LCS 2021 Preview: Why Fans Should Be Excited About Immortals

Let’s look at why Immortals fans should be excited for the coming LCS season.

After a long and really weird offseason, the LCS is almost back to dominating all our lives for the foreseeable future. With the LCS Lock-In tournament only a few days away and the groups already drawn, it’s time to start previewing all 10 LCS teams for the upcoming season, starting with the team that finished at the bottom of the table last year, Immortals.

Last Year

8-10 in the Spring Split, 4-14 in the Summer Split

Okay, so not a great start in terms of hope for the Immortals fans. The team started off the season pretty well, going 4-2 in the spring and staying at the .500 mark until the last week. But the Summer Split was a disaster.

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The team was perpetually in last or one game clear of last place throughout the Summer Split. There was a wholesale change of the roster, including the dropping of players like sOAZ, Xmithie (temporarily), and Eika. Immortals missed the playoffs in both splits, capping off a largely unsuccessful year.

The Offseason

Immortals, justifiably, decided to blow it all up and go with an interesting mix of youth, experience, and imports. David “Insanity” Challe is the only true carryover from last year’s roster, returning as their starting mid laner, but he has four brand new teammates.

IMT kicked off the roster with a youth movement by bringing up top laner Mohamed “Revenge” Kaddoura to the LCS from the Academy league (acquiring him from FlyQuest). They proceeded to follow that up by pairing their two solo lanes with an experienced jungler, signing former Origen jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir out of the LEC.

For their revamped bot lane, Immortals made a shrewd move to take advantage of the new ruling that makes all Oceania players North American residents by signing two with a history. ADC Quin “Raes” Korebrits and Mitchell “Destiny” Shaw once played together on Chiefs Esports Club in the OPL back in 2018.

The Coach

The other big offseason move was Immortals acquiring André “Guilhoto” Pereira Guilhoto from Origen as their head coach. While it’s easy to judge Guilhoto based on the less-than-stellar results on Origen in Summer 2020, you do have to remember that he has led teams to top-three finishes in two of his four seasons as an LEC head coach. He also has an existing relationship with Xerxe and Destiny, so there is some existing synergy to build on.

Players to Be Excited About

Raes isn’t a player too many LCS fans are talking about, but he was rated a top-three AD Carry heading into this season for a reason. He’s been consistently solid in the OPL and has shown he can hold up internationally.

I’m also very interested to see how Insanity can manage to do in his rookie year. Although he struggled on occasion in his first split, the flexibility in his champion pool will help give IMT plenty of options for their playstyle. If he can improve his laning and damage output in year two, he could easily move closer to that upper-echelon of LCS mid laners.

Season Prediction

It’s really hard to go into this season with a lot of optimism, especially considering the top side of the map. Immortals are really going to be banking on the fact that Insanity continues to improve, rather than plateau or regress, and that they’re getting Splyce Xerxe rather than OG Xerxe.

If they manage to get solid play from at least one of the solo lanes, I think their bot lane has enough to work with that they could end up being a top-four pairing. Their ceiling, though, with the current roster is above average, sneaking into fourth or fifth place.

If things don’t go well, however, this team is going to be bottom three in the league. Unfortunately, given how weak I think Revenge is, how Xerxe has been trending since leaving Splyce, Insanity’s inexperience, and Destiny and Raes not really having that much chemistry, I think that’s the more likely scenario.

What are the Fans Excited About?

From the Immortals subreddit:

"I’m also hyped for Insanity, when Eika got subbed out he was putting up great DPM if I remember, I just want to see him start a whole season without starting with a losing record. I’m also very excited for our bot lane from the former OCE, and just the org finally realizing that they can’t be a Team Liquid, and looking to develop new talent!– Swift_Armadillo"

Totally agree, Insanity was a (pleasant) surprise pickup last year and I hope he continues that trajectory. And, yes, it’s great to see that more teams are trying to develop their own talent and look towards developing regions for young stars.

"I’m hyped for Insanity to get a full season to showcase some NA talent. Same with Revenge, he has a lot of potential to be really good. I’m so exited for IMT just cus off al the potential they have.– arreto0"

I’m not quite as high on Revenge based on his play in Academy, but I’d love to be proven wrong by some developing, native talent.

Next. Ranking the 50 greatest LCS players of all time. dark

"Hyped for Raes and Destiny to pop off together. I think people are severely understating the ability these two have. OCE botlaners have yet to disappoint in NA– fogarthea"

Believe me, I am not underestimating the Raes/Destiny duo. And, heck, I rated Raes right above FBI going into this year, and I thought FBI had an MVP-caliber season last year.

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