League of Legends LCS: Grading the 2020 team rosters

Dignitas

Top: Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon
Jungle: Jonathan “Grig” Armao
Mid: Henrik “Froggen” Hansen
ADC: Johnson “Johnsun” Nguyen
Support: Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black

Formerly Clutch Gaming, Dignitas took over the brand of the upstart, plucky team that made a miracle run through the gauntlet to Worlds and promptly drove it into the ground. Dignitas made the decision to go all-in on Huni and it may have cost them everything that they built as an organization last year.

Let’s start with their best free agency acquisition, Froggen. On the surface, this seems like a great pick-up for Dignitas, as Froggen was the most productive player in the LCS in 2019. However, that production came thanks to playing with a bunch of very low-econ carries around him in the top and ADC roles and a jungler who could protect him.

This style clashes greatly with Huni, who is one of the more volatile and resource-hungry top laners and Grig, who is one of the more passive junglers. Combined with the fact that they have a rookie ADC paired with a support who appeared to be on a steep decline in 2019, I don’t know how this team can fit together cohesively. This team has a lot of flashy parts, but I don’t think the sum will be nearly as good as it would appear.

Grade: C

Evil Geniuses

Top: Colin “Kumo” Zhao
Jungle: Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen
Mid: Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro
ADC: Bae “Bang” Jun-sik
Support: Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam
Coach: Heo “Irean” Yeong-cheol

I said on Twitter that this team is the 2019 100 Thieves reincarnated: having a ton of talent but set to underperform due to lack of synergy and key weaknesses in a few roles. This new organization has definitely come into the LCS with both barrels firing, but I have a sinking feeling they’re not going to come away in the best position.

First, they’re relying on a pretty green player in the top lane in Kumo. He’ll have the luxury of being able to play with former teammate and LCS MVP Svenskeren, but Kumo will still need time to develop.

Svenskeren had a lot of success in 2019 in his synergy with Nisqy, but now he’ll have to deal with a new mid in Jiizuke who was just coming off a terrible year. It’s certainly possible that Jiizuke will return to his 2018 form, but even at that time the Italian Stallion was known for being aggressive to a fault.

Finally, we have the bot lane of Bang and Zeyzal. Both of them are competent at least, and Bang was one of the best ADs last year, but it remains to be seen how they will synergize. They could be one of the best bot lane duos in North America next year, or middle of the pack.

This whole team is a house of cards, with the potential to collapse spectacularly. If they manage to stay upright, however, this team definitely has enough talent to just outright overpower most teams in the LCS. The question is whether they will have the synergy to do so.

Grade: B-