Meet the New Lyon Gaming
Since the inception of the LATAM region, Lyon has been one of the most recognized and successful brands, dominating the scene. Until the 2015 Season, Lyon not only won every relevant tournament in their region, but they also represented Mexico internationally at WCG 2013, not dropping a game until knocked out by eventual winners CJ Entus Blaze.However, despite being considered the best in the region, they have repeatedly fallen short when it counted most - Lyon has yet to make the World Championship to represent the Latin American region. And this season, their rivals Kaos Latin Gamers has defeated them twice in the Latin America Cup finals. On their way to reclaim the crown of Latin America, Lyon Gaming is coming in strong with a new lineup full of familiar faces for the 2016 season.
Uri, Welcome Back
Uri is considered by many Latin Americans as the best midlaner in their region. Not only was he the midlaner for Lyon Gaming in their dominance of 2013 and 2014, he found similar success in his 2015 Season with Furious Gaming. Uri is known for playing control mages and having very farm heavy style. Not only he is an extremely mechanically skilled player, he is very good at adapting to metas and playing out teamfights, where he excels with his most known champions Ryze, Azir and Twisted Fate. Everybody is extremely excited to see how he performs back in Lyon Gaming.Jirall, The New Guy
The former top laner for Dash9 Gaming, Jirall is the new addition to the Lyon Gaming roster. He performed extremely well this split on Dash9, but the team only placed fourth in the last split. His popularity rose very quickly due to his high mechanical skill. He is a young and talented player hungry to improve. Mostly famous for his Ryze, Irelia and Rumble, he is looking to prove himself internationally with Lyon Gaming. However, is he ready to fill the shoes of former toplaner Porky?Thyak, The Leader
Thyak is the leading force behind Lyon Gaming's success. Not only he is the leader in and outside of the game, he is the guy that sets up his carry players to succeed. Thyak is an aggressive jungler that looks to make plays, most notably on Lee Sin and Evelynn.Seiya and Arce, Back in Black
Seiya and Arce played together in the 2014 roster of Lyon Gaming, where they were a very solid bot lane, but also very aggressive that would look to make bot lane trades often. Arce usually plays an engage and playmaking support like Alistar or Thresh, while Seiya is famous for his Ezreal and Vayne play. Seiya has always been on the top of the SoloQ ladder in North America and the Latin America North servers, which made him famous for his high mechanical skill. However in the past season Seiya was the midlaner for Lyon Gaming, so he might need some time to get used to playing ad carry again.Ascension
Lyon Gaming plays very aggressively, forcing skirmishes and teamfights, and drafting heavy mid-game-focussed compositions. However, like many teams from the LATAM region, Lyon suffers from weak objective control. They will sometimes start fights without an objective to contest for and lose skirmishes that didn't need to happen. In addition, they will split push very aggressively - when successful, they can cruise through towers or dominate any team fights the opponent tries to force. However, Lyon has seen this backfire when they overextend and are punished for poor positioning.Lyon Gaming opened day one of the HTC Ascension Invitational with high hopes. Lyon Gaming won 2-0 against DatZit Gaming Fire in their first match. DZGF held an early lead against Lyon in the first game, but Lyon was able to turn it around with more experienced lategame shotcalling. Seiya, Lyon's previous mid laner who had left and rejoined as the ADC, had an especially strong performance on Jinx. In the second game, Lyon was in control from the outset and closed out the game after a few failed Baron Nashor attempts by DZGF.
In their second series of the week, Lyon fell to the undefeated Frostbite. The first game featured Frostbite drafting Mordekaiser and complimenting it with poke from Nidalee and Varus. Despite putting up a valiant effort, Lyon was forced to give up their Nexus to Frostbite's death ball. Wolfe's signature Lux in the second game was the nail in the coffin for Lyon in the series, as the Lady of Luminosity racked up plenty of kills and tore apart Lyon's defenses.
Despite a lukewarm start, the Latin American squad is still considered one of the favourites of tournament. By the time December comes, LATAM fans may hope to see them clash in the finals.