Gen.G CEO Criticises KeSPA For Asia Games LoL Team Selection

Gen.G CEO Arnold Hur has criticised the Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) for its Asia Games 2026 team selection process.

The CEO took issue with the statistic-based criteria the organisation used to select this year’s League of Legends roster.

The 2026 Asia Games is the largest multi-sport event outside of the Olympics and is especially important for Korean esports pros as a gold medal leads to an exemption from mandatory military service.

KeSPA has confirmed Korea’s Asia Games 2026 LoL roster as Choi ‘Zeus’ Woo-je, Kim ‘Canyon’ Geon-bu, Kim ‘Zeca’ Geon-woo, Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok, Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Min-hyung, and Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok.

Zeus, Faker, and Keria were all a part of the LoL team that previously won gold at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

Gen.G’s midlaner Jeong ‘Chovy’ Ji-hoon is believed to have missed out due to an ongoing injury.

KeSPA revealed that the team was selected by looking at “detailed individual metrics” through the following statistics:

• KDA
• Average solo kills
• Kill participation (KP)
• Champion pool size
• Damage percentage (DMG%)
• Damage per minute (DPM)
• Damage per gold (DPG)
• Gold difference per minute (GDPM)
• 14-minute CS difference (14CSD)
• 14-minute damage per gold (14DPG)
• Team gold share
• Team damage share
• Vision score
• Jungle role-specific metrics:
  • First blood participation rate
  • Time spent invading the enemy jungle
  • Counter-jungle CS
• Bottom lane role-specific metrics:
• Support role-specific metrics:
  • Duo proximity rate
  • Jungle proximity rate

These statistics were gathered from the past two years, starting from 2024, taking into account regional leagues (LCK, LPL, etc), the KeSPA Cup, and the LoL World Championship.

It did not take into account the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), First Stand, or the Esports World Cup.

Gen.G Arnold’s Issues With Stats

Gen.G’s Hur then took to Twitter following the announcement to share his disapproval of this selection method.

Specifically, he felt that it was unfair towards his team’s toplaner, Kim ‘Kiin’ Gi-in and his selfless playstyle.

“If you understand the game, look at that list and ask one question: what does a top laner do to make most of those numbers go up? He gets the favourable matchup. He gets the comfort pick. He gets resources funnelled into his lane,” Hur explained.

“Kiin is the top laner who says ‘draft around everyone else and give me the leftover pick, I’ll make it work.’ He takes the counterpick so a teammate gets comfort… Every one of those choices is a teammate’s DPM going up instead of his,” Hur added.

Hur also insisted that “this is not about Zeus,” labelling the rival player as world-class.

And the CEO also took umbrage with KeSPA not taking into account MSI:

“Oh and not counting MSI? I don’t even know how to address that since I can’t even understand the base logic of it.”

Gen.G has won MSI, the second biggest event in the LoL calendar, in the last two years, but has failed to reach a LoL Worlds final.

The Esports World Cup and First Stand are newer events introduced in the last couple of years, while MSI has been running since 2015.

Do you agree with Hur’s take that LoL statistics need context? Share your opinions with us on the Insider Gaming Discord.

Meanwhile, another pro who may feel hard done by in missing out on the roster is T1’s Kim ‘Peyz’ Su-hwan who broke the LoL esports pentakill record recently.