2019 NALCS Predictions – Who Will Rise?

With Cloud9’s miracle run to the semifinals in the 2018 World Championship, a glimmer of hope has been placed in the NA LCS for the first time in years. While C9 lost their all-star mid laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen, North American teams have made key signings to strengthen the region as a whole. So how will these groundbreaking signings change the outcome of the upcoming Spring Split?

Let’s start with Team Liquid. As the best performing team in domestic competition in 2018, Liquid has only improved on their star-studded roster. Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong and Jake “Xmithie” Puchero are now joined by former world champion support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in and former Cloud9 superstar Jensen.

TL is a clear favorite to win the upcoming Spring 2019 split, and it shouldn’t take their roster long to gel due to personality matches and fluency in English.

100 Thieves also made some significant upgrades to their squad. Former world champion Bae “Bang” Jun-sik joins perennial all-star Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black to make a deadly bot lane. With the addition of Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun in favor of a struggling Yoo “Ryu” Sang-wook, along with the resigning of Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho, the Thieves will likely steal a top seed in playoffs and be a strong contender to appear at Worlds for a second straight year.

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Fan-favorite and historical organization TSM has also hinted at some roster moves, announcing the signing of solo-queue superstar Sergen “BrokenBlade” Celik and former Echo Fox support Andy “Smoothie” Ta. A likely improvement on last year’s squad that struggled to make playoffs, look for Team SoloMid to come back with a vengeance and challenge the top teams.

As for the region’s best performing team last year, Cloud9 has lost a large piece of their core in Nicolaj “Jensen”. It will be interesting to see how they manage without their star player, but with good coaching and recruiting, fans should expect the organization to remain strong.

While these powerhouses should round out the top of the table, there were notable additions to many other teams such as Golden Guardians picking up Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell from TSM and Clutch Gaming adding superstar Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon. There will be playoff spots up for grabs, and the 2019 NALCS season should have plenty of surprises in store.

What do you think? Will any of the teams who haven’t grabbed one of the big name signings have a chance to shock the favorites?