League of Legends LCS: Grading Day 4 of Free Agency

OPT Dardoch. Photo courtesy of Riot Games. /

Another day of the LCS offseason, another League of Legends roster move (or two).

Two more high-profile League of Legends players are on the move to two of the LCS’s most storied teams. We break down all the roster moves from Day 4 of the offseason!

FlyQuest acquires PowerofEvil

As the game of musical chairs (or musical mid laners) continues, FlyQuest acquires the recently displaced CLG mid laner Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage.

Grade: A-

FlyQuest is a team with a lot of really solid pieces, most notably jungler Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen and top laner Omran “V1per” Shoura. However, they were hindered by not having a reliable carry in either the mid lane or ADC role.

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FlyQuest has already addressed the ADC issue indirectly, but acquiring one of the best playmaking supports in the world in Lee “Ignar” Dong-geun. Now, they’ve added one of the better mid laners in the LCS to sure up that other role.

PoE was above average in just about every statistical category compared to mid laners. He had a better adjusted KDA than Bjergsen, a better adjusted Kill Participation than Jensen, and better income numbers than Froggen. Compare him to FlyQuest’s old mid, Eugene “Pobelter” Park, and it’s quite clear that FlyQuest made a huge upgrade.

TSM acquires Dardoch

In an attempt to close the ever-revolving door that is the jungle position for TSM, they acquired Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett from Immortals.

Grade: D

Look, from a pure skill perspective, there’s no question Dardoch can be one of the best junglers in the LCS. The problem, as it always is with him, comes down to attitude.

For instance, if we look at his numbers playing for OpTic’s Academy team last summer, we see a player who was very underwhelming. He posted a mediocre 2.7 KDA, averaged 342 gold per minute, and averaged a 102 gold deficit at 10 minutes. And that was against Academy players.

The response from many Dardoch defenders is that he was playing a lot of off-meta picks and not really taking Academy seriously. My question is, then, why should an LCS team take him seriously?

Compare his performance to a player who most agree will be a strong LCS jungler in Cloud9’s Robert “Blaber” Huang. While Dardoch didn’t take advantage of his opportunity, Blaber led all Academy junglers in KDA, gold per minute, damage per minute, and maintained positive gold and XP differentials at 15 minutes. Heck, even the oft-maligned Michael “MikeYeung” Yeung had a better KDA and early-game numbers than Dardoch did.

Sanguine Blade is a balance nightmare. dark. Next

My point is not to say that MikeYeung is better than Dardoch, but rather to illustrate the dichotomy of attitudes displayed. While other players are fighting to prove themselves and show why they should have a spot in the LCS, Dardoch is playing stuff like Yasuo and Pyke jungle. Given TSM’s horrible track record with junglers, this seems like it’s destined for catastrophe.

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