League of Legends Championship Series to Return
Daniel McElroy ® Sports Editor |
Professional League of Legends is almost back with the LCS Lock In, a three week kickoff tournament to start the new competitive year.
The 2021 season entails a new format, combining spring and summer split, into one year-long split, with a mid-season tournament, dubbed the LCS Mid-Season Showdown, to determine who will represent North America at the Mid-Season Invitational, as well as take home the first LCS Championship title.
The LCS spring split will now consist of a double round robin over 6 weeks, with 5 games being played per day, 3 days a week (Friday-Sunday). The summer split will turn into a triple round robin over 9 weeks. The teams with the best records throughout the entire season will be seeded accordingly, and compete for the second LCS Championship title.
The LCS Kick off tournament groups were drafted last week into two separate groups. Group A, which consists of TSM, Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, CLG, and Golden Guardians, and Group B, which consists of FlyQuest, Cloud9, Evil Geniuses, Dignitas, and Immortals. The groups were drafted by last year’s summer split finalists, TSM and FlyQuest.
The defending LCS champions, TSM, have a totally revamped roster, with two of their veterans, Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and Peng “Doublelift” Yilliang, retiring in the offseason. They also parted ways with their top laner Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik, and support Vincent “Biofrost” Wang, leaving jungler Mingyi “Spica” Lu the longest tenured TSM player.
The new roster will be Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon in the top lane, Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage in the mid lane, Lawrence “Lost” Sze Yuy Hui, at attack damage carry, and former world championship runner up Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh.
There are several different opinions about this roster going into this season, but longtime TSM fan and Maverick League of Legends member Luis Garcia says, “It’ll be interesting to see a dynasty be rebuilt with new players. I’m excited for this new generation of TSM.”
Another notable team to keep an eye out for is Team Liquid. TL signed one of the best, if not the best, top laners from Europe in Barney “Alphari” Morris. They also added veteran jungler Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen to their roster in what will be one of the strongest rosters to ever see the LCS stage.
The mid lane will stay the same with Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen, who signed a 3 year contract extension worth $4.2 million in the offseason. The bot lane will also stay as is with former rookie of the year Edward “Tactical” Ra, and former world champion Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in.
Minnesota State University, Mankato Varsity League of Legends assistant coach Ali Abulizz, has some very strong thoughts about this iteration of TL saying, “TL is stacked, if they don’t have any visa issues and started [scrimmaging] together, they will dominate.”
Ali also noted that “C9 is the most exciting team to watch because I’m curious how Luka “Perkz” Perkovich will do in NA and compete against a strong TL.
C9 signed Perkz in a potentially record breaking deal, rumored to be getting $2.7 million per year, with a $5 million buyout from G2 Esports. Another addition C9 made in their roster is promoting Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami, to the main roster from academy, where he won the Academy World Championship with Cloud9 Academy.
C9 is sticking with their jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang, and their bot lane, Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen, and Phillippe “Vulcan” Laflamme. This is an exciting Cloud9 roster and one that is looking to end next year much better than they did the last.
The LCS Kickoff Tournament begins on Friday, Jan. 15 at 5 p.m., on Twitch or lolesports.com.
Header photo: Robert Morris University Illinois freshmen, from left, Sondra Burrows, Brian Rodonis and Alex Chapman practice playing the video game “League of Legends” with their collegiate teammates at their on-campus training facility in Chicago. (Spencer Green/Associated Press)