EU LCS Roster Swaps: What’s the Impact?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

Millenium - Kottenx

While Kottenx may have been picked up in the dying weeks of the Spring Split, I feel the true display of his impact to the team started with the qualifier against NiP. His ganks are impactful, the team responds better in tough situations, and overall their rotations and shot-calling have gotten miles better. Millenium now have depth to their game-flow that wasn't present last split. Their play-style isn't as predictable and their synergy with each other is stronger. It’s like Kottenx was the long lost key to unlock the chest of riches that is Millenium’s hidden potential.

Every other member of the team has seen a huge rise in both confidence and overall performance. Creaton is returning to the form he showed before he broke his hand and Kev1n is showing why he is one of the best top laners in EU. Kerp, in particular, now completely shines in the mid lane and rightfully deserved MVP for week one. If he wasn't on fantasy teams before Super Week, he definitely will be now.

Millenium already have a third of the wins they achieved last split in this first week. Last split, they faced Roccat in the opening Super Week and only managed two kills. This split, the tables were turned as Roccat were dominated and could only manage three kills. Being 3-1 and tied top with SK and Alliance is undoubtedly a better position than anyone could have imagined and clearly a position they deserve to be in.

Supa Hot Crew - wewillfailer (and the addition of Nick "LastShadow" De Cesare as an analyst.)

The difference to Supa Hot Crew this split is amazing. With the addition of wewillfailer and analyst Nick De Cesare from Korea, the crew, like Millenium, look like they've found a new lease on life. Suddenly, the mid to late game weariness is gone and replaced with structured objective rotations. Their leadership seems more solid and you can see it in their shot-calling. They still retain their explosive play-style but there is now an element of confidence and tactical awareness behind it. Other obvious differences are that this time they are in the split with the belief they'll go far, rather than just hoping to win one game. Also, wewillfailer doesn't give up as many free deaths as Migxa did. 

These changes have seen them give hard-fought battles against the top three teams in the league at the moment, coming away with a win off Alliance and what could have been wins off Millenium and SK Gaming. Considering that they finished this week 2-2 with what was probably the hardest Super Week draw of any team, it’s hard to deny the fact that the Supa Hot Crew are building up to become a real force to be reckoned with and could be a challenger for Worlds at this rate.

Copenhagen Wolves - Woolite and Airwaks

To have to come into a split replacing arguably the best ADC and jungler of spring is no easy task. The real success behind the Wolves last split was driven by Forg1ven and Amazing, the latter picking up a back-to-back MVP awards. 

While Woolite and Airwaks have shown that they are ready to debut upon the LCS stage, it's still glaringly obvious that they don’t have the relentless carrying capabilities of Forg1ven and Amazing. They have talent. Airwaks was essential in the Wolves’ only win of the Super Week against Millenium, and Woolite held his own in kills and cs, but they haven’t yet gained the experience needed to consistently pull the team through, and until they do, the Wolves will struggle with their upcoming games. 

YoungBuck, Unlimited and cowTard simply do not showcase hard-carrying potential; they come across as players who cement the success of the team rather than the players who create that success. Either cowTard or YoungBuck needs to start individually shining or the new blood needs to adjust quickly to the demands of the LCS and their team if they want a shot at playoffs.

Gambit Gaming- niQ

Many had expressed fears that Gambit wouldn't be the same after the departure of Alex, and indeed, in the Super Week, there were worrying signs. Genja put up some good stats but couldn't carry. Darien’s performance was less than helpful. EDward and Diamond seemed unable to make much impact across the games, and niQ doesn't seem to have the natural synergy with the team that Alex had. While niQ is clearly a mechanically-strong player, off the laning-phase he appeared to dwindle in relevance. It doesn't really seem as if niQ’s introduction to the team has changed any of the problems that were arising at the end of the Spring Split. 

Gambit hasn't truly replaced their leader role and the lack confidence among them is evident. Diamond, in particular, doesn't appear to be the jungle king he once was. Alliance had absolutely no regard for dragons in their game against Gambit and simply chased kills all the way to the end like a solo queue team - and they still won. Despite having the whole off-season to work on their issues after almost ending up in relegation, it appears they still haven’t filled all the cracks in their team. Every dynasty has to come to an end. Is this the split were Gambit’s does?

We had our friends at CSI enhance this a few times.

And now we can make out what it says!

Okay...Now You're in Trouble...

This isn't Xpeke's "I'm sorely disappointed in my team's performance" face. This is his "Someone, somewhere...is going to pay for this soon" face. Burdened with a frustrating 0-2 start, Fnatic must once again do some soul searching. But, let us not forget, this is the team that looooves losing streaks and dramatic (if not insane) climbs back to the top. While their play can be improved upon (greatly?) I wouldn't count out Fnatic yet. They've stuffed a lot of damn words back into people's mouths.

The question, to me, isn't can they do it. The question is...when will their anger-fueled, bullet-like ascent back to first place start? :)

Auf Wiedersehen, Yellowpete.

Nooo, not our Yellowpete! Nooo. Although...on second thought...Evil Geniuses have been having a rough patch, bottom lane hasn't been fabulous, and there's no denying Altec has serious talent. Sure, we don't like seeing anyone replaced, especially when they've been with us for so long, but player swaps have become a necessary evil in the NA LCS, and I don't doubt there will be more of them as this split gets underway.  

(Wait..didn't I beat you in this game?)

Yellowpete bowed out graciously on the Evil Genuises' website, saying, "There is no arguing about the fact that my performance within the last couple of months has not been what I want or the team needs it to be. After closely watching the tryouts period, I believe that this is a change that can have a positive effect on the team's performance. Altec is a very talented, young player whom I could see a lot of growth in and I'm looking forward to helping him transition into the LCS from the Challenger scene."

A Tale of Two Cities

(or "Meanwhile...in Cologne...")

NA Summer Split Preview:

Things are HEATING UP in the NA LCS!

by Pieter "antdriote" Cnudde

All-Stars is over and Korea still owns us all. But how did this off-season really affect the NA LCS scene? Many teams have made significant adjustments and this is my breakdown of all the teams and how beneficial those changes should be for them.

-Cloud 9: 1st Place team in the Spring Split (regular and playoffs).

Even without Hai, they had a good run at All-Stars. They've been the best team in NA for two splits in a row and they are the only LCS team that has stuck with their line-up. C9 works great together and every role has accomplished players. Balls was a big carry during All-Stars, the bot lane held their own, and Meteos is still praised by junglers worldwide. While Hai couldn't show his skill against Faker or the other mid laners at All-Stars, he's eager to play with the team again and prepare for worlds.

They come out of the off-season with all the benefits: no roster swaps, excellent synergy and good international experience from All-Stars. They are the smartest tactical team in NA and probably have learned a thing or two from playing SKT T1 K. The only thing that could hold them back would be Hai’s health.

Prediction: First place -  99% sure for both playoffs and regular season.

-Counter Logic Gaming: 3rd Place team in the Spring Split (regular and playoffs).

Top laner Nien voluntarily left CLG after folding to fan criticism following his weak performance during the playoffs. CLG immediately started searching for a suitable replacement. Shin "Seraph" Woo Yeong presented himself to CLG’s coach and he is now living in the CLG gaming house to see if he can work with the team. A substitute for Najin White Shield in OGN, the mechanically-sound Seraph has been wrecking NA solo queue since the day he arrived in LA, playing a wide variety of champions from meta picks like Renekton and Shyvana to less orthodox picks like Lissandra and Yasuo. His English is good enough for in-game communication and he has a great work attitude. Little LAN experience is his only downfall. (He's played just one OGN game in his life.) Only the future will tell how strong the "shinergie" will be with his team.

Doublelift and Link should bring fresh All-Stars' insight on Cloud 9 and the international teams. CLG might struggle a bit in the beginning of the season (a new player always takes time to adapt,) but Seraph really wants this and he'll work hard to help them become a great team.

Prediction: Top 2 or 3 at least and might upset C9 in the playoffs.

-Team SoloMid: 2nd Place team in the Spring Split (regular and playoffs).

Sadly, the General stepped down, replaced by MVP jungler, Amazing, from the Copenhagen Wolves. Amazing has shown brilliance in the EU LCS and ended the split with the highest KDA and total gold for a jungler. Nervous TSM fans will point out that the team picked him up without trying him first, but Regi has never made a bad roster choice in the past. Mechanically, Amazing is definitely an upgrade for TSM. TheOddOne lived his glory days. He had issues adjusting to the new jungle and his pressure and duel skills were probably the worst in the league.

The departure of Xpecial was a big surprise. At first benched for his attitude, Reggie then traded him to Curse. Now Gleeb, former support player for Cloud 9 Tempest, is taking up the role. I don’t feel Gleeb is an upgrade for TSM. He is a challenger support with little experience at the top level and TSM lost a good shot-caller in Xpecial. However, he could bring some new life to the team.

This is the first time TSM has replaced two players at once, so it might take time for them to get back into form. They are a strong team that, with even poor shot-calling, could still beat most of the lower LCS teams.

Predictions: Top 4 in regular split, will try and compete for worlds. Can only go super wrong if the new players don’t fit with the team and more swaps or time is needed.

-Dignitas: 4th Place in the regular split and 5th in playoffs.

Dignitas narrowly escaped relegations by beating Coast in the playoffs with the aid of retired player, Scarra (who is now their coach). The team received an upgrade in mechanics with Zionspartan and Shiphtur, but neither player brings much by way of shot-calling ability or insight. Strategy-wise, Dig is still a very low tier team. As a coach, Scarra will try to fix many of these issues so they can contend for a top slot again. Dig now has three strong lanes, but they need to have a good transition into the mid game and fix their shot-calling issues. I don’t feel they will grow insanely this split, but they can work towards the next split and make life hard for most teams.

Predictions: Around 3-6  in regular and semis in playoffs.

-Curse: 5th Place in the regular split and 4th in playoffs.

Pleased after ending fourth, Curse didn't seem to look for a roster swap until they saw the opportunity to pick up Xpecial as their new support. Xpecial seems like an advantage for the Curse line-up:  a decent shot-caller and top NA support to help Cop realize his full potential.Curse has always shown great early strategies and fighting ability, but they look like a group of kids playing the game for the first time when they go past the 20 minute mark. Hopefully some coaching and the addition of Xpecial's voice will help Curse become stronger in the upcoming split. Both Curse and Dig have made mechanical upgrades, but their core issues are still there, so they are pretty even to each other. Curse will have problems in their solo lanes, though, in the head-to-head games.

Prediction: Around 3-6 in regular and maybe semis in playoffs.

-Evil Geniuses: 7th Place in regular split.

The only team that didn't get relegated during the promotions tournament. They haven’t announced any official roster swaps but are supposedly doing some try-outs. EG will need to improve a lot in their laning and skirmishes. They are tactically not the worst team in NA, but they fall too far behind in gold to fight for the objectives they want to take.

Innox has a small champion pool with almost no meta picks. He might become more relevant now that the tank meta top is shifting a bit. Pobelter seems to be godlike, but only on rare occasions. When he finishes high school in June, he should be able to work on his consistency and perhaps live up to the hype that surrounded him earlier in the season. Help will still be needed for Snoopeh and Yellowpete, who don’t seem to be able to handle the competition in their respective roles. The try-outs might help EG a bit, but if they just get outplayed mechanically, it will be hard for them to win a lot of games. I’m fearing for the boys in blue - but there's always hope.

Prediction: 6-8 (and probably relegations again).

-LMQ (aka Chinese overly-hyped train)

Yes, LMQ swept the challenger scene. No, they won’t just come in and win NA LCS. You put any LCS team in challenger and they will also dominate the scene (eg. Coast in NACL) but that doesn't mean they would be tops in the LCS. LMQ is created from a secondary Chinese team that has great mechanical players (like most Chinese teams) but they lack any strategy and seem to experience a lot of LAN nerves.

LMQ will make every game hard for the bottom teams because they mechanically outclass them. They can win the solo queue way - stomping lanes and having better team fights. But the smart teams can just avoid the fights they don’t want and play safe or use lane-swapping to diminish the early lane bullying from the Chinese team. C9 showed at IEM and All-Stars that Chinese teams can be beaten and this team is much weaker than WE and OMG. I don’t see the team picking up an analyst or coach anytime soon, so they will probably be a Chinese TSM - strong lanes, good fights, but poor decision making. We’ll see how far they can make it in the split against the growing NA scene.

Predictions:  3-5 in regular and semis in playoffs.

-compLexity

The third-seeded challenger team may have beaten Coast, but they don’t look any better than them. Westrice had great issues against Zion and it seems only PR0LLY is really at a decent level to compete in the LCS. They are just a challenger team that will soon realize their solo queue mentality alone won’t make them a successful team in the LCS.

Predictions : 7-8 (At this point, I don’t see a way that Complexity can avoid relegation.)

The first Superweek will give us a better view how the teams look with their new rosters. The teams that ended the LCS with the same rosters they have now will have a great advantage going into playoffs and should be the highest seeded teams.

Thanks for reading my NA LCS preview. Thoughts or comments? Leave them below or tweet me @antdrioite