Kim Jeong-gyun (; born December 23, 1985), better known as kkOma, is a South Korean professional ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL'', commonly referred to as ''League'', is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for ''Warcraf ...

'' coach, currently head coach for T1. As the coach of

SK Telecom T1 T1 (previously known as SK Telecom T1 or SKT T1) is a South Korean esports organization operated by T1 Entertainment & Sports, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor. The team that would become SKT T1 was originally founded i ...

and later

DWG KIA Dplus KIA (DK), formerly known as DWG KIA and DAMWON Gaming (Abbreviation, abbr. DWG), is a South Korean professional esports organization. Its ''League of Legends'' team competes in the League of Legends Champions Korea, LCK, the top-level lea ...

, kkOma is a four-time

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, two-time

Mid-Season Invitational The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is an annual ''League of Legends'' international tournament hosted by Riot Games in the middle of years, since 2015. It is the second most important international ''League of Legends'' tournament aside from the ...

champion, and ten-time

LCK Tyrosin-protein kinase Lck (or lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase) is a 56 kDa protein that is found inside lymphocytes and encoded in the human by the ''LCK'' gene. The Lck is a member of Src kinase family (SKF) and is important f ...

champion. kkOma is widely considered the greatest coach in ''League of Legends'' history. He is known for his strict coaching attitude and aptitude for developing talented rookies. He was also a finalist for the 2017 and 2021 World Championship. Prior to becoming a coach, kkOma enjoyed a short professional career in esports. He competed in

StarCraft II ''StarCraft II'' is a real-time strategy video game created by Blizzard Entertainment, first released in 2010. A sequel to the successful '' StarCraft'', released in 1998, it is set in a militaristic far future. The narrative centers on a galacti ...

competing under the ID "LittleBoy" for "Team Old Generations". After unsuccessful attempts to qualify for

Global StarCraft II League Global StarCraft II League (GSL) is a ''StarCraft II'' tournament held in South Korea from 2010 to the present. It has been hosted by afreecaTV since 2016; GOMeXp (formerly GOMTV) hosted it from 2010–2015. Blizzard Entertainment was involve ...

, he quit Starcraft II and competed for one season of

League of Legends Champions Korea ''League of Legends'' Champions Korea (LCK) is the primary competition for ''League of Legends'' esports in South Korea. Contested by ten teams, the league runs two seasons per year and serves as a direct route to qualification for the annual ...

for the team "Startale". He played as the jungler for Startale. kkOma is the only coach who owns a ward skin in ''League of Legends'', which is SKT T1 kkOma Ward. He was the head coach of Korea's Asian Games 2022 League of Legends team.

Professional career

SK Telecom T1

In 2012, SKT T1 named kkOma as a coach for their League of Legends team in preparation for the upcoming 2013 Season 3. kkOma recruited players Faker,

Bengi Bengi is a common Turkish given name. It means "eternal", "endless", "never-ending", or "immortal". It is an Oghuz accented version of Bengü which is also a Turkish given name. Compared to Bengü, Bengi has an additional meaning: "a mythical wat ...

, Piglet,

Impact Impact may refer to: * Impact (mechanics), a large force or mechanical shock over a short period of time * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Imp ...

, and ''PoohManDu'' to form the original SKT T1 team. kkOma and his team had won the Champions Summer 2013 and the 2013 World Championship. Following a relatively disappointing Season 4, SKT T1 bounced back in 2015 Season 5. In 2015, kkOma was among the first coach to successfully implement two players equally sharing the same role, by having Faker and ''Easyhoon'' share the mid lane position. This allowed SKT T1 to adopt diverse play styles depending on which player was swapped in. kkOma would lead his team to sweep the calendar year by winning LCK Spring 2015, LCK Summer 2015, and the 2015 World Championship, becoming the first coach to win more than one

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

. Kkoma became the head coach of T1 in November 2017. kkOma successfully led his team to the seventh LCK title on 13 April 2019, marking his first LCK title as the head coach. On 27 November 2019, it was announced that kkOma would leave SKT T1.

Vici Gaming

On 17 December 2019,

Vici Gaming Vici Gaming (VG) were a Chinese professional esports organization based in Shanghai. It had teams competing in ''Dota 2'', ''League of Legends'', '' StarCraft II'', '' WarCraft III'', ''FIFA'', '' Hearthstone'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensi ...

announced that kkOma joined the team as their head coach. He parted ways with Vici Gaming in September 2020 due to family reasons.

DWG KIA

In November 2020, kkOma was being reported as the new head coach of

(formerly Damwon Gaming) after the departure of their coaches, Yang “Daeny” Dae-in and Kim “Zefa” Jae-min. During the 2021 season, kkOma and his team were runners up in the

2021 Mid-Season Invitational The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational was the sixth Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), a Riot Games-organised tournament for ''League of Legends'', a multiplayer online battle arena video game. The tournament was the culmination of the 2021 Spring Split ...

, and the

2021 League of Legends World Championship The 2021 ''League of Legends'' World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game ''League of Legends''. It was the eleventh iteration of the ''League of Legends'' World Championship, an annual inte ...

. In December 2021, kkOma was promoted to the role of athletic director within the DWG KIA organization.

Return to T1

On 21 November, 2023, T1 announced kkOma's return to the organization as the head coach.

National team career

In March 2022, the Korea Esports Association (KeSPA) announced the appointment of kkOma as the head coach for the South Korean League of Legends team for the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially the 19th Asian Games () and also known as Hangzhou 2022 ( zh, c=, s=杭州2022, labels=no), were a continental multi-sport event which was held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The ...

References

Notes

{{SK Telecom T1 2013 League of Legends World Championship winners Living people League of Legends coaches StarTale players 1985 births The Game Awards winners South Korean esports players Coaches at the 2022 Asian Games League of Legends jungle players