The Off-Season Report

By Joshua Kon and Jodi McClure


Covering rumors and confirmations and all news that has taken place these past few days!

Positions Still Up For Grabs -

1. CLG's Top Lane *assumed to be Seraph but no official word yet*
2. Gambit's Mid Lane *niQ will play for them first week but nothing official*

Confirmed Retirees - Bischu, Benny and Cruzerthebruzer have all officially announced their retirements.

Confirmed Benched -

1. Nien - Benched himself from CLG feeling his performance was not up to his standard. He is currently a CLG Sub and does not look to be coming back for any team this split.
2. Migxa - The European support for Super Hot Crew has been benched after his record-breaking death performance last split. Leading player to replace him right now is Leduck.
3. Goldenglue - Put aside in favor of Shiphtur.
4. BunnyFuFu - Put aside for Xpecial.

Moved to non player positions - 

1. The Oddone - Stepped down and will remain with TSM as a coach. 

Confirmed Left Their Teams -

1. Forg1ven - 

Confirmed Movement - 

1. Shiphtur and Zion - officially joined Dignitas
2. Amazing - officially joined TSM as their new jungler.
3. Xpecial - officially moves to Curse. Yes...Curse. 
4. Gleebglarbu - becomes TSM's new support.  
5. WeWillFailer - joins Supa Hot Crew as their new support.
6. Woolite and Airwaks - join C.Wolves's as ADC and Jungle.
7. Alex Ich - Joined a reworked Ninjas in Pyjamas with k0u, Freeze, mithy and Nukeduck.

Team Disbandment - Every season we see teams and organizations break up when failing to enter or re-enter the LCS and this season was no different.

1. Complexity Red - After Black made it to the LCS, it didn't take Complexity much time to disband their other amateur team.
2. SK Gaming Prime - Confirmed to be disbanded
3. Reason Gaming - Confirmed to be disbanded

Not Disbanded -

1. XDG Gaming - Despite rumors to the opposite, XDG is not disbanding. The team owner, Marshall Alexander, confirmed that he is in talks with other teams to buyout/trade player's contracts. XDG will continue as a challenger team, but Alexander is trying to be accommodating to players who wish to remain in the LCS.  
2. Coast Gaming - Reorganizing for challenger, most likely with a whole new roster, although Daydreamin, Nintendudex, and Wiz still under contract until October.

Potential Replacements for Nien:

By Joshua Kon 

#1. Link moves to top, Shiphtur becomes new mid for CLG - this is the one option that will have CLG fans drooling, as Shiphtur (at some points in this split) has shown he is the best mid NA.

#2. IkennyU - from the Blue Caster Minions that won the Riot Collegiate Championships from UW.  A top challenger rank and no real team, he may find his way to CLG.

#3. ZionSpartan - a strong top laner from Coast, he may be offered the position.

#4. Innox - if EG loses to C9 Tempest, you may see Innox be offered a position from CLG.

#5. Ackerman - this is a potentially a great pick up if XDG pulls off a miracle off against LMQ! Doubtful, but if not on an LCS roster after this weekend, the opening with CLG may fit perfectly for the top laner from Royal Club's 2nd place team.

#6. Maknoon - way out in left field - he has been streaming non stop and could easily make a transition to a good CLG team. Very doubtful though!

EU LCS W11D3 Thur, April 3 - Super Week

Today's Matches: 

1. Millenium vs SK Gaming
2. Copenhagen Wolves vs Supa Hot Crew
3. Alliance vs Gambit Gaming
4. Fnatic vs Roccat
5. Alliance vs Copenhagen Wolves

Poor CandyPanda... :( 

LCS Central's Joshua Kon gives us his predictions for the EU LCS's Final day: 

1. SK Gaming to clinch the #1 seed when they beat Millennium in the first game.

2. A Tie Breaker match for the #2 Seed between Roccat and Fnatic

3. #4 Seed to be secured by Alliance after defeating Gambit

4. A Copenhagen Wolves 2-0 day

5. Gambit to be the #5 Seed

6. A Gambit vs Alliance series in the first round of next week's playoffs!

What are YOUR predictions, esports fans? 

LCS Central Team Rankings Week 11

LCS Team Rankings : Week 11 : by Joshua Kon 

1. Cloud 9 - Last week, C9 went 2-0 in the NA LCS, destroying Curse and Dignitas. They have the toughest Superweek in NA facing both CLG and TSM, the powers of NA LCS.

2. Team Solo Mid - Despite a loss to CLG this weekend, TSM still looks strong and ready as ever to take the #1 seed and push to represent NA in the All Stars event!

3. Alliance - The hottest team in EU is finally living up to their potential. After a terrible start Alliance now finds themselves on top of a very tight race for the #1 seed in EU LCS.

4. Fnatic - Still hot from their 2nd place finish at IEM, Fnatic also finds themselves tied for first in Europe after a nightmare middle part of the split.

5. Counter Logic Gaming - Looking for another five game winning streak, CLG is coming off hot wins against XDG and TSM. Since Dexter has been in the roster, CLG has only three losses, two to TSM and one to C9. They look to beat C9 this week and maybe steal the #2 seed.

6. SK Gaming - They held First Place for a little while but now they have a chance to take their new roster and end a Split with the #1 seed in EU.

7. Gambit Gaming - Edward made some flashy plays on Thresh last week but Gambit needs to be careful this week as they face one of the toughest schedules in EU. If they don't win against CW on Tuesday they might find themselves fighting in Relegation much like NIP earlier this year.

8. Roccat - They are the roller coaster team in EU. Along with Gambit I personally feel Roccat has a much higher ceiling than what they have shown. They too need to be careful not to have a bad Superweek and find themselves on the outside looking in.

9. Copenhagen Wolves - The Wolves had  a strong Week 10 and may be a spoiler to some teams ahead of them. They have the potential to knock off anyone and they'll have to do some of that if they don't want SHC taking over their 6th seed.

10. Super Hot Crew - This is the bracket busting team in the EU LCS. Skill wise, I feel they are a bottom 2 team but they have very good chemistry and have proven with their strategies they can beat anyone fast. Look for the CW vs SHC match on Thursday to decide if they make the playoffs or if they are busted!

11. Dignitas - The Scarra era is over but a win against EG gave Dig fans hope. I personally was impressed with Goldenglue's performance on Lux after giving up first blood!

12. Curse Gaming - Playing the two top teams in NA really pushed Curse down but being up on TSM early shows the potential these guys have. A few misplays and some dodge spear practice and who knows what this Curse team could of done vs TSM.

13. Millenium - At the bottom of the EU LCS, Millenium maybe enjoying their final week in Cologne but their new Jungler looked strong and confident in his ability to be a shotcaller in the future.

14. Coast - If there would ever be a possible free agent/trade system in the LCS then two at the top of everyone's list would be ZionSpartan and Shiptur. These two could really be the missing pieces of Curse and Dignitas but can't succeed on Coast because of the weak cast around them.