Mancloud Subs in for compLexity; Replaces Pr0lly

Riot·May 28, 2014·0 votes·1,484 views

Due to personal matters, Neil "Pr0lly" Hammad will not be playing for compLexity during the second week of the North American LCS. Replacing him will be LCS veteran Zachary "Mancloud" Allan Hoschar, the former mid laner for XDG, a team that disbanded after being knocked out of the LCS for the first time this split. Since the dissolution of the team, Mancloud has been playing for Curse Academy.

With the team off to a 1-3 start, it's difficult to say how the substitution will affect them. Last week, compLexity faced off against three of the top North American teams, and may have an easier time for Week 2 against the fifth place Counter Logic Gaming and eighth place Evil Geniuses. Given his long professional history, there is little doubt that he has enough individual talent to perform well, but the question of team synergy in such a short time frame always remains. CompLexity has stated that mancloud has lived with the team for a short time while both compLexity and XDG go through the moving process, and this proximity may prove extremely helpful in making the transition.

Riot Games League Operations Manager Nick Allen said about the substitution:

"Mancloud is a veteran of the LCS and will bring valuable experience to compLexity. This throws an interesting twist into this weekend's LCS, and should make for some exciting matches."

Make sure to catch compLexity's two matches this weekend on Saturday, May 31st at 1:00 p.m. PST and Sunday, June 1st at 2:00 p.m. PST to see if they can pull out of the seventh place slot or if they will fall further behind.

23 Comments

SsatanikoMay 29, 20142 votes

In considering places MANCLOUD could land I actually thought of COL, but figured A)COL are too close to just randomly replace a member B) joining a weak team like COL wouldn't be the best move for a great player like Mancloud. And yet here comes a circumstance where he gets to play w/ them a few games and it's a Win Win for both. Although, I'm still salty that C9 had such a huge letdown and lost to a vastly inferior team, this week I'll definitely be pulling for COL and Mancloud. Any team (particularly any number of mediocre EU teams) would be wise to take MC as their new mid.

AesulniMay 29, 20142 votes

Don't get me wrong I loved mancloud in the NA scene. He is a good player for that region, but to say he should be picked up by Euro teams is a bit of a stretch I think. Just think of what Bjerg did when he got here. He wasn't even in consideration for being the best mid laner in Europe and when he got here he just dominated people at the LCS level with arguably the least jungle help of any mid laner in the region (Oddone was their weak link, let's be honest). The European mid lane scene is miles in front of the US in individual play, which is what Mancloud was known for in the NA. Aside from that he requires too much jungle attention to be a viable choice for most European teams. European teams rely on their mid laner to be able to handle his own lane 1 v 1 for way longer than the NA teams do and that would be hard for Mancloud to do in such a talent rich environment. Froggen is a monster, XPeke (when up to his normal standard) is a beast, Kerp, Jesiz, Overpow; They all bring something special to the table. You might be able to argue he'd be better than NiQ, but Gambit wouldn't be able to understand him even as much as they do NiQ which is limited as it is. Selfie is a bit unproven, but I think he shows more mechanical skill than Mancloud even if his decision making needs some work. The decision making is easier to teach... In the end I just feel like Mancloud would be outplayed in the European environment. Though I doubt we'll ever get to see if that is true or not.

XornMay 30, 20142 votes

Have you even watched Worlds last year? Mancloud had so many 1v1 kills in the midlane. Against some of the best midlaners of their region.

AesulniMay 31, 20141 votes

Only 1-2 of those "1 v 1" kills came as his first or even second kill though. He had already gotten a kill or two and then beat an opponent who had no kills and was thus behind. I'm by no means saying that he is a bad player. I just don't think he can compete in the EU scene if you take junglers out of the equation as happens so often in EU. Especially in his current form...

You also want to compare him to some of the teams they played in the group stages which, let's be honest, weren't the best and some really had no business playing against the teams at worlds as I think can be seen from the winless teams.

crucialmastergMay 30, 20141 votes

Actually you're dead wrong about Bjerg. When asked who the best mid laner in EU was Froggen and xpeke had both said Bjerg was. Almost every mid laner in Europe considered him the best. You obviously didn't watch his games when he played in Europe lol.

AesulniMay 31, 20141 votes

No mid laner in Europe will call themselves the best. Bjerg had named XPeke as the best. Bjerg is a good 1 v 1 laner which is what the EU is famed for. When laning against people that could compete with him in lane though he performed poorly. So when he played against Froggen or Alex or XPeke he fell off late game while they carried because they didn't let him kill them 1 v 1. Most of the time anyway. There is always the exception. He was a specialty mid laner in Europe. He was the best at certain points and almost the worst, at an LCS level, at other points. As compared to the other big three at the time who played in such a way to not be the worst in any category while still being at the top of some of the others. At the same time he didn't have some of the talent around him that the other three had, so I guess some people will argue that you can only look at the laning phase.

crucialmastergMay 31, 20142 votes

You honestly have no clue what you're talking about lol. He didn't call himself the best? Nor did I say that? I'm saying that the other players called him that. He actually killed most of these guys 1v1. And when he was playing for NiP he won those games with Freeze carrying the team on their back. They had a subpar jungler and top laner that they replaced three-four times each during the spring an summer split. If you're trying to say that he isn't better than xpeke you are on crack. Xpeke has looked considerably weak for the last few splits and has been getting carried. His champion pools is easily the smallest in EU. The only two champions he can even play is nidalee and kassadin. If you're trying to trash Bjerg it isn't working though. You clearly didn't watch any of his games because he had 1v1'd your so called god mid laners of EU. Please learn your facts before you even start talking. I watched almost every single game that NiP had played with Bjerg and I think you've clearly mistaken him for somebody else. And yes just go downvote everybody who disagrees with you which is almost everybody else.

SsatanikoMay 30, 20142 votes

EUfans love deluding themselves into thinking Bjergsen so "dominates" NA and yet Bjergsen gets destroyed by C9 and is mostly distinguished as the most SELFISH Mid in NA (which I guess does make him distinctly European). Your idiotic EU fetish extends to canonizing Xpeke as a "beast", Froggen as a "monster" and strain credibility by hailing such utter mediocrity as Kerp and Jesiz. JESUS, get a grip. Trash teams like SK Gaming and Millennium would be vastly improved by having Mancloud as their Mid. Not only does he farm cs as well as any EU mid, but unlike EU mids he doesn't just passively farm for the first 30-minutes of a game still waiting for First Blood. Anyway, I'm trying to rationalize with a wildly biased moron who like most EU fans consoles himself with the stunning boredom of the EULCS by believing that it is still somehow superior (and in the meantime waits anxiously to watch every minute of NALCS). Stay in your little delusional EU bubble and continue believing how great you all are...as the rest of the world snickers and passes you by.

AesulniMay 31, 20141 votes

I'm actually from the US and EU is my least favorite scene to watch, but you can call me an EUfan I guess. Sorry that I do not conform to the "region bias" that so many of you other EU and NA people do.

Bjerg does dominate the NA as a SOLO mid laner. Unfortunately, there is a thing about the NA scene where junglers help mid more than any other region. You'll even see supports roam to mid more in the NA than any other region. What does that mean? That means mid isn't all about the solo lane. It is more often than not a 1 v 2 or 2 v 3. What does that mean?

It means that teams like C9 will be able to shut down a mid laner. Meteos is amazing in the jungle and with Hai's passive play style it makes Bjerg unable to take advantage of any lead he builds and often leads to him overaggressing a situation.

As for the EU mid scene, they are and have been for a long time the best in the world at growing mid laners in numbers. Yes you'll get the occasional Faker out of Korea or some fairly close counterparts in NA they are few and far between in comparison. EU Mid laners are better than Mancloud IN HIS CURRENT FORM. He is not that mid laner from worlds. Did you watch him at all last season? He was a joke in the NA scene. You can blame his team, but if he was at such a level that he deserved a spot over Kerp or Jesiz then he would be able to have more than 5 decent games in a 20 some odd game season.