Rookie of the Week: Team Dignitas' Kirei

Imagine this: One day, you’re playing in the Challenger Series competing for a spot in the EU LCS. The next day, you’re on a plane to the USA to join one of the oldest organizations in North American esports.

Welcome to the world of Thomas "Kirei" Yuen, the jungler for Team Dignitas.

A native of The Netherlands, Kirei was a force in the EU Challenger Series playing for Denial eSports. His talents sparked international attention and eventually led him to crossing the Atlantic and landing on our shores, where he found a place as the starting jungler on Team Dignitas.

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Yet the team is off to a rocky start. Sometimes, they look good. Great, even. Though other times they lack an overall sense of direction and coordination, leaving a lot to be desired. For Kirei, maintaining success is not only going to be a challenge, but a great opportunity. He’s a young talent with potential to grow into one of the future stars of the LCS.

Back in the day

Gaming found its way into Kirei’s life from an incredibly early age, back in the days when computers were rare and relative luxuries. "My sister had a computer and she was always playing with her boyfriend. I would watch and think, I want to play too."

He started out playing Counter-Strike, but the thought of playing professionally was farfetched. "I didn’t know a pro player could exist. I was really good at Counter-Strike, and I knew I could play in tournaments. But I just didn’t know pro players were a thing."

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Eventually his competitive spirit drove him to play League of Legends, and even if he didn’t know it at the time, by stepping onto the Rift he was also taking his first steps on a journey towards becoming pro. A few months later he was picked up by LowLandLions, a Dutch esports organization with two League of Legends teams. The roster would eventually be acquired by Copenhagen Wolves Academy and would send Kirei on a journey bouncing around the EU Challenger Series.

"At first when I played in the EU Challenger Series there was crowd, and I was really nervous. It was the first time people watched me play a video game. Then it happened more often and it became more natural. Now my heart rate is normal. At first it was like three times the speed."

Within grasp

On two occasions the EU LCS was painfully within reach for Kirei. Back on the CW Academy roster, a loss to Origen and Team ROCCAT saw them miss out on Promotion. Then, on Denial eSports, history repeated itself for Kirei as they lost to Team Dignitas EU and Gamers2. To come that close and miss out twice is a tough pill to swallow. He’d even told his parents that he’d be moving if he managed to qualify -- but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Not in Europe, at least.

His performance in the Challenger Series was enough to catch the attention of Team Dignitas, who added him as the starting jungler to their revamped roster. Now he wouldn’t just be moving to Berlin, but halfway around the world to Los Angeles. "You drop out of school. Lose you friends -- at least, you miss them for a while. You move to a new country, explore everything. The culture is different. If people spoke another language it would be hard, but since everyone speaks English I can communicate."

As for his parents, they ended up being okay with the move. They even watch the games. "If I lose they send me a message and say, ‘it’s going to be alright, don’t worry!’"

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If the transfer between Europe and America was hard, you'd think the transfer between EU Challenger and NA LCS would be even harder. Not so, according to Kirei.

"Mechanics wise and skill level, it’s the same. It’s just LCS players are usually smarter and more professional. Most people have played the game for really long -- in a team environment, in a gaming house. They know how to not act like a spoiled kid. Everyone is really mature and professional."

At the end of Week 3 in the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split, Team Dignitas find themselves in 8th place with a 2-4 record. They pulled off an incredible win against Counter Logic Gaming, but then followed up with poor performances against Team Impulse, Cloud9, and TSM.

With two outstanding performances on Elise (with a 13.0 KDA) Kirei has seen the champion permabanned against him, and his carry picks have failed to take off. Though if you’re going to put carry junglers on anyone, Kirei seems like a sound choice. He’s shown his potential in Challenger, and now we have to wait and see if he can carry that potential through to the LCS.

Be sure to check him out on Lolesports this weekend as Team Dignitas take on a resurgent Liquid and a heavily understrengthed Echo Fox, where they'll have the opportunity to pull themselves out of the bottom half of the table. You can also hit Kirei up on Twitter or drop into his stream.