Hey, folks! We’re back with yet another edition of News Updates for you guys. We’ll break down some of the updates surrounding roster changes, tournament placements, etc.
Tournament News
A lot of events have concluded over the past week. Starting with the EU Promotion Tournament where both Misfits Academy and Fnatic Academy were able to qualify for the LCS. Despite Giants showing a little bit of promise during the regular season, even they were unable to challenge Fnatic Academy and ultimately were relegated from the LCS. Origen was an obvious choice for one of the teams that would go to the Challenger Scene due to their abysmal regular season and that’s exactly what happened so no surprises there.
The LSPL Playoffs also concluded with Suning Gaming finishing in 1st place and securing their auto-qualification for the 2017 LPL Summer Split. With former IMay jungler Avoidless being on the team the Western audience will likely be at least a little bit interested in how Suning Gaming will perform in the LPL. Young Miracles finished in 2nd place for the third time in a row. It seems that the team owned by former Invictus Gaming top laner PDD may in-fact have a mental block that prevents them from winning the LSPL. That being said they still have a chance to qualify for the LPL through the Promotion Tournament. They will face off the winner of LGD Gaming vs Game Talents and will surely be looking towards finally making it to the LPL. Dan Gaming has also managed to snatch a spot in the Promotion Tournament by finishing 3rd in the LSPL playoffs with a win over Royal Club. They will face off against the loser of Snake vs Vici for the final LPL spot. Both LSPL teams have a chance to qualify however I’d give the odds to the LPL teams.
In terms of the upcoming 2017 Mid-Season invitational, even more, teams have qualified for the Play-In stage. Lyon Gaming defeated Just Toys Havoks in the 2017 LLN Opening Cup to punch their ticket to MSI. LG Dire Wolves also qualified with their win in the 2017 OPL Split 1, defeating Legacy eSports in the finals. And finally GIGABYTE Marines defeated Ascension Gaming in the finals of the 2017 GPL Spring Split. Marines have Levi on their team who was fairly impressive at All-Stars last year, receiving praise from players such as Doublelift.
Roster Changes
Nothing too noteworthy happened in terms of roster moves. Over in Japan nororin and Roki joined Scarz while DayDream, Air, Arfoad, Day1 and Kazu left the team. G2 Esports’ Spanish team G2 Vodafone added Lvsyan to their roster while Czaru and Kubon joined ASUS Rog Army. These roster changes are fairly minor in terms of the entire League scene as a whole and should not have much of an effect. Scarz took a bit of a hit by losing so many members but they will most likely bounce back.
Patch 7.7 implications
The new patch has been interesting so far. While it hasn’t come out on the competitive scene yet, we can already see some changes in the meta due to 7.6 such as Galio seeing some play after his update. He has been played in both solo lanes to mixed success so far. It seems as though he’s a very team comp reliant champion where if a team drafts well enough to counter him, his effectiveness drops. However if left unchecked he seems like a fairly strong pick that provides a lot of CC and utility to his team. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets picked up for any of the other roles such as Jungle or Support but right now the solo lanes seem like a good fit for him as he is able to farm well with his Q and has a lot of follow-up potential if his jungler decides to gank for him.
Another thing to mention is the new mastery known as Stoneborn Pact that replaced Bond of Stone. So far it hasn’t had much of an effect on the meta but it does see some play. Mainly on champions like Braum, Thresh or Tahm Kench. The problem with this is that Grasp of the Undying and Courage of the Colossus are good choices for melee supports and while Bond of Stone isn’t bad, it doesn’t seem like it’s on the level of the other two masteries. In order to put it on the same level as the other two, it would have to receive a buff of some sort. However, Riot needs to be careful not to overtune it to the point where melee supports start picking it all the time and become prevalent in the meta.
With Stoneborn Pact being added to the game and champions such as Alistar and Amumu being buffed, we could very well see them make their return to the meta especially when it comes to Alistar. His main problem has always been that he struggles in lane hard and doesn’t have the tools to fight back in really tough match-ups where he gets outranged and harassed. With the changes made to him, he should be able to have a slightly stronger laning phase. Coupled with Stoneborn Pact he should be able to keep his AD Carry alive for longer now and will have more overall damage in lane due to his E received a damage buff. Things are certainly looking good for the cow and we could very well see him being played as soon as 7.7 rolls onto the competitive scene. Plus wit a big mid-season update being in the works and new items being planned for release, the meta may shift soon towards juggernaut junglers and melee supports that can front line with them effectively. That doesn’t mean that ranged supports will be rendered obsolete. However, it always seems like while both types of supports see some play, one is always prevalent over the other. Hopefully, Riot can eventually find a balance where both types of supports can be played to great effect and neither is significantly dominant over the other.
Thanks for reading this weekly news update. Look for another article next week! Good luck!
