These are based on the Riot contract database for players who are already signed for 2020. Free Agency is based on any contracts ending in 2019 AND any announcements of free agency directly from players or teams. Please note that the players listed as free agents will only become free agents on November 16-20. It’s the wild, wild offseason, baby! Let's go!
Some Academy rule change news that could be important to the rosters. TL;DR: Academy teams can have a free 'emerging region import' meaning they can technically have two non-resident players on their team.
Regions that count as 'Emerging region: Brazil, Turkey, Latin America, Oceania, Commonwealth of Independent States
Promisq is a free agent, I suppose his reasoning was to spend a year on the bench training with the best EU team, and then look for something. He duos a lot with Patrik, but there are quite a few crappy supports in EU he could replace.
Without going too deep into it, it was a year where I didn’t find a lot of fulfilment with my job and the players had some contradicting philosophies whether there should be more effort put into solo queue or team practice. It also caused a lot of issues – there were issues of players not wanting to play with each other. They’re going to make changes that are necessary to build a healthy team atmosphere, at least one that I align with, so that’s why I decided to move on.
That means at least one more person will have to leave too. I'm kind of worried the gap between G2 and the second best team might get bigger than the gap between the second best team and the worst one. At least in spring.
Cuzz, Rascal, Naehyun leave DRX (Formerly KingZone). Note that they were already entering free agency this just confirms that they will not sign with DRX.
Today's rumours:
Zoom (JD Top Laner), Tarzan and Chovy (Griffin jg/mid) to sign with RNG.
Weird that RNG are getting rid of Karsa. Maybe Chovy and Tarzan are a package deal? Really pushing for a Worlds win in what is most likely to be Uzi's final pro year.
If you’re a gm for an na team and your entire team is locked in but mid, no import slots left. Would you go for Goldenglue or Demonte or other (must be resident and a free agent)(also ignoring price)
On November 18 2019 14:59 Slusher wrote: If you’re a gm for an na team and your entire team is locked in but mid, no import slots left. Would you go for Goldenglue or Demonte or other (must be resident and a free agent)(also ignoring price)
Cuzz, Rascal, Naehyun leave DRX (Formerly KingZone). Note that they were already entering free agency this just confirms that they will not sign with DRX.
Today's rumours:
Zoom (JD Top Laner), Tarzan and Chovy (Griffin jg/mid) to sign with RNG.
Not suprising that DRX is falling apart, hopefully they all get picked up by good teams, because the talent is there.
Idk how I feel about RNG rumours. Zoom probably does want to be on a better team, JDG has been on an upswing this year but they are still not a solid top team, without him they'll probably drop fairly hard. As for Tarzan/Chovy to RNG, sounds good on paper, but I've come to the conclusion that the team is always going to be held back by their focus on Uzi. If they get rid of that, even Xiaohu and Karsa are good enough.
Edit: So Deft has renewed his contract with DRX (thought he'd leave, contract ended today), along with CvMax this makes for an interesting starting lineup. Deft must've either been offered a load of money or the promise of a star supporting roster, probably both.
Whole bunch of players leaving teams today. What sticks out to me are PoE off CLG, Meteos off IMT, Maple off Suning, and all but the bot lane out of Gen.G
Rogue roster is pretty sweet, honestly I really respect the org, they went from a bottom tier trash team to a solid mid tier team that has chances of beating top teams. Think I'll follow them more this season.
New OG lineup (if confirmed: Alphari, Xerxe, Nukeduck, Upset, Destiny) is also a slight upgrade with strong potential. They could go from biting at Fnatic's heels to overtaking them.
wow Sneaky leaving is surprising, thouht he's going to retire in C9. I mean yes, hes not great anymore but his "brand value" or however you're supposed to call it is so huge it makes little sense to replace him with anyone other than Doublelift, or maybe somef emerging, superpromising star like young Caps or Rekkles.
Also it's kind of funny there are no Forgiven rumours despite him announcing free agency like three times already.
With all these EU rumours going on, I'm just noting that Splyce is probably going to be torn apart. Mostly good for the players, but sad to see the 3rd EU seed disappear.
Also ffs, Kobbe please don't go to TSM and disappear from the world stage. I'm already depressed that Broxah is going to TSM, he is a super likeable dude and probably just wasn't the right fit for the current Fnatic lineup.
Kinda crazy inflated price for the Vulcan + Johnsun package. Vulcan is a good and promising support and Johnsun has potential but his few showings in Academy were lackluster, is that really worth $1.5M? In contrast, how much is Faker paid annually?
This is pretty cool, he always seemed both good and very calm. xSmithie always did well so sad to see him go but it sounds like he might even retire so this makes sense.
If by retire you mean get paid you would be correct
Brain fart, I actually wrote that after reading the confirmation he was going to TL. Which also means he could probably make it to Worlds, although I don't think the TL roster is going to get much stronger than it already is, they need more serious competitors in NA.
NA academy money boggles my mind. I doubt Faker is getting paid more than three times that sum, and every esports fan knows who the dude is, if only because the casters shove it down our throats every year. With that kind of money, it's really no surprise that EU talent jumps ship when they get offers, you make more in a year than you get by winning Worlds and 3 years of salary in LEC.
On November 18 2019 14:59 Slusher wrote: If you’re a gm for an na team and your entire team is locked in but mid, no import slots left. Would you go for Goldenglue or Demonte or other (must be resident and a free agent)(also ignoring price)
Damonte or Insanity.
Goldenglue has had about a million chances to prove himself already and he hasn't impressed me. I dont care about looking strong in scrims if you still after years get the shakes on stage.
On November 20 2019 07:52 AzAlexZ wrote: so Kkoma left coaching role, ouch SKT
Are you sure that has been 100% confirmed? The news I got was that his contract expired, not that he has officially left already. T1's twitter also says that they are trying to negotiate with KkOma and other players to see if they can retain them.
If he really leaves, that would be a pretty big deal. I remember he gave an interview about how he would retire after he got 4 Worlds titles and at the time, it seemed like an easy feat for SKT to accomplish eventually. Hope he can find Worlds success again and accomplish his dream, even if it is with another team.
sucks that the skt lineup wont go for another year. a bad semi finals showing doesnt cloud the fact that this lineup was a serious worlds contender and could probably do it again next year
Are you sure that has been 100% confirmed? The news I got was that his contract expired, not that he has officially left already. T1's twitter also says that they are trying to negotiate with KkOma and other players to see if they can retain them.
That was how I understood it as well. If he was confirmed leaving it would be the number 1 post on the League subreddit. But T1 is likely going to see their entire roster fall apart, looks like Faker is going to have to make new friends again.
So cvmax is banned (lol, Riot hung the whistleblower out to dry, that's not going to end well), I feel super bad for Deft now, he just resigned when his entire team left. But the things being revealed about the GRF org are mindboggling, looks like jail time and not just a few esport bans.
yeah cvmax being banned is an outrage. riot korea really showing their incompetence, not just with this incident but also with how shit the finals were prepared.
Partial translation according to reddit: Riot just announced their final statement on Griffin situation. It is abhorring. Not only is Cho, but cVmax who revealed the corruption is also getting indefinitely suspended. This clearly is a revenge toward the whistleblower. Riot can be punished for this under the "Whistleblower Protection Bill" and can receive up to 3 years of jail time. If it wasn't for cVmax's courageous act, Kanavi's slavery contract would have gone unnoticed. cVmax is someone who should be protected and praised, not punished. If someone who reveals justice and truth are punished, who in our society will ever do so? Riot's decision to punish cVmax is an act that tramples justice in our society. They will receive judgment from the people and law.
Yeah, read those things too. This looks to be blowing up even further, can't see GRF as an org make it through. Whatever happens though, the real losers are the players who have to suffer through all of this. Idk just how true the abuse charges are against cvmax (I call bs, really does sound like an attempt to silence a whistleblower), but Deft and the GRF players that wanted to stay are getting sucked into this storm.
My tinfoil hat theory atm is that if Riot KR really did try to silence cvmax, then there's a fair chance of an even bigger scandal being revealed by a proper legal investigation (not the bs Riot likes to parade about). Every year we see plea posts on reddit about how corrupt the Asian scene is (Garena, OCE, LPL gambling affair, sketchy LCK orgs), but they've only ever gone for the small fish, probably because the real whales are sitting in Riot.
id believe the abuse charges against cvmax as much as i believe harry potter to be based on a true story. the only player that would legitimately testify for abuse is sword and his credibility is down in the shitters as far as the korean public is concerned
ummm what the fuck? that actually makes me mad as an skt fan that skt lost out to gen g for clid. like....wtf? did t1 get a massive budget cut by joining with comcast or someshit? how the fuck do you lose clid to a rival korean team when he was arguably the best player in the league last season? id have been mad about clid going to china but id at least tell myself skt couldnt compete with chinese money, but this is some next level bullshit.
It is the OCE player but the rest of that rumor doesn’t match what I’ve heard which is that ryoma was acquired to fill the new “emerging” import slot on the Academy team, this rumor also having Aphro as the 100T starter also feels unlikely but that part is more of a hunch
I mean whatever Jacob Wolf says is probably true but reading that portion of the article he’s leaving the door open for anything
I should mention that the article says ryoma MIGHT start depending on the rest of the offseason, nor does it mention Aphro. I just included Aphro as the support as I've seen nothing to the contrary
Clid was phenomenal on SKT and was a great fix to their jungling issue after Blank imploded.
Going to be hard to find anyone to fill those shoes. Dunno how SKT will recover after unless there's someone comparable they can grab. We'll see, I guess.
On November 21 2019 01:12 evilfatsh1t wrote: ummm what the fuck? that actually makes me mad as an skt fan that skt lost out to gen g for clid. like....wtf? did t1 get a massive budget cut by joining with comcast or someshit? how the fuck do you lose clid to a rival korean team when he was arguably the best player in the league last season? id have been mad about clid going to china but id at least tell myself skt couldnt compete with chinese money, but this is some next level bullshit.
Be me, where KT literally only has Aiming right now.
Xmithie is pretty much confirmed to IMT and considering the tone of the video, they are 99.99% trolling. They show a 7-letter word in the Wheel of Fortune segment so it is a clever way to hint at either Amazing or Dardoch who are the 2 most likely options rumored at this point, without giving away who it will be (if any of them).
I saw a rumor that TSM was close to getting Xmithie but IMT offered him 1m+ and TSM decided he wasn't worth it. Add Dardoch to the 7 letter junglers TSM is tied to in the rumor mills.
It doesn't look bad, I don't buy the hype as much as some people, but Route is following in Teddy's steps, played well on the shit team known as JAG and gets to prove his worth on a much better lineup.
I hope that Dardoch matured over the years and will not tilt/rage against his teammates the instant they have a performance issue. Otherwise, if you think the 2019 TSM jungler situation was a shitshow, wait until Dardoch goes nuclear.
In non major region news the Vega Squadron team that was at MSI is now together again under UoL. Last split UoL picked up the Top/JG/mid, and in the off season they picked up the old bot lane
I hope that Dardoch matured over the years and will not tilt/rage against his teammates the instant they have a performance issue. Otherwise, if you think the 2019 TSM jungler situation was a shitshow, wait until Dardoch goes nuclear.
Super interesting that the article says TL lost the big war for Xmithe, which explains why there was a time that the rumor was the TL.Broxah signing was off
On November 22 2019 10:39 chipmonklord17 wrote: In non major region news the Vega Squadron team that was at MSI is now together again under UoL. Last split UoL picked up the Top/JG/mid, and in the off season they picked up the old bot lane
I hope that Dardoch matured over the years and will not tilt/rage against his teammates the instant they have a performance issue. Otherwise, if you think the 2019 TSM jungler situation was a shitshow, wait until Dardoch goes nuclear.
Super interesting that the article says TL lost the big war for Xmithe, which explains why there was a time that the rumor was the TL.Broxah signing was off
Idk i think in 2018 Broxah was top 3 junglers in the World. He hard carried at that Worlds. I've never seen Xmithie hard carry at an International tournament. Played worse this year but in a clearly dysfunctional Fnatic (that was still good enough to come 2nd and push g2 twice lol). If he brings his play back up I think its an improvement.
It's sad that the best team in NA is going to have one NA player now lol.
I hope that Dardoch matured over the years and will not tilt/rage against his teammates the instant they have a performance issue. Otherwise, if you think the 2019 TSM jungler situation was a shitshow, wait until Dardoch goes nuclear.
Dardoch and Bjerg have duod in the past and Dardoch is a long time TSM fan. If he doesn't work on TSM he won't work anywhere.
On November 22 2019 10:39 chipmonklord17 wrote: In non major region news the Vega Squadron team that was at MSI is now together again under UoL. Last split UoL picked up the Top/JG/mid, and in the off season they picked up the old bot lane
I hope that Dardoch matured over the years and will not tilt/rage against his teammates the instant they have a performance issue. Otherwise, if you think the 2019 TSM jungler situation was a shitshow, wait until Dardoch goes nuclear.
Super interesting that the article says TL lost the big war for Xmithe, which explains why there was a time that the rumor was the TL.Broxah signing was off
Idk i think in 2018 Broxah was top 3 junglers in the World. He hard carried at that Worlds. I've never seen Xmithie hard carry at an International tournament. Played worse this year but in a clearly dysfunctional Fnatic (that was still good enough to come 2nd and push g2 twice lol). If he brings his play back up I think its an improvement.
It's sad that the best team in NA is going to have one NA player now lol.
That's precisely why I think its interesting that TL was trying to keep Xmithe at all
On November 22 2019 10:39 chipmonklord17 wrote: In non major region news the Vega Squadron team that was at MSI is now together again under UoL. Last split UoL picked up the Top/JG/mid, and in the off season they picked up the old bot lane
I hope that Dardoch matured over the years and will not tilt/rage against his teammates the instant they have a performance issue. Otherwise, if you think the 2019 TSM jungler situation was a shitshow, wait until Dardoch goes nuclear.
Super interesting that the article says TL lost the big war for Xmithe, which explains why there was a time that the rumor was the TL.Broxah signing was off
Idk i think in 2018 Broxah was top 3 junglers in the World. He hard carried at that Worlds. I've never seen Xmithie hard carry at an International tournament. Played worse this year but in a clearly dysfunctional Fnatic (that was still good enough to come 2nd and push g2 twice lol). If he brings his play back up I think its an improvement.
It's sad that the best team in NA is going to have one NA player now lol.
That's precisely why I think its interesting that TL was trying to keep Xmithe at all
They probably gave him up for the reason you stated. Some other NA team(s) tunnel visioned on Xmithie, meanwhile TL was willing to grab a top tier jungler. Don't forget lots of NA teams already have their import slots filled, unless they wanted a new jungler specifically it would've meant two new players.
Again, that article merely states that his contract has expired, not that he is leaving (literally states he may resign in the second line of the article). I'm expecting him to stay, because the only teams better than iG don't need a slightly better ADC. Everyone else just doesn't have the money to pick him up, but it's in his interest to apply leverage against iG by not writing himself down for a long contract, he's clearly a top ADC and doesn't look to be falling off.
On November 22 2019 10:39 chipmonklord17 wrote: In non major region news the Vega Squadron team that was at MSI is now together again under UoL. Last split UoL picked up the Top/JG/mid, and in the off season they picked up the old bot lane
I hope that Dardoch matured over the years and will not tilt/rage against his teammates the instant they have a performance issue. Otherwise, if you think the 2019 TSM jungler situation was a shitshow, wait until Dardoch goes nuclear.
Super interesting that the article says TL lost the big war for Xmithe, which explains why there was a time that the rumor was the TL.Broxah signing was off
Idk i think in 2018 Broxah was top 3 junglers in the World. He hard carried at that Worlds. I've never seen Xmithie hard carry at an International tournament. Played worse this year but in a clearly dysfunctional Fnatic (that was still good enough to come 2nd and push g2 twice lol). If he brings his play back up I think its an improvement.
It's sad that the best team in NA is going to have one NA player now lol.
That's precisely why I think its interesting that TL was trying to keep Xmithe at all
They probably gave him up for the reason you stated. Some other NA team(s) tunnel visioned on Xmithie, meanwhile TL was willing to grab a top tier jungler. Don't forget lots of NA teams already have their import slots filled, unless they wanted a new jungler specifically it would've meant two new players.
Yup TL basically paid for this opportunity by offering so much to Impact, knowing he would be "NA" soon.
On November 23 2019 10:55 LightningStrike wrote: brtt to TLA
You do realize, right.
Memes truly imitate reality.
On a serious note, I do like the new "emerging regions import" rule to academy in general, I don't like the potential it has of totally gutting the talent out of the already weaker leagues they come from.
I think the fans will be unhappy, but he players will see it as a chance to prove themselves. Imagine if a BR player made it into an LCS team, they'd be pretty famous, no?
I mean it basically has the potential to guarantee that there won't be any upsets on the major regions and there will always be 3 NA/EU/CN/LCK (obv one of them will be instantly seeded. CN is still it I believe). That leaves whatever the SEA/LMS region and Vietnam fighting for the last spot. Everyone else (BR/TR/OPL) is having their best talent drained.
Ultimately good for the individual player (and maybe NA Academy if you're looking at it purely from a talent perspective), but bad for the region that they came from and maybe even more damaging to an already damaged NA talent pool.
I mean I think they’re trying to save money this year? This isn’t what I would call a trying to win roster. I don’t know it’s weird because Golden Guardians openly said they were fielding a developmental roster their first season and this is a better team than that team but at the same time they’re playing Keith at support
Huh I had Eika as one of those players I feel sorry for because they work hard for years and waste their life while never quite making it. French connection at work, good for him. Super unimpressive IMT roster overall though. This does not help with reviving the IMT brand, it still appears very much like Optic.
Really wondering about Pobelter and Froggen now. The latter might go to Dig according to Travis.
Lots of people unhappy about that on reddit, which I can understand. Where is the new NA talent in LCS? Players are constantly being pushed up from Academy teams in LEC, why doesn't this happen in NA? I mean, I kind of know why (preferance of popular players over potential talent, safety of importing tried and tested veterans from other regions), but it's still kind of sad.
On November 24 2019 21:42 DarkCore wrote: Lots of people unhappy about that on reddit, which I can understand. Where is the new NA talent in LCS? Players are constantly being pushed up from Academy teams in LEC, why doesn't this happen in NA? I mean, I kind of know why (preferance of popular players over potential talent, safety of importing tried and tested veterans from other regions), but it's still kind of sad.
I doubt it is because of popularity though. They are doing unpopular moves, as you can see from the reddit reactions you cited. Eika is not exactly more popular than Damonte.
Simply comes down to less NA talent being available which is to be expected given the much lower player population and different gaming culture.
I think EU orgs would do the same if they could afford hiring players better or more marketable than their (admittedly better than NA's) local talent. Thankfully China and NA are much richer, so competing with those regions wasn't possible, which forced Europe to look for alternatives among "unproven" local players.
Having lots of national leagues probably helped too, I think it would much harder to find promising players if we had a more centralized system because imports would likely dominate in the "academy" league too.
I call bs on the less talent argument, just because the player pool is half of EU/KR doesn't mean that NA should be struggling to find even single digit numbers of new talent. And gaming culture doesn't really hold either, yeah it's tough to move from the East Coast to California, while the LEC revolves around Berlin with hot spots around Western Europe, and the ping can be quite high (50-100 vs 10-50 in EUW), but again I just don't buy that resulting in such a drought. Especially because NA pays so much more than EU, Academy salaries aren't often disclosed but unless NA is paying them minimum wage they should be able to find people.
It's not just a "less talent" argument, it's a "less talent + more money" argument. It makes no sense to invest in NA equivalent of Abbedage when you can afford to import Power of Evil, Nisqy or Crown. And you have just one NAbbedage, who might not be what your team needs while there are 3 Abbedages in Europe, so there's a higher chance one of them will be exactly what you need.
I didn't bring up gaming culture argument but If I were to do that I would start with claiming that there have to be some structural and/or cultural differences between NA, EUW and EUNE that result in the last one producing much more top tier talent than the first two.
Also, I'm just guessing here, but I think EU's competitive/semiprofessional player pool is more than twice as big as NA's, it's only the entire server(s) population that's twice as big.
Was actually replying to Redox with my comment, yours got posted while I was typing it. So I've only just read it now.
It's not just a "less talent" argument, it's a "less talent + more money" argument. It makes no sense to invest in NA equivalent of Abbedage when you can afford to import Power of Evil, Nisqy or Crown. And you have just one NAbbedage, who might not be what your team needs while there are 3 Abbedages in Europe, so there's a higher chance one of them will be exactly what you need.
But NA has failed miserably making the best out of these imports? People make fun of NA as a retirement home because they get paid big bucks but have very little to show. Outside of TL, a team of established veterans, everyone has imports that are only mid tier at best. There are def NA naturals who could replace them if given the training and chance. NA teams have enough money to put NA Abbedage on an academy roster, EU Abbedage on the main team, and probably a no name in the team house. Not investing into future assets because they don't rake in the cash/stability right now seems like bad business, especially because LCS is a franchise and thus team's don't have to worry about relegation anymore.
Also, I'm just guessing here, but I think EU's competitive/semiprofessional player pool is more than twice as big as NA's, it's only the entire server(s) population that's twice as big.
I think you're right, but that doesn't address why the semi-pro scene is so much bigger. Why are there no minor NA tournaments that get streamed on Twitch? There's always people casting German/Austrian/Spanish/Polish/French cups and leagues that get a few thousand viewers, why did these form in EU and not NA? Did Riot NA not put the same resources in as Riot EU, or did they focus too much only on major teams? Are NA sponsors only looking at the LCS, and completely ignoring local sponsorship? NA had such a headstart in terms of infrastructure, so much money was being invested in the early seasons, hence why people expected them to follow KR and become a powerhouse.
Almost expected him to land in another good team for a split or two. I wonder if it's just "retiring" or "retiring to work as a coach".
Why are there no minor NA tournaments that get streamed on Twitch? There's always people casting German/Austrian/Spanish/Polish/French cups and leagues that get a few thousand viewers, why did these form in EU and not NA?
I think it happened naturally because of language differences. Not only there are people who don't know English well enough to follow esports casted in that language, there's also that desire to follow "our guys" in esports that gets people to watch their local leagues, and language differences make that desire stronger. Just guessing here but I'm convinced Americans wouldn't feel the same about watching state or regional (e.g. East Coast) American tournaments as Europeans feel about watching their national leagues.
I'm happy about that, I like Mystic when he first joined WE, I only stopped following them last year because they sucked and the nostalgia of watching Weixiao wore off.
Big news out of LCK. Griffin's parent company announced that they've annulled all current contracts with their players. They've announced that Lehends, Chovy and Doran have all declined their new contracts. Everyone on Griffin is now FA.
He makes some points in there about playing for kda or hogging counter(last) pick that have some real resonance. I would hope na gms would be better than to look at kda and call it a day but I mean Santorin is employed so xD.
what i dont understand is kkoma is getting married real soon (or he literally just got married). its entirely possible that the newlywed couple was happy to move to china but more likely than not id expect that his wife had her own life in korea and would have preferred to stay in the country? seems very weird that he moved to china given his new personal life
On November 26 2019 22:22 evilfatsh1t wrote: what i dont understand is kkoma is getting married real soon (or he literally just got married). its entirely possible that the newlywed couple was happy to move to china but more likely than not id expect that his wife had her own life in korea and would have preferred to stay in the country? seems very weird that he moved to china given his new personal life
You could live away from your significant other for a year or two depending on your contract, make ludicrous amounts of China bucks. Then come home and spend the rest of your life working a little less hard
On November 26 2019 22:22 evilfatsh1t wrote: what i dont understand is kkoma is getting married real soon (or he literally just got married). its entirely possible that the newlywed couple was happy to move to china but more likely than not id expect that his wife had her own life in korea and would have preferred to stay in the country? seems very weird that he moved to china given his new personal life
You could live away from your significant other for a year or two depending on your contract, make ludicrous amounts of China bucks. Then come home and spend the rest of your life working a little less hard
i think just about every single korean woman i know would reject the idea of having to live away from her newlywed husband for a year or two. theyd rather postpone marriage until the "boyfriend" is back than get married and live separately immediately after
KkOma reportedly turned down a seven-figure, multiyear deal from T1 to sign with Vici.
I think the dude left because the T1 pressure was too big, he'd rather live in CN, make
China bucks
and explore new experiences with his wife. Sounds like family interest over maximum profits, especially because he's already set for life anyway. Honestly there were always rumours of his leaving everytime SKT didn't win Worlds, just imagine how tiring it must be to coach a top tier team who is almost always succesful, but you still get blamed for not winning every damn trophy.
That last one is particularly noteworthy because presumably MEGA was going to be one of the teams that would have been in whatever new SEA league that was happening between the LST and LMS
That last one is particularly noteworthy because presumably MEGA was going to be one of the teams that would have been in whatever new SEA league that was happening between the LST and LMS
Meanwhile several TCL teams haven't paid salaries in months lol. Guess Riot doesn't want to upset big soccer names.
That last one is particularly noteworthy because presumably MEGA was going to be one of the teams that would have been in whatever new SEA league that was happening between the LST and LMS
Meanwhile several TCL teams haven't paid salaries in months lol. Guess Riot doesn't want to upset big soccer names.
Yeah, I've read that too, pretty incredible that they can get away with it. Honestly there seems to be so much corruption in the League scene these days, guess a competitive scene run by a profit driven company, who has no real interest in sorting out abuse unless it affects the main company directly, is not a good idea. All the more reason to implement international rule making bodies into esports, although FIFA/Olympic Committee aren't much better...
It’s interesting to hear two powerhouse junglers leave their teams with a new team on the horizon. Especially when Xiye and SMLZ also left their teams, and Khan is rumored to be going to FPX. A Gimgoon,Karsa,Xiye,SMLZ, someone team would be terrifying
Ultimately a rhetorical question here, but what good is spending so much money to secure Huni if the other 4 players you've grabbed can't be carried by him?
Huni is enough to bring fans to your team regardless of how good the team and his teammates are. Shot in the dark, I believe he's in the top 5 most popular players in the league. This is important since the average viewer isn't a stalwart, usually watching since around S6. As a team that's been out of the scene so long, growing a fanbase is important and you do that 2 ways 1) winning and 2) bringing player fandoms under your team banner.
Couldn't they have done that by holding on to their former Clutch Gaming players? Even though they gained a following for making Worlds through their gauntlet run, they decided to rebuild around Huni and potentially cheapening out on the rest of the new roster. Seems like this move upset a bunch of CG fans and putting Johnsun, an untested ADC directly into the main roster will not give them high chance of placing high but I guess Huni usually finds a way to carry his team to playoffs at least.
I completely agree. I feel like the blowback from fucking Damonte plus the potential blowback from being Huni + 4 literal whos getting stomped on every week would harm them significantly more than the positive's of spending 1/3 of your budget on 1/5 of your team.
I feel like Clutch 2019 was slowly becoming an LCS darling and Dig just decided to fuck it up...for Huni? I guess the devil's advocate is that EG or IMT would have scooped him up? Even then there's plenty of top laners they could grab that are serviceable..
JackeyLove joins Suning, that's a big hole iG has to fill. Also shocked that someone was able to pay for him, apparently the signing alone was 5.7 million bucks.
On November 28 2019 16:02 DarkCore wrote: JackeyLove joins Suning, that's a big hole iG has to fill. Also shocked that someone was able to pay for him, apparently the signing alone was 5.7 million bucks.
Damn, JL was the true rock of iG last year. Either some big internal issues (there's always been stuff around Baolan floating) or the money issues of Wang Sicong are affecting the team. 5.7 mil pretty much pays for the rest of the team's salaries for the year.
On November 28 2019 16:02 DarkCore wrote: JackeyLove joins Suning, that's a big hole iG has to fill. Also shocked that someone was able to pay for him, apparently the signing alone was 5.7 million bucks.
Damn, JL was the true rock of iG last year. Either some big internal issues (there's always been stuff around Baolan floating) or the money issues of Wang Sicong are affecting the team. 5.7 mil pretty much pays for the rest of the team's salaries for the year.
Apparently the signing was even higher (7 million), I wonder what his salary is. It's sad because in the end, iG actually performed fairly well this year, making it into the final 4 of worlds. Also, apparently JL wanted Baolan to be his support, so if iG decided he had to go, then JL might not have had any attachments to the team (not sure what his relationship was with the other members).
On December 01 2019 09:22 chipmonklord17 wrote: MEGA, after getting their competitive ruling a few days ago, claim Riot hasn't paid them their MSI money.
And Riot seems to have stayed quiet about it, so it's probably true. Everything screams unprofessional from both sides.
Wtf, why is EG importing Jizuke instead of signing Damonte or Pobelter? Or Froggen if he's still available. I don't get it, maybe Jizuke was much cheaper than the other options?
I thought the more interesting part of that article is Chovy and Khan rejecting multi million dollar contracts to avoid NA. (Although for khan it might be an outbid)
This was a really disappointing year for me, every team has at least one roster move that I dislike. I think the only team I’m really looking forward to is 100T and even the I have a level of uncertainty in Ryoma
Once Khan fell through and they were set on starting Kumo it makes sense to grab Jizuke because he's as good or better than both of them. I think its pretty fair to say that Khan + Damonte/Pob (which is what EG was trying for initially) would have probably been better than Kumo + Jizuke, but you play with the cards you're dealt. EGs line up is pretty sick.
So the article says that Dig traded Vulcan to C9 for $1.5M + Johnsun, which means that Vulcan was valued to even more than the $1.5M which is even more mind boggling to me.
On December 04 2019 06:51 Sent. wrote: Wtf, why is EG importing Jizuke instead of signing Damonte or Pobelter? Or Froggen if he's still available. I don't get it, maybe Jizuke was much cheaper than the other options?
yeah I just hate the pick up Jizuke, after failing to get Chovy they should have either tried for maybe Ucal or just pick up Pobelter or Damonte
So the article says that Dig traded Vulcan to C9 for $1.5M + Johnsun, which means that Vulcan was valued to even more than the $1.5M which is even more mind boggling to me.
Buyouts are going to be pretty fucking steep, because there's no guarantee the money a team gets will make up for losing a signed player of note.
Coming off of last year, Vulcan is a pretty hyped, native NA player. Every team that isn't sitting on a ton of aged imports like TL should be looking to lock up players like that.
chovy and doran are confirmed for drx. drx is seeming like a pretty decent team, though i dunno who their jg is yet. keria is apparently gonna be their support and hes legit in solo q also
On December 04 2019 19:47 evilfatsh1t wrote: chovy and doran are confirmed for drx. drx is seeming like a pretty decent team, though i dunno who their jg is yet. keria is apparently gonna be their support and hes legit in solo q also
Pretty decent is putting it mildly, they look like a potential super team. Hoping to see Deft at World's this year, he is just too good to not be there.
yeah i said decent because i literally have no idea who the jg is because i dont know his soloq id and because doran and keria are inexperienced. they could be a monster team though if everyone turns up. also they have cvmax as their coach so they could easily be the team that straight up replaces griffin
So the article says that Dig traded Vulcan to C9 for $1.5M + Johnsun, which means that Vulcan was valued to even more than the $1.5M which is even more mind boggling to me.
Buyouts are going to be pretty fucking steep, because there's no guarantee the money a team gets will make up for losing a signed player of note.
Coming off of last year, Vulcan is a pretty hyped, native NA player. Every team that isn't sitting on a ton of aged imports like TL should be looking to lock up players like that.
I agree that Vulcan looks like a very good native support prospect but is he worth all that money is my question. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the $1.5M transfer payment only to seal his trade to C9 and goes solely to DIG, which would mean that C9 has to pay Vulcan's salary on top of all that? And wouldn't that salary + transfer fee amount to more than Huni's $2.3M salary over 2 years that everyone's been freaking out about?
So the article says that Dig traded Vulcan to C9 for $1.5M + Johnsun, which means that Vulcan was valued to even more than the $1.5M which is even more mind boggling to me.
Buyouts are going to be pretty fucking steep, because there's no guarantee the money a team gets will make up for losing a signed player of note.
Coming off of last year, Vulcan is a pretty hyped, native NA player. Every team that isn't sitting on a ton of aged imports like TL should be looking to lock up players like that.
I agree that Vulcan looks like a very good native support prospect but is he worth all that money is my question. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the $1.5M transfer payment only to seal his trade to C9 and goes solely to DIG, which would mean that C9 has to pay Vulcan's salary on top of all that? And wouldn't that salary + transfer fee amount to more than Huni's $2.3M salary over 2 years that everyone's been freaking out about?
Half of that is definitely true. C9 obviously had to pay the buy out AND Vulcan's salary, but without seeing Vulcan's contract we don't know for sure if the money went 100% to DIG. There could in theory be some kind of bonus or cut that goes to the player. Also Vulcan's salary could be less than 800k, making Salary + Transfer not greater than $2.3M
In hindsight, it seems so obvious that if Deft gets a solid team, then Tusin has to suffer. Imagine going from Deft to Aiming, feels bad man. At least he has Kuro, but I expect Malrang to fail (already low) expectations again.
Mix of both, in that he's a soloq hero and there's other players they probably couldn't afford. He's super green competitively.
He joined TSM Junior last year, which is basically a practice squad for extra Academy players/players that are too young to actually compete yet. Subbed in for 4 academy games where the team went 1-3. I'd be shocked if he looked LCS ready until mid Summer.
LS says his team is going to play in Challengers Korea qualifiers instead of TCS, but two of the 5 players are contracted to teams, so I'm confused. What happens if they qualify?
On December 10 2019 06:14 Gahlo wrote: Mix of both, in that he's a soloq hero and there's other players they probably couldn't afford. He's super green competitively.
He joined TSM Junior last year, which is basically a practice squad for extra Academy players/players that are too young to actually compete yet. Subbed in for 4 academy games where the team went 1-3. I'd be shocked if he looked LCS ready until mid Summer.
Yeah, DIG's bot lane has big question marks. Will Johnsun perform on the LCS stage even though his LCS Academy debut was lackluster? Will Aphromoo return to form and prove that his 2019 season performance was just a one-off terrible year?
Speaking of which, DIG announced Fenix is their Academy ADC: + Show Spoiler +
Not sure how that will pan out since we haven't seen him play in the bot lane, maybe they are hoping for a new PerkZ? Obviously that seems unlikely and to me it's a big gamble, especially since you probably want a reliable ADC sub in case Johnsun isn't ready for the main stage.
Doran banned for his first game this season for trolling a soloQ game. Game in question is over a month old, pretty random considering that other players got a pass for worse at Worlds.
I hope Forg1ven brings some drama to EU again, it's fun to follow.
the doran ban is riot korea blatantly wanting to inflict damage on his career just because hes the root of the whole scandal with sword. nuguri went 0-15-2 or something and still got carried by 4 drx members and we dont hear anything about that from riot korea
FW disbanding is not surprising seeing how Riot seems to be dropping support for minor regions in Asia.
G2 with the big brain drafting, I think they just want to scare teams with the possibility of an ADC in the mid lane, or having to adjust to two G2 styles based on who's mid and ADC.
On December 14 2019 17:25 DarkCore wrote: FW disbanding is not surprising seeing how Riot seems to be dropping support for minor regions in Asia.
G2 with the big brain drafting, I think they just want to scare teams with the possibility of an ADC in the mid lane, or having to adjust to two G2 styles based on who's mid and ADC.
I think it is just Perkz and Caps doing what they feel like and finding some whatever justifications for it.
I think it's more, last year it really felt like G2 strongly believes in running ambigous drafts where the opponent doesn't know which lane a champ is going (such as Pyke top/mid/support). Other teams, like iG with Jayce, also seemed to value flex picks as a valid drafting strategy, since it doesn't require much thinking for your team but puts the enemy into a precarious spot where a counter draft suddenly isn't laning against what they expected. Same story with Qiyana and Akali, flex picks have been around for years but last season some teams prioritized it.
I think losing Flash Wolves and MEGA is a huge blow to the new LMS+SEA combined league before it even begins. Also yea I think its more Perkz and Caps fucking around because EU is too easy for them
Ah yeah, Mata coaching RNG, I'm happy with that, he complements Ming nicely, both had strong laning phases but Mata was best known for vision control and shotcalling, so hopefully he can iron out the Uzi-focused macro RNG always seems to slip into when struggling.
Khan to FPX isn't that big of an upgrade imo, Gimgoon was already solid and could keep up with the likes of Zoom/TheShy. Weird to see two strong top laners rotating or even having one warm the bench.
Really curious how the LPL rosters will look like this season, I think the deadline is today? I think Vici is minted (what CN isn't lol), so iBoy and Kkoma shouldn't give up hope right now, the known lineup looks like more of a rookie team with high potential.
Current big FA players to look out for: - Flandre - Jackey - Zoom - Rookie (If iG lose him or TheShy the roster is done for, but unlikely I think) - TheShy - Knight
Doubt most will leave their org, but there is always a chance.
Think you're right, but you never know, someone with super deep pockets could buy them out. LPL releases full rosters at the last possible moment, so speculating is fun.
Buyouts depend on the player contract: some players are able to negotiate a value which is defined in their contract that allows them leave the org. To a certain extent, its done to prevent a godlike player from being held hostage on a team against their will. Average pros don't have that negotiation power, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rookie and TheShy have clauses in their latest contracts which pay out handsomely if they fulfill the contract period, but have a procedure for leaving prematurely.
On December 18 2019 08:46 DarkCore wrote: Buyouts depend on the player contract: some players are able to negotiate a value which is defined in their contract that allows them leave the org. To a certain extent, its done to prevent a godlike player from being held hostage on a team against their will. Average pros don't have that negotiation power, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rookie and TheShy have clauses in their latest contracts which pay out handsomely if they fulfill the contract period, but have a procedure for leaving prematurely.
You still can't negotiate with a player on another team without the team's consent. An unhappy player that wants out is always going to get the option to talk since nobody wants to pay an unhappy player to play like shit in a 5 man team.
In other news, a bunch of teams are having visa issues by the looks of it. Dig already dropped their academy top and now TL have issues with visas for Cain, Broxah, Shernfire. They're unsure if they'll have them sorted by the start of the season but either way it has already affected their practice.
So many visa issues? Did the law change or something? Is the immigration office lagging behind(a year ago a few people I knew complained that they couldn't leave the US for holidays because their student visas hadn't been processed for months)?
I believe its not that the laws have changed, but they've been simply applied more strictly.
Before teams were putting ads in LA newspapers and I think that was enough to show that there "were no US citizens who could fulfil the position". Sounds like that's not enough anymore.
It would be funny if it was the Reddit na mid narrative influencing the government. I mean imagine oversight of this is your job and you know nothing about esports, but all the top google results are this narrative about teams not giving players a chance.
I don’t know anything about this story to be clear but I find this thought amusing.
Just show the US government footage of Scouting Grounds or TCS and they will change their mind really quickly lol. But seriously, watching these 2 events made me depressed at the future of native NA players especially compared to all other major regions :/
In other news, Faker himself confirmed that an LPL team offered him $10M/year and a NA team gave him a blank check so now we have a good idea of how much Faker is valuated at.
EPT![[image loading]](/staff/AdsMoFro/2020_OffSeason_Roster_Shuffl.jpg)
