Hello again everyone! After MSI’s conclusion, everyone is eagerly awaiting the start of the Summer Split for every region. With a bunch of roster changes happening yet again, let’s discuss everything that has happened in the League scene this past week.
Tournament Updates
Not much to mention in terms of tournaments excluding Demacia Cup, a yearly held event within China that is the equivalent of the KeSPA Cup. This year the format is slightly different with 28 teams participating and being split into different categories. The format consists of 4 preliminary brackets composed of TGA, Top 8 LSPL and Bottom 8 LPL squads. The four winners of these 4 preliminary brackets will face off against the Top 4 LPL crews.
So far everything excluding the Main Bracket has been played out. Unfortunately for the TGA and LSPL teams, only one of them was successful in making it to the Top 8. Vici Gaming despite being classified as an LPL team was recently relegated from the LPL and is technically an LSPL squad. They will be facing off against EDG in one of the Quarterfinals. The other matches will be Team WE against Invictus Gaming, OMG squaring off against IMay and RNG battling it out with LGD Gaming. Although Demacia Cup is not the most prestigious event, it does have importance within China and all of these crews will be fighting hard to win it all. After their relegation, Vici Gaming will surely want to claim the Cup to leave the LPL with pride after their dreadful Spring Split.
Roster Changes
Oh boy there so many roster changes this past week as well. Let’s not waste any time and get straight to them. Pridestalker (formerly of Misfits Academy) has joined ROCCAT as their new jungler after Maxlore‘s departure. A solid pick-up as Pridestalker is a promising talent. Shynon from Delta Fox (Echo Fox’s Challenger Team) has announced his free agency. Millenium have announced their roster consisting of Blomster Finn, Nerroh, Kruimel, Murmel, Akutsune, Choupa and MTC Ta.
Over in the NA LCS Fixer has left Phoenix1 and has found an interesting new home. Coming into the 2017 Thailand Pro League Summer Split, a new team called SEA Serpents has been formed after acquiring Ultimate’s spot. The squad has an interesting line-up consisting of Rockk, Sek and TAP forming the top side of the map while Emperor (formerly of G2) and Fixer will round out the bottom lane. Impaler has been announced as the Head Coach. He is known for his time on Supa Hot Crew in Europe and then on Team Coast when the squad had one of the worst splits in LCS history. A very peculiar line-up but it will be interesting to see if they mesh well and how far they can go.
Carrying on with roster announcements, Ninjas in Pyjamas has revealed its new roster after acquiring Fnatic Academy’s EU LCS spot. The squad consists of Profit (after his departure from SK Telecom T1), Shook, Nagne, HeaQ and sprattel. Zhergoth and Hoon will be substitutes while NicoThePico will be the Head Coach. The most interesting decision is definitely NicoThePico being hired as a Head Coach after his atrocious results with Fnatic in the Spring Split. Other than that the roster seems fine in terms of individual talent but what will determine their performance is how well they can work together.
And now it’s time list a bunch of changes so please buckle down for a lot of reading! Mocha has left CREW eSports. Dylan Falco (formerly of EnVy) has been announced as Fnatic’s new coach. Slay and Stark have both left the GIGABYTE Marines with Nevan and Noway being their replacements. Kitties over in Invictus Gaming has retired after having a very long career with the team. Mashall, Cognac and Panky have all left HWA Gaming.
In Europe loulex has departed from Schalke 04 and has joined G2 Esports. The champions of Europe have announced that Send0o and loulex will both play in Week 1 of the EU LCS in place of Trick and Expect who are both taking a small break. Team Liquid has announced that Goldenglue will be returning in the mid lane and Piglet will return to the ADC role. Apart from that, the roster will remain the same. Very bizarre decision after this exact same line-up had very bad results in the Spring Split of the NA LCS. Untara has joined SKT as a substitute top laner. In Longzhu Gaming Expession has left the team while Khan and Rascal have lined up. TynX has left Giants Only The Brave with Gilius joining the squad. Pilot has joined Ding Sheng Gaming after a lackluster EU CS Spring Split with Paris-Saint Germain.
In the LMS there’s also quite a lot of changes. Achie has moved to an Analyst position for J Team. CorGi has joined Machi17 with BoBo and Pasa leaving. M1ssion and Kaiwing have lined up with HK Attitude while Nestea, Wulala, KuKu and Gear have left. Wulala and KuKu have found a new home in Fireball with MarS leaving the crew. Nexus has left Extreme Gamers but has joined Wayi Spider. The squad has also lost a lot of players. LOFS, Rins, Blues and Chunx have all left.
Moving on Lukezy and Reach have joined M19 (formerly Albus NoX Luna). ZBB and LaoZhou have joined Team WE as substitutes. Hustlin has gone it with Dark Passage. Perhaps one of the biggest roster changes is WildTurtle leaving TSM and lining up with FlyQuest as their second ADC along with Altec. Tolerant has joined Supermassive with Dumbledoge announcing his free agency. Over at Echo Fox coach HeavenTime has left with Inero replacing him. Both Feng and Mash have also joined the team. Atom, Wandelbo, p1noy, Taikki and Godbro have all left Tricked eSport. Young Glory has gained a new coach in Sweet while Kaos Latin Gamers have also gotten a new coach by the name of Pierre. And rounding out the roster changes Flaxxish, Visdom and Woolite have all announced their free agency after departing from Kinguin.
Thanks for reading this article and sticking around till the end. Be sure to check out the other weekly articles, and lookout for future articles as well. I will see you next time, but bye for now! Good luck!
