On May 15, GAM Esports (formerly GIGABYTE Marines) held a press conference concerning their new League of Legends roster. Surprisingly, the team announced their former jungler Đỗ “Levi” Duy Khánh returning to the squad after time in NA and China. GAM finished 5th in VCS 2019 Spring, just barely missing out on playoffs. Levi’s addition to the roster will surely benefit the team, as he is seen as one of the best Vietnamese players.
The history of GIGABYTE Marines
Before 2017, the GIGABYTE Marines (now GAM Esports) were a completely unknown team for Western League of Legends fans. After winning GPL 2017 Spring, the team qualified for 2017 MSI as one of the Play-In teams. Once there, the Marines dominated their group, only dropping a single game to Virtus.pro. Qualifying for the Play-In bracket stage, the team wasn’t expected to advance further with teams like TSM, Flash Wolves, and SuperMassive there. However, the GIGABYTE Marines almost upset TSM, pushing them to five games in their series. Levi was a big factor in their wins as he dominated TSM from the jungle with his carry-oriented play style.
Unfortunately, GAM ended up losing to TSM in game 5, but that wasn’t the end for them. In their last chance to qualify for the main event, GAM had to beat the Turkish powerhouse SuperMassive Esports. The Marines managed to get the upper hand on them in just four games, advancing to the MSI main event.
Even though they finished last at the main event, their placement guaranteed their region a spot in the World 2017 Group Stage. After winning another GPL split, GAM qualified for Worlds and made use of the guaranteed spot themselves. They finished 3rd in their group, not advancing to the knockout stage but finishing ahead of North America’s Immortals.
Levi’s time in North America & China
In December 2017, 100 Thieves announced Levi would be joining their League of Legends academy team. It brought joy to many NA fans as they were excited to see him perform the same way he did on GAM. However, due to issues with his visa, Levi wasn’t able to play for the first few weeks of NA Academy. The team wasn’t very successful with him, having placed 5th or 6th in every split he had played in. Levi even got to sub in for the main team at Rift Rivals 2018. Out of the three games he played at Rift Rivals, the Thieves only won one.
Levi played the past split for the Chinese JD Gaming. Sharing his spot with Korean jungler Sung “Flawless” Yeon-jun, Levi saw little play time as Flawless was considered the better jungler. He only played in five games for JD and didn’t win any of them, even though JD went on to play in the LPL finals.
We wish Levi the best of luck and hope to see him return to form!
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