Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi is leaving the LEC analyst desk to take on a new venture as the head coach of the LCK’s SANDBOX Gaming. SANDBOX has announced that YamatoCannon has already been working remotely with the team since early May and will be joining them in Korea once he gets cleared for travel.

On top of taking on a more active team role in another region, the 24-year-old LoL analyst will be the first-ever non-Korean head coach in the LCK.



Before casting for the LEC, YamatoCannon led Team Vitality through one of the toughest groups of the 2018 LoL World Championship, facing off against bigger names like Gen.G and Royal Never Give Up.

Despite facing an early check out in the tournament’s group stage, YamatoCannon’s efforts with Vitality proved that the LEC was a region that can measure up against their more dominating peers, especially from the Eastern hemisphere. His inspirational words pushed Europe to play their own unique style and, interestingly enough, LEC team Fnatic reached the grand finals that year.

YamatoCannon will be joining SANDBOX after the team endured a turbulent 2020 LCK Spring Split, ending with a subpar standing of 5-13 and a ninth place finish. Though the team was up for relegation in the 2020 LCK Summer Promotion, SANDBOX secured their LCK spot after sweeping Seorabeol Gaming in the grand finals.

The LCK 2020 Summer Split will begin on June 17.

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