2018 NA LCS Rosters thoughts?

woodvsmurph·Nov 24, 2017·1 votes·5,556 views

The NA LCS free agent deadline: all confirmations in one post. * r/leagueoflegends

Been looking for awhile to find out who is supposedly going where since so many new teams/names and players having to find a new organization. Just found this and it is nicely organized list: https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/7ejpks/the_na_lcs_free_agent_deadline_all_confirmations/

What's everyone's thoughts on this so far? I have a few I'll list below. TSM - complete roster which is nice. Definitely going to be some hype around the new additions to the team and probably a rivalry with whatever team Doublelift ends up on. Their bot lane probably isn't any better locally, but maybe hold up better at worlds? Their jungler - if the team can pull off synergy - should be an upgrade; however, this also depends on the meta I think.

C9 - complete roster. Only toplaner is new provided they start the same jungler as last season (don't see why they wouldn't). Not sure how he will stack up, but if he can at least match the best NA toplaners, there should be no problem seeing a similar team performance as last season and another world's appearance.

CLG - support mia? Maybe they sign aphro again, but I personally hope not. It's not that I dislike the guy, but he has had a rough season last year and honestly overhyped the year before that. Sure some amazing and flashy plays - at best performance, he's been a clear #1 support - but at worst, he's cost his team the game. And sure you can say that about any role - so why not let the support have the chance to be the game-changing carry sometimes? I'm with people on this... just not when he regularly (compared to everyone else of similar caliber) picks supports that are of poor synergy for the comp and assumes he can pull it off vs good opponents just because he's Aphromoo. Ex: 4 squishies and last pick janna support into enemy team with multiple hard engage and burst damage. Not ever going to end well unless you snowball super hard early and keep the tempo rolling non-stop. So finding a new support might just help clg.

Echo fox - well this is it... no froggen. Honestly again glad to see the guy go. Ever since he made his EU super team, he's looked less and less impactful. People don't just play exclusively around midlane anymore nor can you just stall and farm for 40 min, win 1 fight and end the game in most cases. But that's the type of play Froggen seems to want to do. Maybe they can finally adapt to the meta with a newer midlaner and be a more respectable team. Excited to see brandini back in toplane. The downside? Mash never seems to play with a team for a full year and the teams he joins never seem to be above mid-tier for an entire split. Then again, goldenglue proved people can kinda change.

Fly quest - incomplete roster. Team feels patched together. Don't see them being in upper half of league.

Liquid - complete roster. Impact has looked past his prime for awhile now. Even when top die was a fresh meme, he didn't look to be top tier at worlds. But if he can manage to be on-par with his opponents and the team can synergize, this team looks scary. Xmithie honestly makes Pobelter into a different player. If he can guide his team like he did with immortals last year (and maybe not lock himself into the meta at the cost of what makes the team's playstyle work like last year at worlds in some games), they just might be a scarier team than imt of last season. And no offense to Cody Sun (he's decent, but not top tier); Olleh finally has a top tier (meme's aside) adc to work with - one whose capable 2v2 and being left 1v2 while Olleh roams. Who starts though (top, jg, and mid) is a big question and will they continue to start if they have one bad game or will there be musical chairs? And will doublelift fit in on the team and have good synergy or will he try to go back to his splitpush roots? Those are the two big concerns I see.

Optic gaming - cobbled together team. POE is talented, but he never stays with an org for long. He's good, but not enough to solo carry vs other top tier teams. Bot lane I don't expect flashy plays or early snowballing, but they shouldn't give away any easy kills either; a tough lane to gank successfully. Probably a middle of the pack team.

100 thieves - looking for some big names bot lane to finish off an all-star cast. By star power alone, on paper you'd put this team in top 4 provided they get a decent bot lane. But didn't we say that about DIG last season and look how long it took them to get their act together. I'd say they are kind of a win-lane, win-game team so far. When they get a good lead - even against top teams, they will look amazing. When they don't, they will get meticulously deconstructed by opponents of similar individual skill but better team cohesion.

12 Comments

Miror BNov 25, 20172 votes

I'm somewhat worried about TSM, if only because the influx of new players could mean yet another year in which the blame for TSM's worlds struggles is shifted off of bjerg (people suggesting he's Tom Brady when in actuality he's Alex Smith to a tee).

Echo fox is slowly becoming my favorite team if only for the wrong reasons. Fenix has had a habit of being hyper-aggressive, DD's had a habit of being hyper-aggressive, if they manage to sign huni then he too is hyper-aggressive, and their botlane has shown willingness to play off-meta and hyper-aggressive picks. Combined, this is a team that'll either get caught out and have 20min losses, or destroy newly-forming rosters and win in 20mins. For someone like me, this team will be a must-watch every single week.

woodvsmurphNov 25, 20171 votes

Very true about echo fox if they get Huni. You can't punish 3 aggressive lanes at once as the enemy jungler. I'm not really a Huni fan; he was so overrated and we kinda got to see that this season some. But if echo fox plays like that, he will fit right in like you suggest and make for exciting games for sure.

Miror BNov 25, 20171 votes

Yeah, the thing about this is that Huni doesn't even have to be "good" per say as just draw pressure (that isn't to say he won't be, as we are looking at an LCS that could feature as many as three rookie toplaners). I liken this to 2016 C9, where jensen would attract tons of jungle attention/roams from top/bot, all the while drawing even while his other three now-less-occupied laners took massive leads off the number differentials. If their laners are able to do roughly the same thing and absorb that pressure, we could have the "potential" of seeing something akin to the 2015/16 rox tigers, only with far weaker players and less pressure due to this franchise coming off of rather hilarious 2017 splits, with every player on their team capable of heavily snowballing at any given moment.

ajhockeyNov 25, 20171 votes

Myself, I'm very worried about how CLG will get on without Aprho unless they get another solid support to fill the gap. Ignar is probably the only other support left who could maybe fill the gap decently. Reignover should be an upgrade over Omar, especially if he returns to form at all.

I think moving on from Froggen is the right move from FOX, building around him wasn't working.

I think OpTic has a reasonable chance to be decently successful. Could very well make the playoffs.

Licorice was bound to make the NALCS at some point. He could be a big time rookie for C9.

Clutch could be stacked, but it really depends on if their botlane is an upper half botlane again. Also, their mid and top lanes could change a lot. Froggen could fit well there, with Lira leading the way and Froggen playing more of an "alternate captain" role.

woodvsmurphNov 25, 20171 votes

Aphro and clg bot lane in general kinda held team back this last season and intermittently the split before that too. You are right they need a decent replacement, but that replacement can potentially make the team better or at least no worse off. Plus, with reignover AND huhi on the same team, early roams are going to be really scary for opponents to deal with. Just think of aurelion sol and rengar popping into your lane from nowhere at level 3. Yikes. I think that alone can help protect clg bot lane somewhat from ganks as long as it doesn't become predictable.

III BAKURYU III Nov 25, 20171 votes

I feel like the only team that feels like they lost in this free agency battle, trades etc is Cloud 9. They replaced Impact and Contractz for real question mark players such as Licorice and Wiggily and the only real decent pick-up is Selfie only for him to really have to fight to earn an already shortened split(18 games total) spot.
Other than that, each roster seems to have great depth in which the 18 games kinda wastes that if only Riot continued or combined Spring and Summer splits together we could have seen so many players/plays and interesting match-ups unfold. Sadly, most of these players won't really get a chance to play because of the short split. Oh, and don't give me that Challenger scene for such talent because I don't watch nor care much for that, it's like watching WNBA over NBA or something.

woodvsmurphNov 25, 20171 votes

Hey, I have no issues with you not caring for challenger scene. At best most seasons from the little I've seen, half the teams offer zero competition which makes for boring games. I guess I kinda missed that Contractz left c9 too the first time around - too focused on other teams; you're right that probably hurts them. As for Selfie, do you think he's actually as good as Jensen though? Or just use him in games vs weaker teams to give Jensen a rest and let him focus on premier matchups each week? I have heard good things about Licorice, but I don't know enough about him personally to say. Still, it's not like Impact has been carrying most games, so just going even vs other toplaners is probably adequate vs the better teams.

III BAKURYU III Nov 25, 20171 votes

I have no clue if Selfie is better or on the same level as Jensen because I haven't really seen him play since 2013 on the pro level in EU. If I had to compare Selfie to another player it would the style of PowerofEvil, both players have fairly long games and both players tend to play strange picks, methods, build paths every so often to get an advantage over their opponents.

"Or just use him in games vs weaker teams to give Jensen a rest and let him focus on premier matchups each week"?

That's the problem!
Which team is now considered "Weak" every team is stacked in some way or another, as well as having only 18 games if say C9 subs out Jensen for Sefie and they go 0-2 that could be a death sentence within the standings. Think of it like in NBA when teams are in the playoffs, the starters avg play 38-40 mins per game and the bench players(Selfie) don't really get a chance to play.
One of the reasons why C9 used both Impact and Ray last split was because they knew they had 36+ games to use both, but now with just 18 total period games most teams will just use their starters unless big deficits happen to certain teams or standings don't affect W/L or the standings. The only reason I see C9 using Selfie is near the end of the split if C9 have already let's say secured a playoff spot and can't get any higher or lower within their playoff spot.

" Still, it's not like Impact has been carrying most games, so just going even vs other toplaners is probably adequate vs the better teams".

The thing is Impact showed up when it really mattered most in games, he was kinda like Bengi when C9 used Ray(Blank) in some regards. He was also more of a tank only player on C9 since Ray's method of aggressive, aggressive, aggressive style was getting C9 L's as well as having 2 carries on the team already Jensen/Sneaky(kinda) having yet, another carry like player would have sunk the team in defense. Impact lost C9 games for going even as a top tank but Jensen had the best gold, kill and cs advantage pre 15 mins among not only mid players but within the LCS(NA and EU) and he couldn't do much after the lane phase, real Froggen like performance. So, if Impact lost C9 games than Jensen lost C9 their season in some regards within his own playstyle.

woodvsmurphNov 25, 20171 votes

Just want to clarify - I am not saying Impact lost c9 games. I'm saying he rarely to never took over games last season and solo carried. I'm not sure if you thought I was saying impact lost games by going even on tanks in toplane. If that's what you got out of what I said, then my bad because that's not what I meant.

And yeah - we'll have to see how teams perform this next season before knowing which on-paper-op teams are actually op and which are duds or late bloomers. I didn't realize the season was so much shorter than last year either. Thanks for putting numbers on it - that really is going to affect teams who have rocky starts or struggle to find an identity. Any team playing musical chairs (like a few did last year with jg, top, etc.) are going to be in a bad spot quickly; perhaps one too tough to recover from - like p1 in summer split 2 seasons ago.

III BAKURYU III Nov 25, 20172 votes

I knew what you meant. Nah, that was my fault, read between the lines I suppose.
This upcoming season should be really "sloppy" mainly because every team has so many new faces and the synergy just won't really be there in my opinion for most teams. Which to you is more of an advantage and I'm sure you will think of the pros/cons for both

A.) Teams that have 1-3 superstars but will need to build synergy or B.) Teams that only have 1 or so superstar but have been together longer ?

ChompyWulfNov 25, 20171 votes

Gonna take exception to one bit from original post. Olleh did not get a top tier adc to support. While you could either bash Cody for rookie mistakes or praise him for an overall good year, let's be fair and admit he held the lane fine solo when Olleh did his roaming and playmaking.

This was the year best set up for Doublelift to cement himself as a great. He has been famous for trash talk, playing aggressive and hyper carry champs. The meta was perfect for this at Worlds, with adcs and the Ardent meta, as well as probably the easiest group they would ever have to make quarterfinals. Dont forget he was also the shot caller. And he failed horribly for the third Worlds appearance in a row with little chance he'll ever see as ripe an opportunity ever again.

It's time to stop praising DLift as the greatest ADC when he simply isn't.

anonymous119Nov 26, 20171 votes

I think almost every roster patched some of the major holes they had with imported players.

Starting with TSM.. I guess it was my understanding that pretty much every TSM player has said many many times that they though sven was too nice. To me this means he wasn't giving enough push back to say what he wanted to do and was instead was just following the orders of the rest of the team.

I always thought the most impressive thing from mike was his after game interviews. The guy is a very calm, collected and articulated speaker. Most young players are either scared shitless to do anything or dardoch level of cockyness. He is by far the most untested element of the new TSM roster, but I have hope for him.

Doublelift and bjerg both commented that biofrost was completely silent in games and it was a huge problem for the team. I think mithy was a really good pick up for a more vocal support player.

I don't think sven is a straight upgrade over dlift, but sven has far less baggage with him. Dlift does amazing things and terrible things and you aren't always quite sure which to expect at any given time. I think sven is closer in line with sneaky and stixxay in that they're consistently good adcs even if they don't have as many wtf moments for good or bad.

I think TSM stays #1.

I give #2 to team liquid.

They took the core of imt in xmithie, pob and olleh then added doublelift and impact. I think this roster will be much better at playing around bot lane than tsm was. Bjerg and hauntzer took a lot of resources away from doublelift who is one of the best laners in NA. If you give doublelift a jungler like xmithie hovering around bot they will dominate lanes. Impact is an amazing top laner when left alone on an island. He plays the lane smart.

#3 is clg

It's essentially the same lineup but with reignover fixing the dumpster fire that was jungle. Aphro has re-signed yet and that would be a hit if he went elserwhere.

#4 c9

I don't know their top laner and so that's a huge question mark to me. However, they've been hinting at bringing rush back. Their core players with rush in the jungle is always a roster you can't under estimate.

I think 5-10 is a lot harder to say. Most of those rosters have weaknesses in my opinion.

I think optic could have done better than lemon for support. The guy really needs to transition to coaching.

Meteos has had commitment problems to lol in the past and I'm not sure 100 thieves will fix that. I also wonder what bot lane is left for them to take.

Clutch is mostly team NV with the addition of febiven. It felt like most games Lira was having to drag his team kicking and screaming into a good mid game. I'm not sure if that will change even with the new mid/top laner.

Golden Guardians just looks weak. I don't know why contractz left c9 for this.

Flyquest has the possibility of being a solid middle of the pack team. Both of FQ's solo laners last season were pretty meh and both got upgraded.

If echo fox gets huni that will be an interesting team. I think dardoch needs to stop getting more chances after he's burned so many bridges due to toxic behavior.