It’s that time again and the first NA LCS Split for Season 6 starts at League of Legends (LoL). We are introducing the teams to you!
On 16.01.2016 it’s finally here and the first matches of the NA LCS begin. This is the interesting league of LoL for many here. With only a few days to go before the start, the teams had to announce their official lineups now. With this information, we can take a closer look at the teams and cautiously assess how well they will perform in the Spring section of the NA LCS.
Team Solomid
Lineup:
Top: Hauntzer, Jungle: Svenskeren, Mid: Bjergsen, ADC: Doublelift, Support: YellOwStaR
Team Solomid has worked hard on their lineup last year. The former Top Laner “Dyrus” has retired from professional play and passed his place to Hauntzer. “Santorin” gave his position in the Jungle to Svenskeren and “Lustboy” also ended his role as a supporter and professional player, making way for Yellowstar, who left his old team fNatic for TSM.
As the second “star” on the bot lane for TSM plays now “Doublelift”. The transition of Doublelift from CLG to TSM was one of the most criticized transfers in the past year, as the two teams are actually arch-rivals in League of Legends. The only player who remained at TSM from last season is Bjergsen. The team now has a lot of talent, but so far they are strong only individually – it remains to be seen if they can also function as a team.
Cloud 9
Lineup:
Top: Balls, Jungle: Rush, Mid: Jensen, ADC: Sneaky, Support: Hai/BunnyFuFu
With the addition of Rush, C9 now has a talented jungler in their team who fits well with the other players in terms of play style. Although he had a relatively limited pool of jungle champions he mastered before, that might have changed during the long break.
Seeing the gifted shotcaller “Hai” in the support position is also something new. Since BunnyFuFu is the substitute player, it’s conceivable that Hai plays the support role at the beginning of the split to teach BunnyFuFu the shotcalling that is so important to Cloud 9.
Due to the changes in various items in the game and the fact that tanks are currently predominantly played on the top lane, this LoL season fits well with the champion pool of top laner Balls. Cloud 9 has also assembled a promising team.
NRG eSports
Lineup:
Top: Impact, Jungle: Moon, Mid: GBM, ADC: Altec, Support: KonKwon
This team’s lineup strongly resembles TSM as there are also strong individual LoL players here. With Impact, GBM, and Altec, there is a lot of potential for the team to perform well this season.
Especially GBM, who was considered one of the best mid-laners in Korea last season, will likely have a significant influence on the game outcomes. The question remains how the jungler Moon will perform. He is not very experienced and must now play directly with players who have already proven themselves.
Immortals
Lineup:
Top: Huni, Jungle: Reignover, Mid: Pobelter, ADC: Wildturte, Support: Adrian
When the team Immortals was announced, one of the biggest hype waves that a new team in LoL has ever triggered broke out on Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. Almost all players had previously ranked very high with their former teams, except for Adrian.
Huni and Reignover have already proven in the past that their synergy works more than “well”. Huni was considered the absolute best top laner of the EU-West teams last season. However, he does not have nerves of steel, which can lead him to easily squander his potential when things are not going well.
The question is whether Pobelter has worked on his champion pool and moves from passive mages like Orianna or Lulu to more aggressive champions. Wildturtle also did not particularly shine last season and faced many problems he had to work on. If everything goes well, the team Immortals could be easily placed in the top 3 rankings at the end of the season.
Counter Logic Gaming
Lineup:
Top: Darshan, Jungle: Xmithie, Mid: Huhi, ADC: Stixxay, Support: Aphromoo
Especially during the time between the last and the new season, there was a lot of drama surrounding Counter Logic Gaming. Additionally, CLG lost 2 of their star players with Doublelift and Pobelter.
Stixxay and Huhi did not show their best performance at IEM San Jose, which is why many are curious how they will now fit into the new team.
What CLG still has are Darshan (who was formerly known as ZionSpartan) and Aphromoo. These two players are still responsible for shotcalling at CLG. Should games go into the “late game”, this team enjoys strong advantages. One thing is for sure: once Darshan gets ahead, nothing can stop him.
Team Liquid
Lineup:
Top: (Lourlo) & ?, Jungle: IWillDominate & ?, Mid: Fenix & ?, ADC: Piglet & ?, Support: Smoothie & ?
As you can see, there are still many question marks on the lineup. This is because Team Liquid has announced they want to play this season with a 10-man roster. This is already very popular in Korea, where different players are played against certain teams with different playstyles.
However, this also has its disadvantages, as it takes much longer to establish team synergy. It is not easy to replace the former top laner Quas, who was one of the strongest players at Team Liquid.
With Fenix, IWillDominate, and Piglet, the team still has reliable strong players. Whether the new coach Locodoco can now solve the shotcalling problems that the team had last season remains to be seen.
Renegades
Lineup:
Top: RF Legendary, Jungle: Crumbzz, Mid: Alex Ich, ADC: Freeze, Support: Remilia
Similar to Team Immortals, there was also a lot of hype around the Renegades. The players Alex Ich, Freeze, and Crumbzz all have extensive experience in the LCS. With these players as a backbone, it should be relatively easy to build a strong team.
However, these expectations were not completely fulfilled in the qualification for the LCS. They barely managed to win against Coast and qualify.
The upgrade from Maplestreet to Freeze in the ADC role is very promising. A weak point in the team is the support role. Remilia’s strongest champions are Morgana and Thresh – which is why the team often has to secure one of these champions with the first pick and give up the “power” of the first pick for a supporter.
I suspect that the team will not perform poorly, but will ultimately be more in the midfield.
Echo Fox
Lineup:
Top: kfo, Jungle: Hard, Mid: Froggen/Kori, ADC: Keith, Support: Baby
I’m not exactly sure what to make of this team’s lineup. Clearly, Froggen is by far the best player here – he has proven this very often and for a very long time by playing in the LCS.
Keith has also shown that he plays at an LCS level as ADC, but he is ranked more towards the lower end. Hard & Baby are both good players at Challenger level (which is one level below the LCS). With kfo, it’s hard to know what will happen. He’s a rather unknown Korean ranked player who is good for surprises – but whether he can implement that in the LCS remains uncertain.
If the team wins games, you can almost be sure Froggen will be responsible for it.
Dignitas
Lineup:
Top: Smittyj, Jungle: Kirei, Mid: Shiphtur, ADC: Apollo, Support: Kiwikid
At Dignitas, there is actually a lack of a player in every role who poses a significant threat to opponents. Shiphtur is known for playing passively. Apollo also plays rather average, and Kiwikid had strong problems performing at an LCS level last season.
Together with the two relatively unknown imports from EU-West, this team looks very weak on paper. However, Kirei has shown at IEM in Cologne that he can play well. Whether that’s enough for the team remains to be seen.
Team Impulse
Lineup:
Top: Feng, Jungle: Procxin/BeiBei, Mid: Pirean, ADC: DontMashMe, Support: Gate
The problem with this team is that they couldn’t find a buyer for the slot in the LCS and now have to play with a sort of makeshift lineup. This includes 3 unknown players: Feng – ranked player from North America, Pirean – ranked player from Korea, and Proxcin, who only played a short time with a Japanese team.
DontMashMe and Gate are, more or less, the hope of the team. If I had to rank this team based on this information, it would probably be at the very bottom. However, surprises are always possible.
All in all, I am very curious about the new lineups and how the synergy of these teams in the NA LCS will work. Which team are you looking forward to the most? Have you gained a new favorite team for this season in LoL due to a specific player transfer?
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