League of Legends LCS: Grading the Moves from Free Agency Day 1

FlyQuest acquires IgNar

Normally there is a lot of speculation as to which LCS teams will make big splash import acquisitions. This time, FlyQuest got the ball rolling by signing Korean support Lee “Ignar” Dong-geun, recently of the LEC’s Schalke 04.

Grade: B+

IgNar was one of the best supports in Europe last year, no doubt about it. He was the best laning support in the LEC, averaging over a 200 gold advantage at 15 minutes and had a ridiculous 4.73 adjusted KDA, which was miles ahead of the second-best aKDA for supports (G2’s Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle at 2.83). Getting IgNar should be a massive boon for an LCS team.

I say should because unfortunately I don’t think IgNar will have the same amount of success in the LCS that he did in the LEC. There, he was paired with ADC Elias “Upset” Lipp where the two combined to form the best bot lane duo in Europe (yes, I’d put them ahead of the Perkz/Mikyz duo).

Now, he’ll be paired with Jason “WildTurtle” Tran whose 2019 season was…well bad is putting it generously. Turtle ranked dead last in laning statistics and adjusted damage per minute among ADCs. Maybe, with a better support, Turtule can regain his mojo of years past, but I think it’s also possible that IgNar will be hamstrung by playing with Turtle.

Golden Guardians acquire Goldenglue

Cloud9 parting with Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer as part of their offseason fire-sale/purge/housecleaning wasn’t incredibly surprising. What was surprising, though, were the reports that Goldenglue will become the starting mid laner when he was rumored to be swapping to support.

Grade: D-

If these rumors are true and Goldenglue is going to be replacing Henrik “Froggen” Hansen as the new mid laner for GGS, then he will have the unenviable task of trying to replace a top-three mid laner in the LCS. Goldenglue has been a guy who has always shown flashes of brilliance but also massive inconsistencies in his mid play.

Now, having him replace the focal point of Golden Guardians’s team from last year means he will not be able to get by just being a stable mid. He’ll need to carry the load for the team. Considering that the guy he’s replacing had no issues carrying with the resources he was given, I’m skeptical of this move, to say the least.