Dignitas trades Keine to Isurus for LTA South promotion tournament

North American esports organisation Dignitas has officially traded its mid laner Kim ‘Keine‘ Joon-cheol to South American team Isurus Gaming.

The Korean player will be competing under Isurus’ banner for the upcoming LTA South Promotion tournament, where Isurus will be fighting to maintain a spot in the league for the 2026 season.

According to the Global Contract Database (GCD), the player’s contract runs until November 2026. It’s worth noting that Dignitas had initially suggested that Keine’s presence is solely for the Promotion Tournament.

With Keine joining, Isurus has departed with the Mexican player Francisco Rubén ‘Leza‘ Jara Barragán. The roster Isurus will be fielding in the upcoming Promotion tournament will consist of:

This is the second roster change Isurus has made this split. Earlier in August, Zamudo was loaned by LTA North team LYON after the latter struggled to get the visa to compete in the northern conference.

Keine is mainly known for competing in the LCK back in 2020 with APK Prince. Over the past years, the Korean mid moved to Latin America, competing for XTEN Esports, INFINITY, and Movistar R7, where he represented the region at Worlds in 2024. At the start of this season, he joined Dignitas, but the team struggled with results, consistently finishing in the bottom half of the standings in all three LTA splits.

Isurus’ decision to bring in Keine at this point in time has sparked major controversy across the scene, with some concerned about the competitive integrity of the Promotion tournament.

“It’s absurd that Riot allows these changes,” said Luís Santana, Producer at FURIA, on a post on X.

Prior to the official announcement, Santana had already called out the trade: “If it happened during the LTA South, fine, but after the championship is already over and just to try to hold on to their spot? It’s bizarre. And tier 2 teams can’t even change their rosters anymore.”

While most still think there are fairness concerns about the roster move, Chris ‘chrisyong’ Yong, General Manager at Disguised (DSG), a LTA team that has to compete for survival in the North promotion tournament, noted that the move might have complied with the rules.

When asked whether DSG would’ve been able to make a similar move to Isurus’, Yong explained: “We cannot, the Keine trade was likely made right after their season ended, which was like a day or 2 before the official deadline of roster changes. [It’s] probably just a late announcement.”

The LTA South Promotion tournament will kick off on September 25th, featuring Isurus and the top two teams from the Liga Regional Sur (LRS) and the Circuito Desafiante (CD). Only the winner will be able to take part in next year’s 2026 LTA South.