Lira

Lira
Lira
Background Information
Name	Nam Tae-yoo (남태유)
Country of Birth	South Korea
Birthday	January 15, 1995 (age 25)
Residency	KR Korea
Competitive
Team	Riot Games Inc.
Role	Broadcast Talent
Previous Role(s)	Jungler
Favorite Champs
Competitive IDs	LirA
Soloqueue IDs	CTU Lila, 리라, 태유유 태무무, KT Lira, CJ Entus 리라, Lir4, o lira o, iLra, AFreeca Lira (EUW)
Social Media & Links
Team History
Apr 2013 - May 2013	Chunnam Tech U.
May 2013 - Feb 2014	KT Rolster Arrows
Feb 2014 - Mar 2014	CJ Entus Frost
Jun 2014 - ??? 2014	Oh My God 2
May 2015 - Dec 2015	Rebels Anarchy
Dec 2015 - Nov 2016	Afreeca Freecs
Dec 2016 - Nov 2017	Team EnVyUs
Dec 2017 - Oct 2019	Clutch Gaming
Oct 2019 - Nov 2019	Dignitas
Dec 2019 - Jan 2020	Seorabeol Gaming
Feb 2020 - Present	Riot Games Inc.

Nam "Lira" Tae-yoo (Hangul: 남태유) is a League of Legends esports player, currently working as an analyst for Riot Korea. His name was previously stylized LirA.

Biography[edit]

Season 3[edit]

Nam "LirA" Tae-yoo joined his first professional team in 2013 when he joined Chunnam Techno University as a jungler. However, he did not play any games with the team and left to join the KT Rolster Arrows in May.

2014 Season[edit]

LirA couldn't qualify for OGN with the Arrows so he left the team in February of 2014 to join CJ Entus Frost. He only played 2 matches with them in the SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters 2014 before leaving a month later. In June of that year, he went to China to play for OMG 2 but they never played any competitive games together before the team disbanded later that year.

2015 Season[edit]

LirA joined Rebels Anarchy in May of 2015 as their new jungler. They played in the Champions Summer 2015 Promotion where they qualified for SBENU Champions Summer 2015 after going 1-1 against Incredible Miracle and Winners. Anarchy placed eighth during the regular season and missed playoffs but they qualified for the next season of LCK.

2016 Preseason[edit]

Rebels Anarchy played in the 2015 LoL KeSPA Cup where they lost 2-1 in the quarterfinals to Ever. On December 29, Rebels Anarchy renamed to the Afreeca Freecs.

2016 Season[edit]

The Afreeca Freecs started the 2016 LCK Spring Split as a bottom three team, losing many of their sets during the first round robin. This changed after their 2-1 upset over SK Telecom T1 in Week 6, which marked the start of a streak of wins that resulted in an exceptional second round robin where they went 7-2 in sets and cliched the final, fifth playoff spot in what many labeled as a "Cinderella Story." Unfortunately, during the first round of the 2016 LCK Spring Playoffs, they lost 2-0 to the Jin Air Green Wings, giving them fifth place overall for the spring split.

During the 2016 LCK Summer Split, the Afreeca Freecs went 8-10 in series. LirA shared starting time with fellow jungler SeongHwan. They earned fifth place in the regular season and a spot in the first round of the 2016 LCK Summer Playoffs. In the first round, the Freecs met Samsung Galaxy, who beat them 2-0, earning the Freecs fifth place overall for the split. Their accumulated points earned them a spot in the first round of the 2016 Season Korea Regional Finals, where they beat the Jin Air Green Wings 3-2 before losing to Samsung Galaxy 3-1 in a rematch.

2017 Season[edit]

During the 2016-2017 offseason, LirA sought to move abroad, initially joining EU LCS' Team Vitality.[1] However, he parted with Vitality less than a month later, stating — among other reasons — difficulty due to lack of a designated interpreter and feeling uncomfortable in Europe.[2][3] He moved to the NA LCS, joining Team EnVyUs. Visa issues prevented LirA from appearing onstage until week 2 of the Spring Season, forcing the team to put midlaner Ninja in the jungle, and play substitute Alex Ich in mid. This inauspicious beginning was unfortunately a preview for the season: Team EnVyUs finished 3-15, never ending a week above tied for last place. Despite the team's weak result, LirA's play was so outstanding that he was voted as the jungler for the first-tier NA LCS All-Pro Team in the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split Award Winners, the first time a player on a last place team had received that honor. [4]

As NA LCS had not yet switched to a franchise model, Team EnVyUs was required to play in the promotion tournament. EnVyUs began poorly, dropping a 3-1 set to the veteran Gold Coin United (GCU) lineup and being sent to the losers bracket along with eUnited. EnVyUs rallied, defeating eUnited 3-1 and setting up a rematch with GCU; in that rematch, EnVyUs outlasted GCU on the strength of LirA's play, winning 3-2 and keeping their LCS spot.

EnVyUs had a noticeably better summer season, finishing in 6th place with 8 wins and 10 losses, despite uncertainty in the midlane: both EULCS import midlaner Nisqy and former Phoenix1 mid Pirean were brought in to replace Ninja. Visa delays prevented Nisqy from playing for the first two weeks, and Pirean started the season; the two midlaners then alternated until Pirean returned to Phoenix1 in week 7. Despite the constant player rotation, EnVyUs secured the 6th playoff seed. Unfortunately, they were defeated 2-3 by Counter Logic Gaming in a close Quarterfinals series, ending their 2017 season: because of their poor Spring showing, EnVyUs didn't have enough championship points to attend Regional Qualifiers. The NA LCS 2017 Summer Playoff Quarterfinals was also the last time Team EnVyUs played on stage, as the team was not accepted into the franchised NA LCS. Following this, LirA left the team in November and a month later joined the newly formed Clutch Gaming.

2018 Season[edit]

In Clutch Gaming, LirA reunited with former EnVyUs teammates Apollo (AD carry) and Hakuho (support). Clutch quickly acquired a reputation for beating every team below them and losing to every team above them; this consistency led to Clutch completing Spring 2018 in 6th place with a 11-7 record, securing a spring playoff spot.

In the Spring 2018 playoff quarterfinals, Clutch faced third seed TSM. TSM was considered the overwhelming favorite to win due to their veteran lineup and their 5-1 record during the final three weeks of the spring split. LirA was focused heavily during game 1, leading to a quick TSM victory. In a historic upset, Clutch won the next three games, becoming the first team in NALCS history to defeat TSM in quarterfinals; this would be the first split without TSM in the finals. Clutch faced the 1st seed 100 Thieves in the semifinals, losing 2-3 after a tense 74-minute siege; in the subsequent third-place match against 2nd seed Echo Fox, Clutch rapidly lost 0-3.

2019 Season[edit]

During the offseason, LirA restylized his name to Lira.

In the 2019 post season, Clutch Gaming pulled off the "miracle run", playing 27 games across the summer playoffs and regional qualifiers to qualify for Worlds 2019; they were only 3 games short of the 30 maximum possible postseason games. After defeating TSM 3-1 in the summer playoffs, they fell to Team Liquid 2-3. With just enough championship points to be eligible for regional qualifiers, Clutch Gaming proceeded to beat FlyQuest and Counter Logic Gaming both 3-1, meeting TSM in the finals. Lira consistently pressured TSM across the map, empowering AD carry Cody Sun and top lane carry Huni, and helping Damonte negate Bjergsen's presence in the final 3 games, resulting in a 3-2 reverse sweep victory. [5]

In an interview during the summer playoffs, Lira stated that the communication between Clutch Gaming players had improved significantly since the spring split, and that the language barrier was not as significant as it once was. [6][7]

Trivia[edit]

Praised by many high ranked players for his unique jungle pathing and strategies.

Tournament Results[edit]

This table shows up to the 10 most recent results. For complete results, click here.

Lira Tournament Results
Date	Pl	Event	Last Result	Team	Roster
2019-12-15	bbbbbbNQ	CK 2020 Spring Promotion Qualifiers	1 - 1RR	SRB	Thal, Lira, Danchung, Sangyoon, Nova, Sangho
2019-10-19	01301613 - 16	Worlds 2019	0 - 6RR	CG	Huni, Lira, Damonte, Cody Sun, Vulcan, Thinkcard
2019-09-08	0010001	LCS 2019 Regional Finals	3 : 2TSM	CG	Huni, Lira, Damonte, Cody Sun, Vulcan, Thinkcard, Artemis
2019-08-24	0040004	LCS 2019 Summer Playoffs	2 : 3CLG	CG	Huni, Lira, Damonte, Cody Sun, Vulcan, Thinkcard, Artemis
2019-08-04	0050005	LCS 2019 Summer	9 - 9RR	CG	Huni, Lira, Damonte, Cody Sun, Vulcan, mcscrag, Thinkcard, Artemis
2019-03-24	0090009	LCS 2019 Spring	5 - 13RR	CG	Huni, Lira, Damonte, Piglet, Cody Sun, Vulcan, mcscrag, Artemis
2018-09-14	0040004	NA Regional Finals 2018	0 : 3FOX	CG	Solo, LirA, Febiven, Apollo, Hakuho, mcscrag, Baby Zeus
2018-08-20	0090009	NA LCS 2018 Summer	6 - 12RR	CG	Solo, LirA, Moon, Febiven, Apollo, Piglet, Hakuho, Vulcan, DLim, Curry, mcscrag, Baby Zeus
2018-08-10	0040004	NA Academy 2018 Summer	10 - 8RR	CG.A	Maxtrobo, Solo, Moon, LIRA, Sun, Piglet, Apollo, Vulcan, Hakuho, mcscrag
2018-04-08	0040004	NA LCS 2018 Spring Playoffs	0 : 3FOX	CG	Solo, LirA, Febiven, Apollo, Hakuho, DLim