3 Comments
I think one of the most important things in this article is the mention of how pro teams drop players from their rosters and get replacements, because it is clear that one thing we can learn from SKT TI K is that having a substitute (aka Easyhoon) for the God of LoL (aka Faker) on your team and using him actively in pro play only makes an already god-like mid-lane an unstoppable god-like mid-lane.
Look at the recent decision to drop Doublelift from CLG. It's one thing if Doublelift decided to leave, but why wouldn't CLG foolow the winning formula and have two adcs and just play whichever one happens to be performing better? Instead, they drop him. Maybe their were some internal issues with the team, but we see pro-teams drop strong players all the time. TSM snaps Doublelift up in two hours after he was dropped by CLG? Why? Because Doublelift is a strong player. But then you look at the fact that TSM dropped Wild Turtle and you have to ask:
WTF
I get that Wild Turtle under performed during season and at Worlds, but unless Wild Turtle decided to leave TSM, why would TSM drop him when they can have two talented adcs and play the better performing one?
You look at the past and recall that TSM dropped Xpecial from their roster and it was emotionally wrenching. And yes, you can site all sorts of internal blah blah blah, but the reality is that Xpecial didn't want to leave TSM. TSM dropped Xpecial. It was a mistake because TSM could've kept Xpecial (a world class support player) and added another support player and played whichever one happened to be performing better at the time.
I mean you aren't going to see bad games from Faker or Easyhoon because one of them is going to be performing well on any given day and SKT TI will play the one that's having a good day.
During Season 5 we consistently saw players discarded by pro-LCS teams simply form another team blast through challenger and go on to be strong competitors in the LCS. And this season we've had another team (Renegades) formed from players with prior experience in the LCS blast through challenger to qualify for Season 6 LCS.
It's time to get the head out of the sand guys. If you have talent on your team, you should be keeping that talent. Unless a player is really causing strife in your team, then why are you dropping him? Keep two players for each position and let them compete with each other.
Yes, i'm not into the whole, lets trade players. Yes, regular sports do it, but they tend to have a huge roster. Not to mention, when big names tend to change team, it does hit the fans; any one remember Cleveland and the heats?
With that said, those teams also have a limited budget, you can not expect CLG to pay 6 people. They get paid 250,000 annually. Teams like SKT have a much larger revenue and stash to work with. Monte was the guy who was actually mad at the Korean organizations; as he said, Korean Organizations are letting their talents leave despite having more money to pay them. This also is true for regional teams. TSM makes a lot more revenue thanks to contracts, streaming, and lcs.
So to sum it up, i don't think there should be subs. Quite honestly, there should not be any subs. It's premative; subs should be there in case the real player can't play. In real sports it's because it's physical and other factors
There are some good points in the article. Point 1 is of particular note and starkly brings to front a problem with the NA LCS. Introducing agents (part of point 3) can hurt players, too. Some agents can be really horrid.