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

Team Liquid acquires Broxah

In their quest to upgrade a roster that was thoroughly disappointing at Worlds, Liquid used their newly available import slot to sign former Fnatic jungler Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen.

Grade: C+

Broxah is probably a slight upgrade to the man he is replacing, Xmithie. The operative words there are “probably” and “slight.”

Broxah was far behind Xmithie in stats such as adjusted KDA (2.51 vs. 3.89), adjusted Kill Participation (93.7% vs. 100.9%), and vision score per minute (1.44 VSPM vs. 1.69 VSPM). While he beats out the Liquid jungler in early game stats, damage, and income numbers, Broxah wasn’t exactly stomping people in the LEC last year. I had him the fifth-best jungler in Europe last summer, behind junglers like Inspired and Xerxe.

In short, TL is taking a risk very similar to what TSM did a few years ago. They’re jettisoning a proven commodity in the hopes that a stylistic change will push them over the top with no guarantee that they’re getting a skill upgrade. I don’t think it will go as disastrously for them as it did for TSM, but the lost synergy could cause TL to stumble next year.

TSM acquires Kobbe

With TSM looking to completely blow up their bot laner, they will be importing former Splyce AD Carry Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup to pair with Biofrost.

Grade: B

I’ve long been of the mind that Kobbe was one of the most underrated AD Carries in the world. Last year, he carried the load for a Splyce team that put a lot of resources into him (resulting in a 368.4 adjusted GPM that was over 20 gold per minute higher than that of Fnatic’s Rekkles). On a team with shaky solo laners, Kobbe was able to propel his team to the quarterfinals at Worlds.

The only reason that this isn’t a slam-dunk for TSM is that the man he’s replacing was a very strong ADC. I was very vocal that I thought TSM would be better off hanging onto Zven for next year. Especially with the prospect of pairing him with Biofrost, I think that could be one of the strongest duos in the LCS. That said, unlike TL with Xmithie, at least TSM is making this likely sidegrade at a point where their team is struggling.