100 Thieves’ Ssumday obtains North American residency

100 Thieves’ Kim “Ssumday” Chan-Ho will no longer be considered an import in the LCS after getting residency for North America.

Ssumday is a Korean professional League of Legends player who got his start competitively on KT Rolser. KT Rolser was once one of the top teams in Korea and fostered young talents like Cho “Mata” Se-Hyeong, Son “Ucal” Woo-Hyun and Gwak “Bdd” Bo-Seong. Ssumday left Korea in 2017 to play for Dignitas in North America but he had mediocre results at that point.

When the NA LCS franchised in 2018, Ssumday joined the new organization, 100 Thieves. Since 2018, Ssumday has been the primary top laner for the organization. He has only been swapped out once in 2019 for Aaron “FakeGod” Lee, who was a fill-in on the roster. While off the main roster, Ssumday played in Academy for 100 Thieves and won them their first title in League of Legends.

Ssumday waited over three years for residency

Unlike other household imports in the LCS, Ssumday joined too late to be grandfathered into residency.  Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong, Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen are all players who were grandfathered into residency. Riot Games removed the grandfather rule after 2016. This meant that all players that came later would have to obtain residency another way. The United States has an expansive residency procedure and it often takes years to finish. Ssumday has been working on his residency since he first came to 100 Thieves back in 2018. Now, just before the summer split in 2021, he is finally considered an NA resident.

Officially a NA resident!

Congratulations, @Ssumday on your green card! So proud of how far you've come and sticking with us since the very beginning! #100T pic.twitter.com/a6OWlRLq8w

— 100 Thieves Esports (@100T_Esports) April 19, 2021

That has allowed 100 Thieves to add another import slot to their roster. This has been something that the organization has struggled with since it was first established. Most top-tier teams in the LCS have imported players from outside regions in impact positions like mid, top and bot lane. However, 100 Thieves have failed to find the right match for the team in previous years. They have recently acquired European mid laner Felix “Abbedagge” Braun to hopefully fill the hole in their current roster.