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League of Legends LCS: Grading the 2020 team rosters

By Josh Tyler

Los Angeles, USA - July 21: --- during the 2019 League of Legends Championship Series Week 7 at the LCS Arena on July 21, 2019 in Los Angeles, California, USA. (Photo by Paul de Leon/Riot Games)
Los Angeles, USA - July 21: --- during the 2019 League of Legends Championship Series Week 7 at the LCS Arena on July 21, 2019 in Los Angeles, California, USA. (Photo by Paul de Leon/Riot Games) /
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TL Xmithie. League of Legends.
League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games /

Immortals

Top: Paul “sOAZ” Boyer
Jungle: Jake “Xmithie” Puchero
Mid: Jérémy “Eika” Valdenaire
ADC: Johnny “Altec” Ru
Support: Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent
Coach: Thomas “Zaboutine” Si-Hassen

I don’t even know what to make of this team, as it’s a mishmash of over-the-hill players like sOAZ and Altec, unproven players like Eika, and strong, underrated players in Xmithie and Hakuho. This team could gel and become a team like Clutch or spring FlyQuest, or they could just be at the bottom of the standings like Echo Fox.

I truly have no clue what the thought was behind the construction of this team, as the roster seems to be in a weird limbo between wanting to compete now and acknowledging that they’re likely not going to be that good. The end result is, unfortunately, that I think they will also be one of the LCS bottom-feeders.

Grade: D+

Team Liquid

Top: Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong
Jungle: Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen
Mid: Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen
ADC: Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng
Support: Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in
Coach: Jang “Cain” Nu-ri

I applaud TL for doing the smart thing by looking to upgrade their two clearest weak positions, jungle and mid. They reportedly took some big swings at players like Tarzan and Chovy, and had they landed those big players I’d say we could be looking at a Liquid squad that could actually do damage at Worlds.

Instead, they settled for bringing back Jensen and adding Broxah to replace Xmithie. Overall, I think that constitutes a slight upgrade, which is fine for them in the LCS. None of the other teams really made significant enough moves to show that they can challenge the most dominant (but not best) team in North American League of Legends.

Liquid will probably continue to be the best team in the LCS unless some of those other teams that are trending up manage to overtake them (more on that in a bit). The big problem, though, is that I still don’t think they’ve solved the problems that are holding them back from international success.

Grade: A

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