IEM
Convince and Redeem
The Intel Extreme Masters circuit has arrived in North America to open the tenth season of this historic tournament. Memories of Team SoloMid hoisting the trophy at IEM Katowice, SKT T1 ramping through the World Championship, and Cloud 9 winning an IEM San Jose a year ago are still fresh, but it’s time for a new beginning. European, North American, Korean and Chinese representatives will clash for two spots at an IEM finals and a chance to bask in glory once again.
Some of the teams are at San Jose to redeem themselves from poor performances at the 2015 World Championships. For others, having narrowly missed Worlds, this gives them a chance on an international stage to convince the League of Legends community the changes they are making coming into 2016 will pan out. Played on 5.21 rather than 5.22, IEM San Jose is the addendum tournament of 2015. Who will be able to seize this opportunity and redeem their team name?
TSM
The Winners of Offseason
Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen (Jungle)
Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg (Mid)
Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng (ADC)
Raymond "kaSing" Tsang (Support)
Current IEM World Champions, TSM is coming into IEM San Jose with a lot of attention from the community. Not only is the SoloMid brand relishing in fans, money, and everything related to success, but now they have finally decided to make drastic changes to the roster.
Dyrus, the last standing member of Baylife TSM has retired. The savior of 2014 TSM, Lustboy, went back to Korea, standing down from his starting position, and Santorin seemingly came and went without much attention. To finish everything, WildTurtle, one of the most beloved players in community has left the team as well. Now, TSM have secured Hauntzer, whose carry-oriented playstyle is a big difference in the top lane. TSM has also pulled off the biggest heist in Western League of Legends history, taking TSM’s archrival Doublelift from CLG to fill the AD carry position. Not only does he sit head and shoulders above his predecessor, but he also boosts TSM’s popularity to the heights of 2013 Madlife.
Many expected TSM to seek Korean imports after the 24-3 World Championship run by our KeSPA overlords, but TSM instead have imported two European players. Support player kaSing, who seemingly revamped H2K after joining them in the middle of Spring Split, has to fill the shoes of Chauster and Aphromoo of holding Liftlift in the game. Svenskeren, previously of SK Gaming, marks the reunion of Bjergsen and Svenskeren in over a year.
An IEM performance should give at least lend some credence to the new roster. On paper, it is probably the closest thing to a Western “superteam” being formed. But, what if kaSing goes full Locodoco? Can Svenskeren find a way to insult the San Jose Sharks in the SAP Centre? What happens if Bjergsen tries to lead Doublelift in the game? Nonetheless, it’s certainly going to be exciting.
CLG
The North American Circus
Jake "Xmithie" Puchero (Jungle)
Choi "HuHi" Jae-hyun (Mid)
Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes (ADC)
Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black (Support)
Sometimes CLG succeeds, and sometimes CLG fails. What CLG never fails to do is to baffle people. Kicking the best North American jungle to please veterans of the squad? Well, whatever, at least we still have Doublelift. Locodoco can’t play Nunu and Sona? Welp, we still got top 6 at biggest tournament ever, off the back of Doubellift’s performance. HotshotGG is still starting and Chauster is jungling? Eh, won against bigfatlp, all is good. Losing to TSM at PAX Prime? It was just MonteCristo’s first season in team, we’ll become better! Nien left because fans dislike him? Seraph got overhyped and sucks? dexter lost his will to live? Link left after publishing the Donezo Manifesto? Aphromoo choking in clutch moments or games? Xmithie is still jungling for us? Look, we won NA LCS in Madison Square Garden, your faith has paid off! Our Worlds performance wasn’t fantastic, but it happens, the squad just needs some time to grow to its potential…
“Pobelter is kicked, Huhi was always better”
“Coach Chris is kicked”
“Doublelift left to TSM”
Wait, what? Oh right, baffling things. After finally succeeding domestically and winning the championship title for the first time in 1458 days, CLG went to the World Championship. Their performance, in arguably the easiest group of the tournament, was entirely underwhelming; getting annihilated by the eventual runner-ups from KOO Tigers, and handing NL a pentakill. But, when you thought that it couldn’t get worse for CLG after dropping to the Brazilian team, paiN Gaming, the offseason delivered big time. Pobelter and Chris Ehrenreich left the team, shortly followed by Doublelift, who was the face of CLG for four years. Instead, CLG is bringing in former Bigfile Miracle and Team Fusion midlaner, Huhi, and one of incredibly rare examples of North American talent, Stixxay, to fill the shoes of Doublelift as marksman.
But their troubles don’t end there: games aren’t being played on 5.22, so Stixxay won’t be able to showcase his superior crit RNG. ZionSpartan and Aphromoo had disappointing World Championship performances, and Xmithie will probably never reach the peek of his Season 3 form again. Huhi, while being communicative, friendly, and everything conducive to teambuilding, was never anything close to a top-tier midlaner in North America, let alone the world, and he’s going up against Bjergsen, Weiless, PoE, and Kuzan in this tournament.
Good luck, CLG.
JAGW
Flying Under the Radar
Park "Winged" Tae-jin (Jungle)
Lee "Kuzan" Seong-hyeok (Mid)
Na "Pilot" Woo-Hyung (ADC)
Choi "Chei" Sun-ho (Support)
On one hand, when Jin Air lost to KT Rolster in the final battle of the Korean gauntlet, it was pretty sad. Some said that it was a successful performance for the Green Wings, despite not making it to the World Championship. On the other hand, the Jin Air Green Wings were the team to receive the least attention from foreign team owners and importing, and the core of both rosters were left all but untouched, whilst the rest of Korea was gutted during the exodus. Can you really mark their 2015 performance as successful?
That’s the Jin Air Green Wings organisation in nutshell. Their Starcraft 2 roster has had some of the best players that game has ever seen. The champions like sOs and Maru hit some of the highest peaks, and then go into the deepest lows in span of a month. The core of team, Rogue, Cure, and Trap are capable of showing up big, but alas, they’re not sOs and Maru. The League of Legends roster went from being the 0-10 Falcons, and Korea’s laughing stock, to living and dying by Realfoxy. Sadly enough, Realfoxy himself isn't attending IEM San Jose.
But now, it’s all in the past. Jin Air didn’t make Worlds. GBM, after drastically improving this season, is confirmed to be joining the newest North American team, NRG, and the team dynamic is going to change with his absence.
SoHwan, one of Korea’s soloqueue prodigies, is becoming the starting top laner for JAGW. While he wasn’t very impressive in the KeSPA Cup, he surely brings a lot more to the table than TrAce does right now, with all respect to veteran. Hopefully, this carry power is what Jin Air has been searching for, and it’s better late than never.
Although not amounting to an official statement, Chaser did not play in the KeSPA Cup. Winged, while solid, is simply not as good as Chaser. If the latter has played at IEM, I predict he’d have handedly streamrolled through the opposing junglers. Niether Quan, Amazing, Xmithie, nor even Svenskeren come close to his raw talent and calculated play. But considering that it's likely that Chaser is leaving, Jin Air will have more questions than answers heading into IEM.
Kuzan is a solid midlaner who has probably very well suited to fill the void GBM left behind. He appears to be a stable, control mage player who has showcased a solid Lissandra, Lulu, Gangplank, and Veigar in the KeSPA Cup. But, he’ll be facing off against top regional dogs, like Bjergsen and Weiless, and will truly be put through his limits as the new kid on the block.
While CptJack is probably close to retiring right now, Pilot is still the guy to watch on Jin Air. He may never be Deft-tier (sorry, Fionn) but he’s proved himself to be a reliable, all-round player, and is still one of the main carry tools in Jin Air, at least until SoHwan gets used to competitive environment.
And then there is Chei. Chei is good. And hopefully this new Jin Air Green Wings roster will be good as well. Fly high, gladplane.
LGD
A Wounded Animal is the Scariest
Zhu "TBQ" Yong-Quan (Jungle)
Wei "GODV" Lian (Mid)
Gu "imp" Seung-bin (ADC)
Chen "Pyl" Bo (Support)
Choi "Acorn" Cheon-ju (Top)
2015 proved to be a volatile year for LGD, to say the least. From acquiring Acorn, imp, and Flame, to ramping up throughout the Spring split, but ultimately finishing second after losing 2-3 to EDG prior to MSI. Then, the story repeated itself, and LGD slowly rose through the ranks in Summer—while Pyl was adjusted to his fancy new chin. This time LGD were the kings, dumpstering everyone in LPL playoffs, and taking the gold medal domestically, before being touted as main favourites by many to claim the World Championship.
Alas, that was 5.14. LGD looked crushed and defeated in first 4 games of the World Championship on 5.18, with Acorn uncharacteristically feeding, Flame getting Ssumday horizon-ed, and Quan being even worse than his usual himself. Weiless was titled GoldV by audiences from around the world. In the end, even Pyl underperformed without Doubi cat.
Since then, LGD have only played at NESO with TBQ ADC, and needless to say it wasn’t good. If the rumours about imp’s possible retirement, due to wrists problems, aren’t only casual Chinese rumours, LGD might be in trouble. However, considering the widespread love for Pyl throughout China, finding a suitable replacement should be easy.
LGD’s Worlds roster of Acorn, GodV, and imp as their core, with a contender for best support in the world, Pyl, they still possess one of scariest rosters in history of the game. While some say that a lack of proper coaching is LGD’s Achilles’ heel, they still managed back-to-back LPL finals and were a top-3 team throughout whole year despite falling short at the World Championship.
And then there is LGD.Taobao.Quan, a player with more ADCs than junglers in his most played. Ruru, how in the world is Quan still on the roster? I know that xiaoxi is nothing special but surely there should be someone in green Chinese pastures to fill that gap? He’s not shotcalling like Woong was in peak Azubu Frost, he’s not changing the team like Mistake was in Taipei Assassins, he’s not owning an organisation like Reginald or HotshotGG, he can’t even stare into the camera like Snoopeh did. Why is Quan still in LGD?
But LGD should still be the overwhelming favourite to win it all. They were favourites even before Fnatic announced that they’re not going and now LGD will seek their revenge.
OG
Return to Power
Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider (Jungle)
Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage (Mid)
Jesper "Niels" Svenningsen (ADC)
Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez (Support)
After rapidly rising through the Challenger circuit and EU LCS itself, Origen qualified for Worlds where they stunned a lot of people by making it to the semifinals. Surpassing LGD Gaming in groups, beating KT Rolster and Flash Wolves, and being the first team to take out the inner and base turrets from SKT T1—but falling short of taking an inhibitor—was nothing short of a great performance by squad of European rejects.
Now, noone will ever underestimate Origen, especially with xPeke stepping back and PowerofEvil joining Origen from Unicorns of Love. Many still remember PowerofEvil’s rise last year. People ignored his dominance of the Challenger scene and Alex Ich, blaming underperformance of PoE's opponents. PoE was an instrumental part of UoL’s reverse sweep of Millenium. And then IEM San Jose happened.
Unicorns of Love got voted in, causing the community to explode. Not only were they going to enjoy the trip, but after beating the Latin American side from Lyon Gaming, UoL was pitted against Team SoloMid with their new roster. And PowerofEvil went wild, solokilling Bjergsen five or six times in the Bo3, shocking viewers around the world, and crushing any hopes of a North American victory. Since that day, his stock has only risen and if Origen is going to face TSM at any point in this tournament, it might mark another turning point in the midlane hierarchy.
While Niels turned almost every head with his play at the World Championship, mithy is still criminally underrated. A player who time after time makes his AD carries better than they have ever expected to be, now has even more resources to play with.
Another guy who is surely eager to win this tournament is sOAZ. Never in his career has sOAZ won an IEM gold, despite coming close three times and having 6 top-4 finishes at the Intel Extreme Masters tournaments.
Origen may no longer be underrated, but they are still full of fire and the ability to knock some frauds out of the tournament.
UOL
New Horns, No More Magic Pony
Berk "Gilius" Demir (Jungle)
Hampus "Fox" Myhre (Mid)
Pierre "Steeelback" Medjaldi (ADC)
Zdravets "Hylissang" Iliev Galabov (Support)
UoL’s end of 2014-middle of 2015 was like a fairytale. Qualifying for Promotion Tournament after beating on G2 and NiP, reverse sweeping Millenium with Poppy in third game to get into LCS, beating Lyon and TSM at IEM San Jose after being fanvoted and then getting second in the actual LCS season, only losing nail-biter to Fnatic - what could be better?
Alas, UoL couldn’t qualify for Worlds after going 0-9 in 3 consecutive bo5s to Fnatic, H2K and Origen. Star midlaner PowerofEvil is gone to Origen, madman Kikis is leading the charge in new Gamers2 squad, H0R0 is back to Korea and Vardags, although not Diamond V, is finally gone as well. Vizicsacsi and Hylissang are only members of UoL staying but there are three new players in the team. And all three eagerly want to prove themselves.
Jungler Gilius have played with the team before, and he’s probably one of the best pickups UoL could really make in the offseason due to not having a lot of resources to spend. Midlaner Fox, formerly watdefox wasn’t able to make a big splash in his first LCS year in SK Gaming. Solid in lane but atrocious in teamfights, Fox surely wants to avenge himself and become a staple. Last but not least, LCS champion Steeelback returns to European scene after stint in Martin Shkreli’s Imagine and he’s going to be one to carry this team. Known to be a supportive adc, mainly using Sivir, Corki and Graves, Steeelback will have to expand his champion pool drastically in heavily RNG-based marksmen Season 6, else Unicorns might just not have horns.
UoL isn’t coming to San Jose as contenders. However, we have already underestimated them not once, not twice and not even three times. If the pony still has magic, we might witness something truly hilarious. Or stupid. Or both at same time.