojoHmm
In spring, Jojo became known for his dominant laning phases, playing with fearless aggression to squeeze out laning advantages, which gave him by far the highest GD and CSD@10 of any mid laner. Part of me wanted this funny, confident, hardworking rookie kid to do well in LCS, but EG was pretty mid in spring regular season. They couldn't string together more than 2 wins in a row and ended the regular season in a 3-way tie at 9-9 without beating any teams above them in standings (TL, C9, 100), although they were apparently destroying everyone in scrims. EG then won a tiebreaker vs FLY to secure 4th seed, which put them against 1st seed TL for the first round of playoffs.
Naturally, EG’s regular season didn’t generate much hype; in fact, it netted them criticism since their roster was built to win. The only player who made all-pro was Vulcan on 3rd team. People questioned if promoting jojopyun was the right decision when there were well-known free agent mids like Jensen and Nisqy. I remember hearing Peter Dun argue on Hotline League that jojo should get MVP and I thought he was coping so hard, lol. (I’m sorry jojo.) Even Jojo himself admitted to Korizon that “[he] wasn’t really playing well in regular season.”
“I played a lot more selfish in spring and tried to play for myself. In playoffs I tried to help my teammates and tried to get everyone in a comfortable position to help us play as a team.”
Playoffs would be Jojo’s first time playing with fans watching in person. There’s always concern about whether players will choke under playoffs pressure, but Jojo seems to thrive in front of the crowd, and he personally doesn’t feel pressure from the expectations of others. “I love the crowd personally, and I feel like when I verse somebody in a crowd, they get more nervous, which gives me even more confidence,” Jojo said in the Korizon interview.
I have no idea whose idea the perm was, but it’s GOATED so thank you from the bottom of my heart
Jojo showed up to LCS playoffs with his cute new hairstyle and let me tell you, this perm buff is real. I mean, EG ran through playoffs in a way that no one really expected beforehand based on their regular season performance (although people with scrim knowledge were probably less surprised). They narrowly dropped their series to Team Liquid 2-3 and surprised many people with fun strategies like Jojo and Impact lane swapping. After that, they beat FlyQuest 3-1 and then swept three teams in a row (C9, TL, 100 - the teams they couldn’t beat in regular season) to earn a well-deserved trophy and trip to MSI.
And along the way, Jojo dropped banger tweet after banger tweet. (Possibly ghostwritten by Vulcan and/or Inspired.)
You can’t undersell Jojo winning LCS in his very first split and being the youngest player to win LCS (age 17.5). It’s incredible, and it genuinely gave hope and inspiration to NA fans everywhere. Truly impressive native NA mids are rare to come by. You have Hai, then Pobelter, then… well, no one after them could really cement the same type of legacy. Maybe jojopyun will be able to.
omg my first drawing of jojopyun EVER. after the EG-C9 series. he popped off on viktor in game 2. also, i only ever see him use this green skin on viktor.
Champion… of Champion’s Queue
In spring, I spent a lot of time watching Doublelift and looking for Jensen in various Champion’s Queue streams. While watching CQ, I would inevitably hear Jojo a lot, especially when he was spamming games like crazy in Spring Split 1 and got rank 1. Jojo is a pretty funny kid, he's always bringing the vibes and doesn't tilt even in the times that he “limit tests” too hard and goes 10+deaths. The impression of Jojo I got was that he'd sometimes hard carry CQ games and sometimes completely int games without much in between. But he'd sound like he was vibing either way.
jojo ended rank 1 in CQ spring split 1 with a wide margin.
If you’ve never seen the RJS Manifesto, or at least the jojopyun section of it (“Then, I played vs him. "jojopyun". It was just another day of academy scrims, but not for me. This was the first time someone had truely decimated me in midlane, far worse than any LCK or LPL player on the Korean ladder…”), it’s pretty iconic. Even though we meme about it, he honestly has some good points. jojopyun is always just, as RJS says, “ENJOYING playing the game!” His confident attitude towards the game is very admirable and lends itself to an aggressive, fearless playstyle. And no one spams emotes quite like Jojo.
“He’s simply playing without any inhibition. He’s not worried in the slightest about messing up or what his teammates will say if he dies, he’s simply ENJOYING playing the game!”
By the time Summer CQ rolled around, I was a pretty big jojopyun fan (understatement of the century), and I pivoted to looking for his games instead. Trust me, you know you’re in too deep when you’re watching some 5 viewer CQ stream just because your fave is in the game. Everything remained true, he was still a funny and loud gamer who brought the vibes. He didn’t play as much as he did in spring, understandably, but he still played a lot, and by far the most CQ of anyone in EG, which is commendable.
Then sometime in the middle of Summer Split 2, Jojo decided to become a no comms no mercy player. I'll admit that's when I started watching less. It doesn't feel the same to watch no comms games. But he's still a funny typer through and through. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of it.
Jojo seems like a great teammate and he must be so fun to play with. Just look at how Inspired describes him.
Anyway, Champion’s Queue is gone now until mid-November. So long, and thanks for the memories.
Lessons in Busan
When EG won the spring championship, we already knew that NA would be in an MSI group with EU and OCE, which theoretically sounded exciting before the games actually happened and we realized how troll the MSI format is.
“I think we’re gonna sh*t on EU, but we’ll have to see!” Jojo declared to the cheers of the Houston crowd. Trash talking with the cutest, brightest smile- that’s a jojopyun classic. Standing beside him, Danny was more mild. “I want to take this trip to MSI not only to compete but also to improve and just get better, ‘cause I think we still got a long way to go,” he said.
he trash talks with the cutest smile, how could you ever actually be mad at him?
At MSI, EG would go on to drop every game to pool 1 teams except for one win they pulled off vs LCK’s T1, which had me freaking out at 2AM. This was the first time an NA team took a game off T1 since 2016 CLG. jojopyun was the second NA mid laner to beat Faker, the only other one being huhi (my other favorite player, heh). Everyone was so excited and happy- EG and all the NA fans.
Is that my favorite mid-jungle duo?
But we can’t only judge from the results. I sacked my sleep schedule to watch mostly every EG game live, and I was impressed by their performance at MSI. Especially Jojo’s performance. I didn’t set my expectations too high since he’s a rookie and I didn’t want to put unreasonable expectations on him. But he played well for rookie standards, and it never felt like he was succumbing to pressure or losing his aggression, which is great to see from an NA rookie in his first international tournament.
EG made me proud as an NA fan and it never felt like they gave up and rolled over or pulled a classic “do nothing and lose”. Our boys were always fighting, always looking for opportunities. They handily beat every non pool-1 team, something that’s actually not precedented for NA teams to do.
And in his very first split, Jojo made it to MSI semifinals, a great accomplishment for the rookie. Only two NA mids have done this before him- CLG huhi and TL Jensen. Unfortunately Jojo didn’t proceed to finals like those two, but none of us were expecting EG to beat RNG, who would go on to win the whole tournament. Overall I felt happy about MSI, although Jojo himself wasn’t fully satisfied. He and the rest of EG are eager to show more at Worlds.
“Results-wise, I feel like going to semifinals is fine by NA standards but we could have showed more. For my standards, the results could have been much better.”
Jojo took the international experience to heart. Playing against legendary mid laners, Caps, Faker, and Xiaohu, taught him valuable lessons and left him hungry for more. He’s specifically cited that he learned more about playing selflessly for the team and roaming.
“Faker’s laning really impressed me, and Xiaohu’s playing with his team, and also caPs’ playmaking was impressive too.”
my post-MSI emotions led me to this
Trash Talk to the Top
Although many fans love Jojo’s trash talk, he also received a lot of criticism and flame for it, especially during MSI. Of course, if you trash talk, you’re aware there’s always a possibility of having it turned on you if you lose. But sometimes the hate goes too far- at the end of the day Jojo’s a 17-year-old kid, and he’s not malicious. Thankfully, Jojo focuses on himself and ignores the toxic community comments like a total gigachad.
Jojo doesn’t trash talk to be mean. He does it because he finds it fun and it increases the stakes of games for him. The things Jojo says are things he honestly believes, trash talk or not. He’s an honest kid. (Except when he promised to stream after winning spring and then never streamed.)
i’m running out of things to say he’s just cute ;_;
“Trash talking just makes it so much more fun too, it gets me more involved and focused in the game, cause the game means much more since i talked sh** so, that just makes it more fun for me.”
I like the trash talk because it also makes it more fun for the fans and makes us more invested in the games. It’s refreshing and shows personality, even if it’s only one part of his personality. See, despite all the trash talk for fun, Jojo is actually quite friendly and sociable, which you can tell from his CQ games, interviews, and the way people who know him or met him talk about him. He’s also been described as a “shy boy” by Inspired on stream. And my friend Arsh told me that at spring playoffs, Jojo “seemed shy, like he was going unnoticed and wanted to stay unnoticed.”
So I guess what I’m getting at here is that Jojo’s personality is way more nuanced than what just glancing at his Twitter feed would suggest.
In the press conference after their semifinals loss to RNG, cutie jojopyun was still smiling🥺
MSI Slump? Don’t know her.
“I don’t really believe the MSI debuff or whatever.”
On Week 1 Day 2, Jojo also started wearing these iconic purple crocs on stage. He's completely based for that and you can't tell me otherwise.
People kept their expectations low because of past precedent that the returning team from MSI usually had a “slump” or burnout at the start of summer. EG went “didn’t ask” and started 3-0 in week 1. They remained dominant, ending the regular season in first place at 15-3.
Jojo applied his lessons from MSI, focusing more on selfless play and helping his team. He still had the highest CSD@10 of mid laners, but he’d find ways to help his team around the map or force the enemy jungler to come mid, which would help open up the map for Inspired. Jojo’s a flashy player- he’ll limit test on stage just like he does in CQ/solo Q, and even if it sometimes results in some funny-looking ints, I think it serves him well. It’s only his first year in the LCS, and he’s learning and improving at an impressively fast pace.
Jojo earned plenty of praise from other mid laners. And I’m not talking about RJS.
“I think EG is surprisingly good, I’m very impressed with how jojopyun is playing actually…
I think jojopyun is for sure the toughest [mid laner to play against], and then after that it’s kinda just… I don’t really have another one.”
“I think going up against jojopyun is always really fun cause he’s just aggressive… jojopyun you have a cute smile, so at least let me have the win on the rift.”
Abbedagge was RIGHT.
Jojo is now the first native NA mid laner to earn First Team All Pro (the award began after Hai’s time). Mid was the most contentious 1st team role, as Jojo received the least points of the other 1st-team winners (87 points), which admittedly surprised me since I truly believed he would easily be 1st team. If I take off my jojo-biased-lens, does he still make 1st team for me?
That’s partly a joke. It’s not like I ignore his flaws and “funny-looking ints”. After all, I had Jojo on my LCS fantasy team and he would usually int me at least once a week. But fantasy points are pretty skewed towards KDA, and Jojo is no KDA player. He’s not afraid of taking risks, he plays very well with his team, and he puts heavy pressure on the enemy mid laner every game. There’s no other LCS mid I would rank over Jojo based on regular season. It’s a well-deserved award.
graphic from lolesports
Looking closer at the ballots, the people who actually play against him all rated him highly. He got 1st team votes from 100 huhi, CLG Contractz, C9 Fudge, FLY Johnsun, GG Licorice, TL CoreJJ, TSM Maple, and 2nd team votes from DIG Biofrost and IMT Revenge. You can’t deny that he’s earned the respect of his peers.
On his stream, Inspired said that Jojo wins every lane and has the mental advantage over every other mid laner because everyone is “scared of him”. There’s something kind of funny about that, and it speaks to Jojo’s skill level this split.
It’s also funny to say that Jojo plays with a lot of ego, like he’s confident he’ll outplay you and come out ahead, yet at the same time he’s actually quite a “selfless” team player who can play with less resources and help his team.
Jojo Style
Jojo’s the type to wear the same thing every day. I think the most common one I’ve seen is this October’s Very Own sweater. There's the hoodie which he started wearing under his jersey (super cute combo by the way). There’s his green shirt. There’s like three variations of the same shorts. And there's his lovely lavender crocs. I personally don’t care much about this sort of stuff, in fact I like that having less clothes is better for the environment. But some of his teammates are just tired of seeing him in the same clothes every day, haha.
“It’s not even like bad, it’s EXTREMELY bad. He just wears the SAME thing every day.”
I think I got at least 90% of his wardrobe here.
In a recent episode of the EG Files, the boys are painting ceramic mugs and plates. Jojo starts painting wildly and abstractly with different colors, going with the flow. It kind of fits how he plays League, like he's limit testing and taking risks with the paint. “It’s just so emotional,” he says jokingly, while enduring the criticism of his teammates who doubt his plan. Or lack thereof.
I mean, when you see this, yeah, it does look questionable. But art is all about trusting the process.
In the end, though, most of his teammates’ minds changed after seeing the final outcome. Of course, art is subjective, but Jojo’s mug honestly impressed me too. It looks like a legit mug you could buy in a store. You might have a hidden talent, Jojo…
Impact was even spotted drinking from the Jojo Mug after one of their games, so maybe Jojo gifted it to him.
Vulcan recently exposed Jojo's desk setup at the EG facility, which, well… Look, he's a dedicated gamer through and through, which I respect. And I don't even mind a messy desk. But for all his trash talk, it sure doesn’t seem like he understands how to use a trash can. And you can’t just say you got “more organized” after moving to LA and have a desk looking like that. If this is what “more organized” looks like, how disorganized was it before?
But more than anything, Jojo, I wish you would… rely less on plastic water bottles.
Rising Star
jojopyun has a bright future ahead of him. He's only 17 and has accomplished a ton in less than a year of LCS. I'm not going to make any promises about his playoffs or worlds run, since I apparently curse any teams I get hyped for. Hopefully THIS post doesn’t curse him. But I'm very optimistic and I trust him, because he's shown that he'll put in everything it takes to be the best.
Jojo’s success story is great for NA because it showed us that it is possible to find success by developing rookies in this region. It’s renewed hope in many fans. This isn’t to say you can just stick any promising NA rookie into LCS and expect them to succeed. Jojo definitely had the right structure, teammates, and systems around him at EG to help him develop into a star. And Jojo’s own growth mindset and self-confidence helps him improve very quickly. So I think it’s safe to say he’s a generational talent.
I really struggled to put everything into words, but I hope I was able to properly express how awesome this kid is. How much he and his story mean to me, some random LCS fan. (He has the most compelling storyline of anyone in LCS this year, and I’m not sure I would have been pulled so far back into LCS if not for that.) And of course, he’s given hope to so many NA fans. I think he deserves love and support and hype for everything he’s done to get here.
I'm proud of you, Jojo. You’ll go far.
…. And if any of you actually read this whole thing… thank you. Thank you for supporting LCS and jojo. ❤️