League Of Legends

nvm, I did a little research and got the gist of it.. sounds like he was probably right and koreans are being a bunch of assholes for him calling them on it. Considering multiple other coaches warned him about that exact situation, and there has been rumors floating around for some time.. it's like the korean teams are holding foreign teams hostage in this situation.
'We treat you like shit and share scrim info with our fellow korean teams, but if you tell anyone, we won't even scrim with you in the first place. Deal?' jesus.

Yeah, it seems like the perfect example of the prisoner's dilemma. If all the non-korean teams agreed not to scrimmage Korea, they'd be better off. But if 1 or 2 teams broke ranks and scrimmaged Korea, it would greatly help the scabs and crush everyone else. (basically status quo)

As good as the Koreans are, the LCK the last couple years has been behind the LCS in some aspects. (Admittedly not in the most important parts: mechanics and in-game shot-calling) But, from lane swap macro, ranged support picks, and most recently some OP meta picks.
If you watch Monty's vod of the NALCS playoffs, (all he knows is the LCK) he was constantly shitting on NA for prioritizing Syndra, Cassio, and banning Olaf. Koreans eventually take what the other regions do and just make it better.

edit: and you might be right about Pobelter being better in support, especially with the across the board buff to assassin mages, his safe pick of control mage might not be the default best choice this split. But, it still makes me sad that there might not be any NA players in mid this split, unless Liquid using someone like Arcsecond.

jesus.. Peanut joined SKT. Duke and Bengi both left, so they need a top laner now (unless blank moves there) but they could throw almost anyone into top and it'd still likely be a better team now with Peanut.
I really don't want them to win another worlds next year..

Looks like they picked up Huni for top. Not sure that's the best pickup, he's made it clear he doesn't like playing tanks and it seems like you can tilt him out of a game/series. Will be interesting to see how that one plays out.

wow.. didn't expect that.

Sort of ironic that he originally tried out for SKT a few years ago but didn't make it. I think he'll do great though. He's been the 'superstar' that could call the shots before, but the coaching staff of skt will get him to play tanks if that's what is needed. In other words, he needed to play a carry top because he was often one of the best players on the team. I think Huni will be willing to do whatever is necessary to win, and if that means playing their tank, he'll focus on doing it well. With that lineup, you could make an argument for him being the worst or 2nd worst player on the team.

At the same time, SKT has the ability to play around a comp without a tank top laner if that's good in the meta.

I also saw Fnatic has shaken up their lineup. Not sure who that mid or support are, and I'm guessing febiven left for a move to NA or somewhere for a payday.

Ryu left h2k, another surprise considering how well they did last split. Looper is officially on fox, so that's cool. I feel like Dardoch is maybe going to end up there as well. They had that mistake announcement back in august saying exactly that, that was later deleted. But, since he's officially left TL now and they have a jungle slot open; I'd imagine that's the most likely spot for him. Unless he can't go there on some technicality due to that announcement before. i.e. if it'd prove he was communicating with them while under contract or something.

The Huni move is interesting. I'm assuming since he'll be the 4th best player on that team that he'll be willing to play whatever he's told to play. (sad to say that he's 4th best on a taem, considering he was easily one of the best players in NA overall - tilty as fuck, but still his talent was undeniable, despite being dumpstered in the playoffs 2 splits in a row.)
Apparently he signed a 2 year contract with Immortals right before SKT contacted him with their offer, and Immortals let him out of it. (I'm not sure if there was a buyout involved.) But big props to Immortals for letting him go.

Febivin went to H2K. Which is a double win for them, since it hurts Fnatic (their roster looks like shit. but maybe Amazing and Soaz turn back the clock)

Dardoch is now on Immortals. And surprisingly Fox picked up Akkadian (challenger scene) and Gate for support. That pobelter leak had Santorin on the roster instead. But this also probably means Pobelter is going back to Immortals. Not a bad NA core Dardoch + Pobelter. Challenger ADC Cody Sun aka Massacre is a big question mark though...

Pray's stream has been pretty trollish about looking for a team/begging for Regi to pick him up. I have to feel like he wasn't signed instantly it is because TSM promised someone else like forgiven waaaayyyy too quickly. If they wind up with Wildturtle... I'll be taking a break form watching the NALCS in the spring.

Lasch
I know forgiven got his military service deferred, but I thought it was just for a little bit.. is he definitely free to play on a team next split?
Febiven on h2k is a good replacement for ryu if they keep forgiven as well.
Where are you seeing the other stuff, like dardoch and such? Also, are you saying cody sun is on IMT for sure? leaguepedia still has wildturtle there.

Pray on TSM could be cool. He speaks english fairly well? I've never watched his streams.

I spend waaaay too much time on the lol reddit at work. But apparently I can just follow Jacob Wolf on twitter instead.


ESPN on Echo Fox
Former Dream Team jungler Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham and former Phoenix1 support Austin "Gate" Yu have come to agreements with Echo Fox to round out its lineup for the 2017 season, sources close to the players and organization tell ESPN.

ESPN on Dardoch, Pobelter, and Cody Sun.
North American League of Legends team Immortals has signed former Team Liquid jungler Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett and intends to come to a new agreement with mid laner Eugene "Pobelter" Park for the 2017 season, sources close to the team and players tell ESPN.
The team will take former Dream Team AD carry Cody "Massacre" Sun to its boot camp in South Korea next week, although no agreement between the two parties has been finalized. Massacre will try out alongside the likes of former KT Rolster support Lee "Piccaboo" Jong-beom and former ROX Tigers support Kang "GorillA" Beom-hyeon, sources say.

The 2016-17 League of Legends Roster Shuffle

and KT's roster looks as sick as SKT's.
Smeb, Pawn, Deft, and Mata (not sure about their jungle - I guess they are keeping Score.)


forgiven on free agency:
(he was looking for a team at the beginning of November, which is why i worry TSM pounced on someone like him, instead of waiting on the korean free agents that were released on the 30th)



IMT should just grab Pray and Gorilla as a pair and throw some random into the toplane and have him play dumb tanks all year. (nautilus/maokai/poppy/mundo 24/7!)

50th edit: Pray's english is far from perfect. His reading his fine. And he can understand it, but speaking is far far from perfect,but he's got the Huni level of enthusiasm/confidence that he'll actually try to speak it. (unlike lustboy)

ok, so massacre is still 'trying out' but that still sounds like wildturtle is probably gone. Yea, I agree pray and gorilla should ideally stick together, but I feel that way about most AD/sup duos, and it often works out when they split up anyways.

Well TL is certainly banking on Reignover being a fucking god.
TL's team is supposedly
Lourlo
Reignover
Goldenglue
Piglet
Matt

Phoenix1 looks like it had the better offseason, and probably cost a fair bit less
Ziggs
Inori
Ryu
Arrow
Adrian

Idk, did you watch any off the TL youtube vids? seems the drama on the team ws really bringing them down. when they played well the previous split they could beat almost anyone. so, that lineup has potential if they work together as a team. its hard to say if dardoch, piglet or loco was the main problem, but now we will know if it was dardoch.

Yeah, I watched their hour long video they released. Matt was the only on that team that was put in a good light. I'm going with all 3 were the problem. But hopefully removing at least 1 will fix it.

TSM wildturtle part 2 has been confirmed. feelsbadman
on one hand, teamfighting is about the same as doublelift. hell, he even has the occasional retarded move into death like DL.
but unlike doublelift, he's pretty meh in lane. but, unfortunately he's a seriously dumb motherfucker.
but, hey! he's got a great attitude and is super friendly. and in no way are they going to be able to bring Keith in to replace him midway through the split!

unless bot lane 100% plays for lane like IMT, they are going to lose lane almost every game. enemy jungle is going to camp top until even Dyrus thinks the camp is a tad excessive. and poor bjergsen is going to have 2015 flashbacks as he tries to carry against 2 fed lanes.

hoping i'm wrong. maybe sven and hauntzer really are good enough to carry the extra load. but fuck regi if he ever mention worlds or international events ever again.

p.s. god bless these forums for saving drafts.

yea... that seems like they made a kneejerk reaction to sign someone 'decent' a little too quickly. They probably were not expecting doublelift to retire and regi panicked slightly. Or, maybe they just didn't have an interest in forg1ven or a korean ADC... but idk why not.

Then again, both biofrost and turtle's mechanics ARE very sound. Adrian was a smart player, not a mechanically gifted one as far as I saw, and I forget who turtle duoed with when he was previously on TSM, but maybe they will work well together to make some plays? A very aggressive bot lane with sven setting up tower dives/ganks could be a viable strategy option.

Yeah they kept telling wildturtle to play safe constantly, which just neutered him. He was aggressive and got caught out sometimes, just like doublelift split pushing. But they took it waaaaay too far and then he became scared of his own shadow and couldn't make plays.

I think lift lift will come back for summer regardless of who they picked and that's probably why they picked turtle, because he's a sacrificial adc.

Well, I don't think their comments about doublelift having to tryout for the spot were lip service. If he decides to come back, he'll have to prove he's better then turtle to get the spot and I'm not 100% sure that will happen. I'd say it's likely, but doublelift is starting to slip from his dominance. I also agree IMT let Turtle go ham and that's how he wants to play. That's how he played when he first got on TSM and was wrecking. Let's hope they realize this and play around it, rather then trying to stop it.
In any case, he'll be good enough that TSM will probably be 1st/2nd in NA, but keep getting smashed internationally. Oh well.

I hope you guys are right about Wildturtle. Hell, maybe what happened at all-stars today in NA vs EU is what we'll see all season. (Bjergsen shitting on midlane and then roaming top and bot to get kills.)


Doublelift isn't coming back. $ and GF

Yeah DL learned real quick that streaming will earn him way more money with less pressure to actually delivery anything substantial. When you're sitting at 20k+ viewers every time you stream and the cult of personality that people won't let go with him means its time to make that fat Qtpie money. Give it another season or two before bjerg goes the same route especially since Korea is and always will be miles ahead of any other region.

Whoa, Flame finally came to NA and he's on IMT. That lineup, on paper anyways, looks great. Assuming that ADC rookie doesn't fall flat on his face from pressure, they look solid all around. Enough veteran leadership that maybe they'll make it through playoffs for once, and raw talent to still carry them through the regular season.
Anything could happen, it's all about chemistry/cohesion and they changed coaches too. But, it's a way better team then I thought they'd put together on short notice. Especially grabbing Flame to replace Huni. He might be a little passed his prime in Korea, but he's still good enough to be one of the best top laners in NA.