Hanwha Life Esports (HLE, ) is a South Korean

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

organization based in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, owned by Hanwha Life Insurance. It has teams competing in ''

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 ...

'' and '' Kart Rider'', with the former competing in the

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 ...

, South Korea's top level professional league for the game. In middle 2018, HLE acquired the League of Legends team and LCK spot of Tigers. At the 2015 ''League of Legends'' World Championship, the team (as KOO Tigers) placed second in their preliminary group before beating

KT Rolster kt Rolster is a South Korean multi-gaming organization founded in 1999 with Korea Telecom as its head sponsor. A member of the Korean e-Sports Association, KT Rolster holds one of the richest and most successful ''StarCraft'' teams in the worl ...

and

Fnatic Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylised as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded on 23 July 2004, it has players from around the world competing in several games. Fnatic' ...

in the bracket stage. The team finished as runner-ups after facing

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 ...

in the finals in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany. The team (as ROX Tigers) won their first LCK title after winning the

2016 Summer League of Legends Champions Korea 2016 Summer League of Legends Champions Korea (2016 Summer LCK) is part of the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), the top level of ''League of Legends'' play in Korea. Matches are played at the Seoul OGN e-Stadium in Mapo-gu, Seoul. The win ...

playoffs. At the 2016 ''League of Legends'' World Championship, the team finished as third place after they lost again to

2–3, although led the series 2–1.

History

Tigers era

2014

Tigers was founded in November 2014 by Chinese

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

site YY. YY's parent company Guongzhou Huaduo Network Technology, LLC. (Duowan Inc.) hoped to promote their newly renamed streaming site,

HUYA.com Huya Live ( zh, s=虎牙直播) is a Chinese video live streaming platform under HUYA Inc. (NYSE: HUYA), one of the largest of its kind in China. HUYA Inc. is headquartered in Guangzhou and is a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings Limited. HUYA Inc. ...

, in South Korea by creating a team built around well-known Korean players. The team was registered under Duowan's Korean subsidiary GE Entertainment. The initial roster, announced under the name HUYA Tigers, included former members of NaJin Sword, NaJin Shield, and Incredible Miracle 1: top laner Smeb, jungler Lee, mid laner KurO, AD carry PraY, and support GorillA comprised the initial lineup, with NoFe as head coach. Shortly after its formation, the team qualified for the ''League of Legends'' Champions Korea Spring Qualifiers, placing first in the group stage over Team Avalanche. They went 2–1 in the final stage and qualified for SBENU Champions Spring 2015. In the Champions Spring pre-season, HUYA Tigers finished tied for third place with

, each with 7 points. They renamed to GE Tigers at the start of the Spring Season.

2015

The GE Tigers started out as the top team in Korea in their first season in the LCK, in first place with a 7–0 match record and a 14–2 game record at the end of week 6 of the Spring season. This placement earned them an invitation to the Intel Extreme Masters Season IX – World Championship in March. However, after defeating

Cloud9 Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...

and

SK Gaming SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in '' Counter-Strike'' (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian ''CS'' team won ...

to win their group, they lost in the semifinals 2–1 to

Team WE Team WE, formerly known as World Elite, is a Chinese esports organisation based in Xi'an. It is one of the oldest esports organisations in China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With pop ...

– who entered the competition as the 12th-place team in the Chinese ''League of Legends'' Pro League (LPL). This led many casters and analysts to label it the biggest upset to date in the entire history of competitive ''League of Legends''. After their return to Korea, the GE Tigers' record worsened, and they dropped sets to both KT Rolster and to

. They still finished first in the round robin with a 12–2 record, but in the playoffs they lost to SKT and missed out on the

2015 Mid-Season Invitational The 2015 Mid-Season Invitational is the first event of the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) – a ''League of Legends'' tournament organized by publisher Riot Games that was held after Spring Season, from May 7–10, 2015 at the Florida State Univer ...

. Prior to the start of SBENU Champions Summer 2015, the GE Tigers were sponsored by streaming company KooTV and changed their name to the KOO Tigers. KOO ended the regular season of Champions Summer in 4th place. They beat

NaJin e-mFire Rajin-guyŏk () is a North Korean ward on Rason in the Sea of Japan (East Sea of Korea) in the North Pacific Ocean on the northeast tip of North Korea. It is in the Kwanbuk region and location in the south of Rason. North of it lies the North Ko ...

2–1 and

CJ Entus OGN Entus was a South Korean esports organization . It formerly had teams competing in ''League of Legends'', ''StarCraft II'', ''Warcraft 3'',''Clash Royale'', ''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'' and ''Special Force 2''. OGN Entus was establishe ...

3–0 to advance to the semi-finals where they played a close series with KT Rolster but lost 3–2, ultimately ending in third place. Because SKT won the finals, KOO automatically qualified for the 2015 ''League of Legends'' World Championship as the second seed from Korea with the most circuit points. At the World Championship, KOO Tigers finished 2nd in their group with a 4–2 record and advanced to the bracket round. They defeated KT Rolster 3 to 1 in the quarter-finals. On 24 October 2015 they made a clean sweep, 3 to 0, against

in the semi-finals. The team finished second after losing with a 1–3 record to

in the final on 31 October 2015. KooTV dropped their sponsorship of the team in November, reverting the name to just Tigers. In January 2016, the team once again changed their name, this time to ROX Tigers.

2016

In the LCK Champions spring season, ROX Tigers finished in 1st, and met SKT T1 in the final. ROX Tigers impressed the world with their domination of Korea and their near perfect play in the regular season. Unfortunately, in final the match against SKT T1, ROX Tigers lost 3–1 finishing the LCK playoffs in 2nd place. However, ROX Tigers have the honor of boasting the highest team KDA in this season. Top laner

Smeb Song Kyung-ho (; born June 30, 1995), better known as Smeb, is a South Korean former professional ''League of Legends'' player. Career Song began competing in ''League of Legends'' in 2012. He joined the ROX Tigers, Tigers in 2014, upon the t ...

was named MVP of the spring split and summer split.

HLE era

2018

In middle 2018, Hanwha Life Insurance acquired the League of Legends team rosters and LCK spot of ROX Tigers. The team also was renamed to ''Hanwha Life Esports'' (HLE). They had finished at 6th place of regular summer season and couldn't qualify for Play-off stage.

2024

In the LCK 2024 Spring Season, HLE, whose roster consisted of Doran,

Peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

, Zeka, Viper and Delight, has finished in the top 3 teams for the second time in the history of their organization at 3rd place, with a 15-3 record. However, in the playoffs, they were defeated 1-3 by T1 in the lower brackets' final series despite having had a clean sweep 3-0 against T1 in the 2nd round before. Therefore, they missed the chance to attend the

2024 Mid-Season Invitational The 2024 Mid-Season Invitational was the ninth Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), a Riot Games-organised tournament for ''League of Legends'', a multiplayer online battle arena video game. The tournament was hosted in Chengdu, China, from May 1 to 19 ...

. The team achieved their highest place ever in the name of Hanwha Life Esports by finishing the summer season at 2nd place (14-4), behind Gen.G Esports (17-1). In the summer playoffs, they swept T1 again, which then followed by a defeat 1-3 from

Gen.G Gen.G (, stand for "Generation Gaming"), also referred as Gen.G Esports and previously known as KSV Esports, is a professional esports organization with headquarters in Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica, Seoul, and Shanghai. According to Fo ...

that put HLE, once again, face T1 in the lower brackets' final. This time, they didn't let the spring scenario happen again by beating T1 the fourth time this season with the result of 3-1. On 8 September 2024, although most casters and analysts predicted

would complete the first ever 5-peat in the

history since Summer 2022, HLE proved themselves to be above anyone's expectations by miraculously defeated GEN in 5 games to shut down their championship-winning streak and also their dream of the first ever Golden Road in League of Legends esports history, bringing their organization's first

trophy and the second

trophy if ROX Tigers' only domestic title was counted. Coincidently, the youngest member in the ROX roster winning the title that year,

, has led his team to the 2024 LCK Summer championship.

Roster

Tournament results

As KOO Tigers

* 2nd –

2015 League of Legends World Championship The 2015 ''League of Legends'' World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game ''League of Legends''. It was the fifth iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, ''League of Legends'' W ...

As ROX Tigers

* 1st – 2016 Spring League of Legends Champions Korea season * 2nd – 2016 Spring League of Legends Champions Korea playoffs * 1st –

season * 1st –

playoffs * 3rd–4th –

2016 League of Legends World Championship The 2016 ''League of Legends'' World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game ''League of Legends''. It was the sixth iteration of the ''League of Legends'' World Championship, an annual intern ...

* 1st – 2016

KeSPA Cup The KeSPA Cup () is an esports event organized by the Korean eSports Association. As of the 2024 edition, the tournament is organized for ''League of Legends''. Until 2016, the tournament was also organized for ''StarCraft II''. History The ...

* 3rd–4th – IEM Season 11 World Championship * 6th – 2017 Spring League of Legends Champions Korea season * 7th – 2017 Summer League of Legends Champions Korea season * 9th–12th – 2017

* 6th – 2018 Spring League of Legends Champions Korea season

As Hanwha Life Esports

* 6th – 2018 Summer League of Legends Champions Korea season * 13th–19th – 2018

* 6th – 2019 Spring League of Legends Champions Korea season * 9th – 2019 Summer League of Legends Champions Korea season * 5th–8th – 2019

* 8th – 2020 Spring League of Legends Champions Korea season * 9th – 2020 Summer League of Legends Champions Korea season * 3rd–4th – 2020

* 3rd – 2021 Spring League of Legends Champions Korea season * 3rd – 2021 Spring League of Legends Champions Korea playoffs * 8th – 2021 Summer League of Legends Champions Korea season * 5th–8th –

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 ...

2025 First Stand Tournament The 2025 First Stand Tournament was the inaugural First Stand Tournament (FST) – a ''League of Legends'' tournament organized by publisher Riot Games at the conclusion of the first of three splits in the current competitive calendar of the ga ...

Notes

References

{{CCBYSASource, sourcepath=http://lol.esportspedia.com/wiki/KOO_Tigers, sourcearticle=KOO Tigers 2014 establishments in South Korea Esports teams based in South Korea Esports teams established in 2014 League of Legends Champions Korea teams