I'm not following NACS news that much but I was going through the standings for all regions and checked NACS to see C9C won.
iirc, that means they take a spot for next season's LCS... So does this mean we get Cloud 9 AND Cloud 9 Challenger on the LCS team roster for Season 7?
Could someone clear this up for me?
Linthe2 votesNo. There is no more auto-relegation. It means they have the #1 seed in the promotion tournament. And only need to win 1 (out of 2 chances) of a best of 5 series to get into the LCS.
I am more than confident they will get 1 of the 3 spots into the LCS. (With P1 and NRG probably getting back in but maybe TLA fighting over the other 2 spots and EchoFox being the odd man out.)
At that point, it will definitely get weird as C9 is not allowed to have 2 LCS slots so presumably the C9-C slot would be sold. But if I were a buyer, would I buy the slot "knowing" that Balls, Hai and Lemon (at least) would NOT be coming along. You are buying a spot with basically no team and then having to fill in with free agents of some kind. (I dunno about Altex and Contracx. They seem a little more likely to stick around.)
Maybe someone will do it, I dunno.
Or maybe the 3 long time C9ers would stay on but that seems doubtful to me. (And if they DONT stay on, can C9 the org just rinse and repeat.. keep using them to qualify for LCS then sell the "spot"?) It seems like a weird dynamic to me.
III BAKURYU III 1 votesCan't C9 Challenger team just change their name and everything will be fine?
"C9ers" I like that, but the c9 part might not be allowed idk.
I hope the C9 challenger team stays together instead of switching every player for like Santorin-Quas-etc etc or it will be another garbage team to only be relegated after another painful season watching these lower teams only to get beat by the same power houses of NA. Each year it's TSM-CLG-IMT-TL-C9 with just a random team to shoe in like Envy.
TurquoiseYoshi1 votesNo. One owner can't own two teams in across any of the five major regions. It's mostly to keep a monopoly out of LCS/pro LoL and to prevent match rigging and stacking teams.
C9C could stay together, but Lemon and Hai already retired once and are unlikely to go back into full LCS, and Balls will likely follow them. It's more likely that the LCS slot will be bought with maybe Altec and Contracx's contracts, and then whoever has bought it will try to buy out people like Froggen (I doubt he wants to play in CS, which is where Echo Fox is headed) or get someone from another team.
III BAKURYU III 1 votesDang so Hai and Lemon most likely won't play that sucks. Froggen and Altec oh no lord please no. Froggen doesn't do anything but farms and slowly loses by doing nothing while Altec does the same. Have not seen much from Altec but I remember him back in 13-15 and he is ADC Froggen Jr.
DREADN0UGHT1 votes[{quoted}](name=III BAKURYU III ,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=06h3aApA,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-08-01T19:58:28.922+0000)
Can't C9 Challenger team just change their name and everything will be fine?
"C9ers" I like that, but the c9 part might not be allowed idk.I hope the C9 challenger team stays together instead of switching every player for like Santorin-Quas-etc etc or it will be another garbage team to only be relegated after another painful season watching these lower teams only to get beat by the same power houses of NA. Each year it's TSM-CLG-IMT-TL-C9 with just a random team to shoe in like Envy.
As he mentioned above, rules state that C9 can't have 2 rosters at the same time, meaning they won't have a choice to sell the spot, and the chances that C9 lets Balls, Hai and Lemon go to another team is unlikely.
As for the power houses, The oldest ones are TSM, CLG and C9.
IMT is a brand new team, they started off this season, with obviously veteran players, but still considered a ''new'' team. Not to mention C9 got completely dumpstered into 7th place in Season 5 Summer split although they did manage to go through the whole gauntlet.
Overall, I think most teams that reach the LCS have a fair shot at top 5ish. Truly depends on skill and synergy.
Espy Psyche1 votesUltimately, I'm seeing something like this happen:
C9C gets into LCS. Now, C9 can't own two LCS teams, so they sell the slot. Probably, an already established e-sports organization that doesn't currently play LoL will buy them (ex. Northern Gaming or Luminosity)
Hai, Balls, and LemonNation won't stay, but Altec and Contractz will (ADC and Jungle). So they'll need 3 players.
If Echo Fox gets relegated (I suspect they will) Froggen might find his way to this new team. So that's ADC, Mid and Jungle. I'm assuming NRG and P1 are the other teams that stay up. If NRG falls, Quas will be on this new team as the top laner and Kiwikid will round it out on support.
Support is the USA's best role. In the LCS, there's exactly one American mid laner (Pobelter), but there's a LOT of American supports (Aphromoo, Bunny, Adrian, Hakuho, Big, and a whole lot more). I'm expecting this new team to find an American support (especially thanks to the new import rules), but probably import a Korean top laner that we've never heard of.
Resulting in a newly rebranded C9C that isn't owned by C9, with the following roster:
Top: Quas (if NRG falls), if not this spot will be occupied by a Korean import Jungle: Contractz Mid: Froggen ADC: Altec Support: Kiwikid (if NRG falls), if not this spot will be occupied by a debuting American
Shadowatom1 votesFrom my understanding, C9 wants to keep Contractz until he can play in the LCS (I have no idea if he can now or not), and then use him as their main jungler, and based on the impressions I've gotten from reading various articles on it, they really want to keep him around if they can.
DREADN0UGHT1 votesVery insightful, thank you.
Kal Vas Flam1 votesThe way teams are handled in the LCS is utterly ridiculous. It's like no one at Riot ever watched baseball, basketball, or football before and have no idea what real sports leagues handle teams. It's very hard for a new organization to get into the LCS without very deep pockets and likewise there's little incentive for even veteran teams to invest heavily in the sport because they could be eliminated at the end of any season and lose almost all their cashflow.
They've created a very volatile environment and need to restructure how the LCS is operated to create stability. Then they can start creating a real farm system, brands, etc. Most retired pro players could still be involved on teams in some capacity if they was any long-term security in place for teams to build beyond just a half a season at a time. This current system is one of the reasons some people still can't take LoL esports seriously.