League of Legends: Who is Thanatos, the Top Lane Prodigy?

Professional League of Legends has seen many prodigies. Some players rose to etch their names permanently in the annals of esports history, and many fell into obscurity. Young Park "Thanatos" Seung-gyu was meant to be the next League of Legends player to challenge fate and try his hand at being the next top lane legend, but where is he now?

Thanatos, born May 1st, 2004, began his professional career late into 2020 with DAMWON Academy. They competed in the LCK Academy Series but unfortunately did not find much success. Their highest finish was in the 5th-8th place.

Starting in 2021, DWG KIA Challengers called up Thanatos, and this is where he spent the next 3 years. The LCK Challengers League put him under a microscope and into the limelight. He was initially sharing time with Kim "Chasy" Dong-hyeon who went on to join MAD Lions in 2023, making the 1st All-Pro Team that Spring.

DK Challengers found success with Thanatos. They landed on a starting five who would compete in most of their tournaments, composed of top laner Thanatos, jungler Choi "Lucid" Yong-hyeok, mid laner Jeong "Pullbae" Ji-hoon, bot laner Cho "Rahel" Min-seong, and Yoon "Bible" Seol.

They had occasional swaps in the support role, the most notable of whom is Kim "Kellin" Hyeong-gyu. He would go on to be called up for Dplus KIA's main LCK team along with Lucid.

This iteration of DK Challengers won, and they won a lot. They won KeSPA Cup 2021 and LCK CL Spring 2022 and 2023. During the summer seasons, they earned two 2nd places, losing both Finals to Nongshim Esports Academy. They also consistently dominated the regular seasons for these years with consistent top 3 finishes.

Thanatos set the highest kill record in LCK CL Spring 2022 in their game against T1 Challengers as Akshan, ending the game 14/1/5. He would again top the records in the Spring 2022 playoffs with the highest total KDA in the bracket stage when he clocked in at 6.4 KDA ratio (26/14/63) across all nine games that they played. To be fair, he did shy away from tanks and picked champions like Gwen, Graves, and Gragas in their games.

Thanatos would also find success as a professional LoL player outside of being a part of DK Challengers. He was crowned the Finals MVP for both LCK CL Spring 2022 and 2023. On top of this, he was part of the All-CL Team in LCK CL Summer 2023. He has also found himself with a bit of a fanbase in the midst of his success.

Going into 2023, the Dplus KIA Challengers team lacked the star top-laner for unknown reasons. Many thought that Thanatos would either join an LCK team or be called up to the main Dplus KIA roster.

The official answer is that he's been an inactive member of DK Challengers since his omission from the 2024 team. Thanatos hasn't stopped playing LoL, however. As of the time of writing, he's sitting at Grandmaster in the Korean server keeping up with the professional LoL meta. Champions like Rek'Sai and Jax are among his most played. It also seems like he's been practicing with the new Skarner in the top lane.

Rumors say that Thanatos will debut in a major region soon. According to Brieuc Seeger of Sheep Esports, the LCS team Cloud9 has picked him up. He will replace Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami after C9's subpar performance in LCS Spring 2024 and failure to qualify for this year's MSI. LEC's Karmine Corp also expressed interest in signing the player, according to the same report. The report also says that it was Thanatos' decision to join C9 over KC.

There has been no official announcement for this, and it may not be a reality. Whether the Cloud9 pickup happens or not is still unsure until Thanatos himself or Cloud9 makes the announcement. Thanatos is a top-tier LoL talent, and he deserves the chance to perform on the biggest stages.

We'll be keeping an eye on Thanatos. Stick around in our League of Legends newsroom for the most updated news.