League of Legends: How every LCS team can upgrade their roster
By Josh Tyler
2. TSM
Out: Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham
In: Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett/Robert “Blaber” Huang
I don’t want to place the blame of last weekend’s loss onto TSM’s jungler, because he did do an admirable job. However, it is quite clear from watching TSM last weekend and last split that jungle is a weaker point on their team. Last split, Akaadian was generally at or slightly below a replacement-level jungler.
There are, therefore, two junglers out there on the market who have shown that they have strong mechanics and decision making that TSM should look at.
The first is Cloud9’s young wunderkind Blaber, who showed incredible promise last year before being replaced by Svenskeren this year. He played in two games for C9 this year at the end of the season, winning both games and posting some impressive numbers. In Academy, he was a monster, posting the highest gold per minute among junglers and the nearly 5.0 KDA.
On the other hand, Dardoch got significant playing time for OpTic this year before eventually losing the starting job to Meteos. In six games, Dardoch posted a 50% win rate (far above Meteos’s 33.33%), a solid KDA and kill participation.
Of course, both of these roster swaps would have significant risk. Blaber showed a lot of potential last year but crumbled in the high-pressure situations. Dardoch, of course, has a well-documented problem of behavioral issues, so adding him to the mix could completely collapse the atmosphere of camaraderie that’s been built. However, given that both could easily be swapped to Academy for Akaadian, it might be a risk worth taking.