What do you mean you don’t refresh Twitter every five seconds to get the latest updates on the LoL offseason? Luckily for you, I have lost all semblance of control over my life and thus have kept tabs on it all for you. Here’s an update on who’s going where, who’s rumored to go where, and some thoughts more generally on the free agency!
**100 THIEVES
- Ssumday / Closer / Damonte / FBI / Huhi [Confirmed]**
On July 5th 1996, Ssumday was born. Two days later, Dolly the cloned domestic sheep was born. Now, 24 years later, 100 Thieves have cloned the 2020 Golden Guardians and given them to Ssumday. What does this all mean? I believe it’s part of a conspiracy to rev up a rivalry between 100 and GG such that all their matches will be called “The Clone Wars,” which is definitely not copyrighted by Disney. The new GG additions were already a really strong core in 2020 and 100 went ahead and added Ssumday to that bunch. Hauntzer wasn’t a bad player by any stretch of the imagination, but Ssumday has consistently been the best or second best top laner in NA since he came to NA, so you have to figure this to be an upgrade. With Damonte’s roam-heavy playstyle, 100 now has extremely strong side laners for him to lean towards, which means every time he disappears from the minimap, a ton of pressure will be exerted on the enemy team. It’s nearly impossible for us to guess what kind of intangibles will be shifted with the new environment, but on paper this looks like a really scary team -- especially if FBI and Huhi are able to replicate or even improve upon their end-of-summer performance. Begun, the clone wars have.
**CLOUD 9
- Fudge / Blaber / Perkz / Zven / Vulcan [Confirmed]**
Do you remember when Cloud9 opened 2020 on a 35-2 run and were a lock to not only win both LCS splits but then go on to Worlds where they would be the shining beacon of NA and prevent us having our #1 seed go 0-6 in Groups? And then they’d advance to the Knockout Stage and make a strong showing, perhaps to Semifinals even, before being eliminated in a tightly-contested match that had us saying, “Well, things are looking up for NA at least!” As the gamers say nowadays, sadge. That start was a *long* time ago now, and between every day of this year feeling like 10 days and then Worlds and now this roster shakeup, it’s one of those things that’s going to fall entirely to history. Years from now, “Which team started off the year 35-2 and failed to make Worlds?” will be a trivia question on some weird Twitch game show. The result of the debacle, though, is that Cloud9 has promoted Fudge to be their new starting top laner after having assembled a new team around Licorice, the mainstay from the previous roster, and then went out and acquired Perkz from G2, who will revert back to his natural mid lane position. Perkz in mid -- especially in NA -- is going to be a treat to watch. In the Spring Split this year, he showed that he still has what it takes to be a world-class player in mid, and with some more reps, I’m hoping we see a complete return to form for him. He’s immediately a frontrunner for MVP (in my way-too-early predictions for 2021). If Fudge is able to live up to his hype, then this roster could put C9 back on that torrential path they were on to start this year -- this is one of the most exciting teams to keep an eye on going into 2021.
**COUNTER LOGIC GAMING
-Finn / Broxah / Pobelter / WildTurtle / Smoothie [Confirmed]**
This is the kind of roster, if personified as a single person, that you’d trust your kid with on a date -- they are all reliable people and players. They’re going to show up to the first day of LCS in a suit with a briefcase and say, “let’s settle our business” in the team huddle instead of “CLG.” Class act, works hard, gym rat, first-in-last-out -- you name it. This feels like a middle-of-the-table roster at worst, which is a pretty good floor to start at. It’s tough for me to say what their ceiling will be, but much of that will come down to whether or not Broxah is able to rebound after what was largely a disappointing year with Liquid. Turtle and Finn had generally solid years that ended on sour notes, but neither were regarded as a key figure to their teams’ respective successes. That means the pessimistic take on this roster is that it is full of veteran players who are trying to stake out what could be the last legs of their respective careers -- all of their stock has been trending downward. The optimistic take, though, is that they’re also all players who know what it’s like to be successful. I’d also expect this team to be generally drama-free, which should help foster a really positive environment. With relatively low expectations to compliment that, this team is an early dark horse candidate for me.
**EVIL GENIUSES
- [Impact] / [Svenskeren] / [Jiizuke] / Deftly / IgNar [only Deftly/Ignar confirmed]**
First of all, shoutout to Peter Dun, new head coach of EG, for being a great Twitter follow -- I learn a lot about the game from his tweets. Second of all, shoutout to EG for hiring him. EG hasn’t fully announced their roster yet outside of IgNar and Deftly, but it seems like Svenskeren and Jiizuke are primed to stay for the moment with Impact set to take over in the top lane. EG was a team that was constantly on the cusp of being a top-tier team throughout the course of 2020 but were never able to solidify that claim into a constant reality. The end result was a middling placement in the Summer and a roster that was caught in a state of flux. Impact would bring some clear stability to the team in all senses of that word. However, it’s still going to be hard to pin down just how good this roster is or isn’t -- much of that will come down to whether or not the Jiizuke and Svenskeren duo (if they are indeed the starters) can find a way to gel. To me, it still feels like this team is in that tier of being almost great, and perhaps the new coaching staff can help them make that leap.
**DIGNITAS
- FakeGod / Dardoch / Soligo / ? / Aphromoo [All confirmed, no ADC]**
Stability? For Dardoch? In our LCS? What a time to be alive. DIG’s disappointing year led to a complete overhaul of their roster, and bringing in FakeGod and Soligo who’ve had brief stints in the LCS is their attempt to turn the ship around. This is one of the teams in the LCS going into 2021 that I am extremely happy for and excited to watch even if I don’t personally feel like they’re going to do particularly well. We’ve been asking for years for native NA talent to get more opportunities, and then as soon as they *do* get those chances we turn our noses up at them. This team so far has a nice balance of veteran leadership and young experience to hopefully bridge deficiencies -- I’m hoping DIG rides Soligo and FakeGod for at least the first half of the year to give them a proper chance to develop. All that’s left is to figure out who is going to play ADC for them, and let me just say that I am 2-0 as ADC in the preseason so far.
**FLY
- Licorice / Josedeodo / Palafox / Johnsun / Diamond [Confirmed]**
To me, FLY put together the coolest offseason even if this roster doesn’t end up panning out -- after finishing 2nd all year in the LCS and then showing up strong at Worlds, it was clear they’d put together a very impressive 2020, especially when you consider how much they’d struggled prior to this year. So to see the roster be completely gutted definitely felt bad, but they’ve managed to string together a really exciting and young roster that can anchor itself around a star player in Licorice. Palafox and Diamond also get much-anticipated LCS debuts after being in Academy for a while. They are joined by Johnsun, who was widely regarded as the brightest light on Dignitas this year, and Josedeodo, who made waves at Worlds as part of LATAM’s Rainbow7. Josedeodo has also previously been hyped as a solo queue talent, as he has placed highly in NA solo queue for a while now. Even though I am excited about this roster, I’d say there are still a lot of question marks as to how the young guys will perform when it comes to LCS-caliber players. For Palafox especially -- lining up against the likes of Perkz and Jensen is going to be a huge wake up call, and FLY is going to need him to be ready for it. And then, of course, the biggest question is what environmental campaign will FlyQuest launch next? Wildlife? Barrier reefs? My bet is a Covid-19 vaccine.
**GGS
- Niles / Iconic / Ablazeolive / Stixxay / Newbie [Confirmed]**
If you aren’t going to (or aren’t able to) go out to secure the biggest names on the market, then I think the second best option is to commit to unproven talent and hope that you uncover some gems. That’s the case with this GG lineup. After a strong 2020, the bulk of their team ended up moving on to 100, which meant an overhaul was in order. They’ve stocked up on a few Academy players and then brought in Newbie, who played in LATAM last year to join long-time LCS veteran Stixxay in the bot lane. Most people (me included) are going to project this to be the 10th place LCS team, but it’s not really based on what we’ve seen from them as it is what we haven’t seen from them. It’s hard for me to imagine that players who’ve been in Academy for a while now are just going to take the league by storm (my opinion is that the best talent makes the jump immediately to the LCS), but maybe LCS scouting has failed these players. Ablazeolive and Niles in particular have been two names that have been hyped for a while now, and now have a big opportunity to prove themselves in what should be a low expectation and thus low stakes environment.
**IMT
- Revenge / Xerxes / Insanity / Raes / Destiny [Confirmed]**
Immortals, Xerxes, Destiny, Revenge… this team is totally built around Persian mythology, no? Hopefully they don’t run into any Greek teams! IMT reworked their front office entirely and with it comes a lineup full of fresh faces, including an OCE bot lane (who are by Riot rules considered LCS residents now). Insanity showed some promise in the time he received last split -- especially on unconventional picks like Karthus -- so I’m glad he’s getting some more time to continue growing as a player. The big pickup for IMT, though, is definitely Xerxes -- he’s been plenty-hyped in the past and could be the latest EU jungler to inject some life into the LCS (following the likes of Svenskeren, Broxah, and Santorin). IMT clearly wants to put the disastrous 2020 Summer Split behind them, and this roster of fresh faces should do just that.
**TL
- Alphari / Santorin / Jensen / Tactical / CoreJJ [Confirmed]**
Here is a bold take: Tactical is the best player on this Liquid roster. It’s wrong (it’s still CoreJJ), but it isn’t completely farfetched to believe, and by the end of the year it might be true. Especially if he continues to improve at the rate he did this year, which is a totally wild thing to consider even six months ago. It’s a testament to what a young player *can* do given the right opportunity in the LCS. This is an interesting roster to me because they are clearly a contender to be the strongest team in the LCS this coming season, but I’m also not sure I buy into the idea that they are significantly stronger with Alphari and Santorin over Impact and Broxah respectively. It really goes to show how much two years or even one year can change our perception of players -- putting Santorin in the same conversation as Broxah (maybe even at the beginning of this year) would have gotten you laughed out of the room. And yet here we are -- Santorin has just replaced Broxah, and it is something almost universally lauded as an upgrade. Santorin was part of FLY’s 1-2 punch with PoE that served as the best mid/jungle duo all year long in the LCS, and if he’s able to replicate that success with Jensen, then Liquid will finally have control over the middle part of the map that they’ve desperately been in want of for the last couple of years. Alphari offers more flexibility in terms of playstyle in the top lane -- maybe it was just perception, but TL seemed to only succeed with Impact on tanks. If Alphari is able to throw top lane carries into the TL arsenal, then they could have carry options in all three lanes to go along with their new jungler.
**TSM
- Huni / Spica / PoE / [Lost] / SwordArt [All confirmed except Lost]**
Prepare yourself for SAO jokes all year because SwordArt, fresh off a Worlds Finals appearance, is making his way to NA. Him, Perkz, and CoreJJ are in a league of their own when it comes to international accolades, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the three of them separate themselves from the rest of the pack in NA. SwordArt brings a much-needed leadership voice to TSM after the retirements of both Bjergsen and Doublelift, and while I’m sad we won’t get to see him play with those two, it should be interesting to see how he is able to lead the newly formed roster. Spica is the only holdover from 2020 TSM so this is more-or-less a complete overhaul for the defending LCS Champions after their massively disappointing Worlds run. This roster has a lot of very different pieces beyond just SwordArt. Huni, having played on FNC and SKT before, is no stranger to criticism from an extremely passionate (to put it as nicely as possible) fanbase, which is good because the microscope will be zoomed in on him all year long. His days as a top-tier player are a thing of the past, but perhaps a fresh start with this much talent around him will shake things up. PowerOfEvil and Lost (expected to replace Doublelift) have huge shoes to fill, so it’s a good thing the lineup around them should help shoulder that pressure.
