Season 5 of League of Legends is on the edge of coming to an end, and with that comes the off-season roster changes. For the next months, teams will try their best to upgrade their roster. Trades will be made, players will announce their retirement, korean players will travel the world to join the best teams around the globe and I’ll be there to analyse every moves. Already, some NA teams have announced movement of players and I’ll talk about it.
Team SoloMid Roster departures.
As announced by the team a couple of days ago, some players are either parting ways or moving positions in the organisation.
Marcus “Dyrus” Hills decided that his career was over. After 4 years with TSM (5 years pro.) he decided it was time for him to leave and make a place for a younger talented top laner. “I am burnt out and it would be unfair to keep going without the same level of motivation” he said. He will stay in the organisation as a streamer, but will continue to support the LoL team from behind.
Dyrus started his career with Epik Gamer team before transferring to TSM. He then stayed 4 years with the team leading them to 10 first place prizes during those years including 2012 MLG Spring Championship and 2015 IEM Katowice World Championship. He is also the only League of Legends player (with Yellowstar from Fnatic) to attend all 5 World Championships.
It is a sad news to hear the departure of such a great player and ambassador for the game. He was not only a player, but he was a source of inspiration for young players aspiring to get to a pro level. Goodbye Dyrus!
Following this announcement, TSM also confirmed that the organisation and Lucas “Santorin” Larsen were parting ways. Santorin said he was not planning on playing competitive anymore and will try to make a full-time stream while studying on the side.
Last but not least, Team SoloMid also announced that Jang-Sik “Lustboy” Ham was stepping down from the support position due to shoulder injuries and being tired to play the game.He will be on a role of analyst for the next season. Lustboy also played for the dominant Azubu Blaze in Korea before moving the North America. His role as an analyst will probably be very important in the next season since he was (with Bjergsen) the shotcaller for TSM.
The day after those big announcement, we learned that KEITHMCBRIEF (A substitute for the ADC role) also parted ways with the team to join Cloud9 Tempest.
With those announcement, Team SoloMid also announced they would make try-outs for the Jungler, Support and Top positions. It will be a very different team next year since the only 2 remaining players are WildTurtle and Bjergsen. As I’m writing these lines, the only 2 subs for TSM are Patoy and BillyBoss and it’s most likely not them that will fill the open spots in the roster.
Team Liquid brings in some support.
In late september, Team Liquid announced that Alex “Xpecial” Chu was removed from the starting roster. Former TSM player, Xpecial then played for Curse Gaming before it became Team Liquid for the 2015 season. In a Vlog he made himself Chu said “Piglet (TL’s ADC) just doesn’t like me”. Apparently the Korean ADC and the coaching staff decided that Alex was not good enough anymore and they had to look for a new player. Xpecial also mentioned that he was not taking his retirement and that he would prove in a near future that he once was one of the best support in North America.
Three weeks later we learned that Andy “Smoothie” Ta, an 18 years old challenger player who played for Team Dragon Knights in the summer split of NA LCS, was coming in to fill Xpecial’s shoes. Smoothie said in a Reddit AMA last year that his favorite team in NA was Cloud9, but the best one was TL. He now has the chance to play with them and show the world what he can.
Once World Championship will be over we will see more and more trades / roster changes coming in, but for now this is the North America’s major changes.
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