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.

Nien leaves CLG and Toxicity against Pros

(An emotional Nien during his interview with Ongamers.)

by Jeremy Heimann

     The big news of the day is Zach ”Nien" Malhas stepping down from CLG. In an interview with Travis Gafford, Nien included under performance to his own standards, toxicity towards him on forums and social media, and undisclosed family issues as his reasons. What percentage each of these reasons play in his choice is unknown. Nien is the type of person that will put others before himself, and he wants to see his team succeed.
     He also doesn’t plan on playing this split, although the possibility of his return to CLG was left open if they couldn't find someone that could fill his shoes. This was his own decision and not forced upon him by the CLG empire.
    The involvement of the community and its passionate fans does concern me. We lack the ability to control others actions, but we can improve on our own.The power of one has been proven to be a working method. The method is started by one not spreading hate - then another joins in and change begins. Change has to start somewhere and that somewhere is inside of all of us. Nein is just an example. If we don’t want to lose other pros to similar reasons then we need to squash that parasite now.

What do other pros think?

Josh Atkins ‏@NintendudeX
I hope the community learns a valuable lesson about how devastating hate toward a player can be to a persons mental health after this.

Mitch Voorspoels ‏@SkumbagKrepo
You will never be able to teach moron's/douchebags to give proper/constructive criticism so don't even try. At the same time there is no point in taking their comments seriously. It's very hard sometimes but the only way to keep going with a sane head.

Marcus ‏@LoLDyrus
@CLG_Nien this community is a double edged sword I disagree with you stepping down but if it's for the better I wish you the best of luck

Hai Lam ‏@Hai_L9
I think this is a pretty big case of where the community sucks ass, trashing on a player until he retires is pretty rough. I think the general opinion of the community towards players is wrong, aka hating on Nien and or praising players that I disagree with.

Søren Bjerg ‏@Bjergsen
Really sad to hear about Nien. Unfortunately I think the community played a big part in crushing his confidence. Stay strong man!

**Travis Gafford's original interview for Ongamers can be found here: CLG Nien announces his decision to step down from starting roster.

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!