At last, the offseason is over and the LCS is returning to our screens for another year of frenzied and chaotic action. Now moving to Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, nobody is quite sure what to expect from the league moving forward.
And the same can be said about the rosters, with new faces and question marks galore. It really feels like it is anybody’s league this year. That’s why I’m here to sort through the madness and give you an idea of what you can expect from each of the 10 teams.
100 Thieves
Let’s address the elephant in the room, 100 Thieves have signed two of the LCS’ greatest legends, Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg and Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng. “Bjergsen” came out of retirement last year with the massively disappointing Team Liquid while “Doublelift” is only coming out of retirement now. Understandably, there are big question marks over just how good they still are.
At the very least, their experience will certainly benefit rookies Milan "Tenacity" Oleksij and Alan "Busio" Cwalina. “Tenacity”, in particular, is an extremely exciting prospect but, like any rookie, he needs time.
Come playoffs, this could be a really formidable team but there will surely be hiccups along the way.
Cloud9
Reigning champions Cloud9 should be very good from the start, as we all know how incredible their Carries are.
The only new addition to the team is Dimitri "Diplex" Ponomarev, a German Mid-laner and bright European prospect who had a pretty good year playing for Vitality.Bee. Cloud9’s scouting department have always been good at finding talent so there’s little doubt of his potential but that doesn’t mean things will work out.
And there have to be questions around Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen in only his second split playing as a Support. This is definitely one of the strongest squads in the league but I’m not sure they’ll immediately be at the very top.
Counter Logic Gaming
The only squad that haven’t made changes, CLG continue to keep faith in their group of over-achievers and why not?
Whether the other teams in the league have improved too much around them remains to be seen but this is a squad that challenged the top three during the last split.
Keep an eye on Niship "Dhokla" Doshi, who I’ve always felt has a lot of potential. With the help of legendary Top-laner and CLG’s new positional coach Paul “sOAZ” Boyer, he could become a monster.
Realistically, I don’t see this team moving above mid-table this year but they’ve proven everyone wrong before.
Dignitas
Some huge signings have been made by Dignitas, that were desperately needed.
Lucas "Santorin" Tao Kilmer Larsen could be the signing of the offseason as the Dane has regularly been one of the best Junglers in the league. He’ll bring much-needed leadership and stabilisation to a squad that has huge talent but could be very volatile.
İrfan Berk "Armut" Tükek, Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen, and Lee "IgNar" Dong-geun can all be game changers in both senses of the term – they can all pull off a miraculous comeback or snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I particularly have worries over “Armut”, especially when it comes to the playoffs. His extremely limited champion pool is well known by now and teams will target that.
Evil Geniuses
One of my early favourites, this roster looks incredibly strong.
The loss of Jeong "Impact" Eon-young is a big one but his replacement Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho is very strong. While both are excellent at playing the weak side, “Ssumday” prefers to take more of a Carry role which EG will need to adapt to.
They’ll also need to get used to playing with Ian Victor "FBI" Huang. He is a very strong and solid Bot-laner who should have no trouble fitting in; however, he doesn’t quite possess the potential that Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki offered last year.
With plug-and-play changes, EG should start strong but they might not reach the same heights as last year.
FlyQuest
This is a very interesting and potentially exciting roster.
The signings of “Impact” and Mingyi "Spica" Lu were very good business decisions. And young Support player Bill "Eyla" Nguyen was remarkably the standout player on a very stacked Team Liquid squad last year when he came in as a substitute. Now as a starter, he could emerge as one of the LCS’ best in this role.
But the real talking point is the two LCK imports, Mid-laner Lee "VicLa" Dae-kwang and Bot-laner Lee "Prince" Chae-hwan. “Prince”, in particular, is a monumental prospect as he was second in most statistics for Bot-laners in the LCK last summer behind only Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk.
How those imports will adapt to life in America and how these five players will gel having never played together before means FlyQuest are an unknown entity right now. They could crash and burn, but they could also set the league alight and dominate.
Golden Guardians
Golden Guardians are solid and there are some talented players in this squad but I’m not sure they’ll end up finishing higher than mid-table.
Choi "huhi" Jae-hyun is a very good Support player and a natural leader who could subtly make a huge difference in giving this squad some direction. But that requires Jungler Kim "River" Dong-woo to recapture the form that saw him carry Dignitas and it also requires new Mid-laner Kim "Gori" Tae-woo to destroy teams in the same way he is rumoured to do in scrims.
Immortals
Immortals started picking up their game towards the end of last year but didn’t have enough in the tank to make much impact and that’ll probably be the same this year.
Shane "Kenvi" Espinoza is definitely a bright talent and Nicholas Antonio "Ablazeolive" Abbott is a very good signing in the mid lane. But I’m just not sure this team will cause the big teams much trouble this season.
Team Liquid
As always with Team Liquid, this roster could be absurdly good.
After just winning Worlds with DRX, Jungler Hong "Pyosik" Chang-hyeon is an immense signing. And we also know just how good Top-laner Park "Summit" Woo-tae can be from his time on Cloud9.
But the critical components are Australian Mid-laner Harry "Haeri" Kang and American Bot-laner Sean "Yeon" Sung, who have both been promoted from Team Liquid’s academy and will have huge pressure on their shoulders.
Interestingly, they both apparently speak a bit of Korean, meaning the entire squad should be able to converse in that language. But whether they’ll synergise remains to be seen.
It’ll probably take this team quite a while to settle but if the two promoted players step up, Team Liquid could be a force to be reckoned with come the end of the year.
TSM
Finally, we have TSM and it’s hard to see the storied organisation accomplishing much this year, especially with how messy things were behind the scenes last year.
“Spica” is a big loss and it’s hard to predict how Lee "Bugi" Seong-yeop will perform after his year playing in the Latin America League. There isn’t really a standout player who can take over a game in this squad, including storied Mid-laner Huang "Maple" Yi-Tang, who didn’t really blow anyone away last year.
It will depend on the team’s synergy and coaching. There are solid components here but it would take a lot for them to break into the top half of the table considering the talent that has come into the league with other teams.
