Immortals signs Dardoch as new jungler

Immortals has made its first new acquisition of the League of Legends offseason, signing former NA LCS Rookie of the Split Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett to a three-year contract, the organization announced Wednesday.

The reasoning behind choosing Immortals as the team I want to play for in the foreseeable future, since I signed multi-year, is because from the get-go I knew that the structure in place would leave me in a good spot regardless of roster.

— Dardoch

The 18-year-old Dardoch burst onto the scene during the 2016 season while with Team Liquid, winning the NA LCS Rookie of the Split award in the Spring and generally looking like one of the strongest junglers in the region. He will replace former NA LCS MVP Yeu-jin “Reignover” Kim as the team’s starting jungler.

It wasn’t all roses for Dardoch and Team Liquid, however -- he was suspended at the start of the season for “insubordination” and was benched once again before the Regional Qualifier. Dardoch’s clashes with head coach Yoon-sub “Locodoco” Choi and AD Carry Gwang-jin “Piglet” Chae were well-documented in Team Liquid’s in-house documentary Breaking Point.

Immortals was founded in late 2015 with a star-studded roster featuring former Fnatic players Seung-hoon “Huni” Heo and Reignover, and quickly put together one of the best regular seasons in LCS history, going 17-1 in the 2016 Spring Split.

That 17-1 mark was followed by postseason disappointment, however, as Immortals lost its first ever playoff series and finish the split in third place. Immortals put together another strong regular season split in the summer, going a second-best 16-2, but once again lost in the semifinals and finished in third place, ultimately missing Worlds.

After the Worlds disappointment, only mid laner Eugene “Pobelter” Park ended up staying with the roster, signing a two-year extension himself. Now we wait for the other three members of the roster to be confirmed.