The spring split is just about to begin for North American League of Legends esports, and it’s bound to be a year of many surprises because of the large volume of internal changes to the teams.
During the preseason, there were roughly 120 roster changes.
There are 10 teams of 5 players in the LCS (League Championship Series). This statistic accounts for coaches, staff, and Academy teams (each team’s B-team, essentially) as well, but this astonishing amount of change will inevitably change the strength of each team. This has made it difficult to predict the strong points of each group, because player’s performances are bound to fluctuate in new environments.
Most teams decided to start anew and cast away some of their talent to cultivate strong newcomers on the scene. However, other teams, such as Team Liquid, have developed a roster of tried-and-true veterans that look like a strong contender for being the best North American team.
This past weekend was the LCS 2022 Lock In tournament, where all the teams congregate to play a small-scale tournament before the season starts.
Team Liquid came out ahead of Evil Geniuses 3-0 in the finals on Sunday. Many predicted Team Liquid to be a strong contender for being the best North American team based on its well-respected roster.
However, for various reasons, this tournament is not emblematic of how strong each team is. Team SoloMid, Cloud 9, and Golden Guardians all used their academy teams for this tournament, due to multiple issues pertaining to their visas and COVID-19 cases.
Despite these player issues, Team Liquid looked surprisingly strong. Liquid’s all-star cast features Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau (top), Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg (mid), Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen (jungler), Steven “Hans sama” Liv (bot, adc), and Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in (bot, support)
These players have a longstanding reputation being some of the best in the region, with most of them holding several tournament wins.
Taking a look at other teams’ rosters, it is immediately striking how many times I said “Who?,” partially from ignorance, and partially because of the variety of new faces in the league.
This emphasis on bringing in new players to the league allows teams to hire players on longer year contracts, and develop synergy within the team over time.
Because of so many new players in the LCS, from the perspective of the viewer, the games should feel very fresh. New players mean new characters will be played, and never before seen strategies will be implemented.
North America has suffered in comparison to other regions such Korea, China, and Europe for a decade. LCS teams aim to flip the script and become one of the strongest…just not this year.
