Source: Korea e-Sports Association

The Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) announced on Monday, the 18th, the final list of candidates for the national e-sports team to be sent to the Summer Asian Games, which will be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, this September.

There are 11 e-sports titles at the 20th Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, and South Korea will compete in nine medal events: ▲Fighting Games (Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, The King of Fighters XV), ▲Pokémon UNITE, ▲Honor of Kings, ▲League of Legends, ▲PUBG Mobile (Asian Games Version), ▲Identity V (Asian Games Version), ▲Gran Turismo 7, ▲eFootball Series, and ▲Puyo Puyo Champions. Consequently, the national team candidate pool consists of 36 players.

The candidates were selected through deliberations by the subcommittee of the Performance Improvement Committee for each e-sports title and recommendations from coaches, with the final list approved by the standing committee of the Performance Improvement Committee.

■ League of Legends

Candidates for League of Legends (LoL) were finalized after a subcommittee and coaches selected 20 registered players based on their performance in domestic and international tournaments over the past two years, including last year's KeSPA CUP and this year's regional regular leagues. The selection process included a review of detailed position-specific metrics and individual interviews to confirm the players' willingness to participate.

The six LoL candidates are ▲'Zeus' Choi Woo-je (Hanwha Life Esports), ▲'Canyon' Kim Geon-bu (Gen.G Esports), ▲'Zeka' Kim Geon-woo (Hanwha Life Esports), ▲'Faker' Lee Sang-hyeok (T1), ▲'Gumayusi' Lee Min-hyeong (Hanwha Life Esports), and ▲'Keria' Ryu Min-seok (T1) (listed by position, then alphabetically).

■ Fighting Games

For the fighting games (Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, The King of Fighters XV), the winners of the respective selection tournaments were confirmed as candidates: ▲'DakCorgi' Yeon Je-gil (Street Fighter 6, kt Rolster), ▲'KNEE' Bae Jae-min (Tekken 8, Kwangdong Freecs), and ▲'MadKof' Lee Gwang-no (The King of Fighters XV).

■ Pokémon UNITE

Two teams participated in the team-based selection tournament for Pokémon UNITE, with ▲T1 ('Seram' Kim Jae-young, 'Pisterio' Park Seong-soon, 'ePe' Lee Ji-hwan, 'Subeen' Jin Soo-bin, 'Comi' Jo Min-hyuk) taking first place and being selected as candidates.

■ Honor of Kings

As a result of the national team selection tournament for Honor of Kings, the first-place team, ▲Nongshim RedForce ('illusion' Jo Seong-bin, 'HAKU' Han Ji-hoon, 'DOK' Lee Seop-gyu, 'Ratel' Jeong Yun-ho, 'SIRI' Lee Hoon-min, 'Namu3' Han Seong-geon), was confirmed as the candidate team.

■ PUBG Mobile [Asian Games Version]

For PUBG Mobile, the final five players were selected from a preliminary entry list of 10, following additional reviews by the subcommittee and coaches based on performance in domestic and international tournaments over the past two years and national team evaluation metrics.

The PUBG Mobile candidates are ▲'FAVIAN' Park Sang-cheol (Dplus KIA), ▲'XZY' Kim Jun-ha (Nongshim RedForce), ▲'HYUNBIN' Jeon Hyun-bin (Nongshim RedForce), ▲'NolBu' Song Su-an (Dplus KIA), and ▲'chpz' Jeong Yu-chan (Dplus KIA).

■ Identity V [Asian Games Version]

In the team-based selection for Identity V, three teams participated, and the first-place team, ▲Pororon ('Toulang' Hong Hyun-ki, 'PHR' Park So-yeon, 'Sol' Eo Hong, 'OvO' Kim Jae-yeon, 'nary' Kim Jun-seo, 'Gar2b' Go Tae-hyun, 'ApHD' Kim Sang-min), was selected as the candidate team.

■ Gran Turismo 7

The national team selection for Gran Turismo 7 consisted of two online preliminary rounds and a final. Out of 117 participants in the first round, the 24 with the best lap times advanced to the second round, and 12 moved on to the final. ▲Kim Young-chan (DCT Racing), who took first place in the final, was confirmed as the candidate.

■ eFootball Series

The eFootball series selection tournament was held over two days on Friday, April 3, and Saturday, April 4, with seven participants in the eFootball Mobile category and 17 in the eFootball PC category. The top finishers in each category, ▲'DK__DK' Kim Do-gyeom (eFootball Mobile) and ▲'KOR_Ssong' Song Young-woo (eFootball PC), were selected as candidates.

■ Puyo Puyo Champions

In the Puyo Puyo Champions national team selection, ▲'RED231' Kang Dong-shin, the winner of the first and second KeSPA CUP expansion events, took first place and was selected as the candidate.

With this, the 36 final e-sports national team candidates have been provisionally confirmed. In accordance with the national team selection and operation regulations, official objections regarding the candidate list will be accepted until Thursday, May 28, from 'players registered with the Korea e-Sports Association' and 'guardians, coaches, or team heads of players who participated in the selection tournament.' Following final approval by the president of the Korea e-Sports Association, the list will be submitted to the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, and the final national team roster will be confirmed in June after approval by the committee's Performance Improvement Committee.

Additionally, the national teams for Identity V (Asian Games Version) and Honor of Kings are scheduled to participate in the Asian Games regional qualifiers in June.

The 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games e-sports national team is sponsored by Disney+, Google Play, Hanwha Life, GOALSTUDIO, Sidiz, Logitech G, Levion, and Photogray. Further details regarding the national team can be found on the Korea e-Sports Association website (e-sports.or.kr).