This week’s hottest eSports news and highlights for LoL, CS:GO, and Dota 2. Expect spoilers!
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League of Legends
- Roster Swaps: Longzhu's big acquisitions of Flame, Cpt Jack, and Fury. SKT T1 acquires Duke. Echo Fox's teased roster includes Froggen and KEITHMCBRIEF. Team Liquid announces 10-man roster and Locodoco as their new head coach.
- Korea's Top 4: Korea looks as strong as ever with SKT T1, KOO, KT, and Longzhu having star-studded rosters.
Roster Swaps
With the start of the LCS Spring Split on January 16th, rosters are beginning to be finalized. Look out next week for a full look at the rosters before the games begin!
- Longzhu (previously Incredible Miracle) signs Flame, Cpt Jack, and Fury to make a dream
team.
- Flame, previously from LGD and CJ Entus, is heralded by some to be one of the best top laners ever. While he spent 2015 benched on LGD, Flame is finally on a team of
stars that will give him the chance to carry. - Cpt Jack, previously from Jin Air Green Wings, was awarded best ADC in the 2012 Korean eSports Awards.
- Lastly, Fury, one of the most consistent performers on Samsung Galaxy, has signed with Longzhu as an ADC as well.
- Flame, previously from LGD and CJ Entus, is heralded by some to be one of the best top laners ever. While he spent 2015 benched on LGD, Flame is finally on a team of
- SK Telecom T1 has replaced MaRin with Duke from NaJin e-mFire. Duke has been praised as a highly mechanical top laner and is considered among Korea's elite top laners. With Flame, Smeb, and Ssumday in the other three top teams, Duke will have to rise to the occasion. Fortunately for him, he joins SKT T1 who has Kkoma, the best coach in history, and Faker, the best player in history.
- NBA Legend Rick Fox's new LCS team Echo Fox teased their roster bring even more top European talent into the North American scene.
- Froggen was known to be one of the best midlaners in the world when he was on CLG EU. After his time in CLG EU, Froggen has been plagued with subpar teams that made him unable to see much success. Unfortunately, Echo Fox's roster seems to pale in comparison to the many other new NA teams. With the likes of Bjergsen, Alex Ich, GBM, and Jensen in the midlane, Froggen will truly be put to the test on how much he can carry his inexperienced team to victory.
- While some other names (KFO) have been rumored to be on the roster, one of the ones most recognizable is KEITHMCBRIEF who was Team Liquid and Team Solo Mid's substitute for a number of games. As a fairly inexperienced ADC with potential, this next split will be his chance to demonstrate he can be a starting ADC in the LCS.
- Team Liquid has announced a new 10-man roster—the first of its kind. While the team has yet to announce all ten of its players, Team Liquid's co-owner Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet released a statement that this unique team structure will allow flexibility and the ability to optimize the performance of each player. Furthermore, Locodoco—TSM's former head coach—has stepped in to become Team Liquid's head coach. Despite transitioning to content production in Team Liquid, Locodoco's success with the team in their tryouts convinced Liquid management that he was the right fit. Last year Team Liquid had a roster that looked strong on paper but often fell short due to bad macro and team coordination. While increasing the amount of players doesn't sound like it will improve coordination, a new head coach and a different team structure might be what it takes to for Team Liquid to finally win LCS and go to Worlds.
Read their statement here.
Korea's Dominance with the Top 4
Every year, analysts, professionals, and fans discuss the gap between Koreans and the rest of the world (namely the West) is closing. At times, the West seems to have reason to hope. Western infrastructure is improving and western teams, that is European teams, are able to win against Chinese and Taiwanese teams in major tournaments. However, with the announcement of Longzhu's impressive roster Korea's top 4 teams give much reason to think Korea will be as or even more dominant in 2016.
In the past, Korea has been able to produce one vastly superior team in the likes of Samsung White and SKT T1K but the second and third seeded teams have often disappointed. Najin White Shield's failure in 2014 and KOO's embarrassing performance in the IEM World Championships demonstrate that Korea was beatable by other regions in the past. However, this last Worlds featured a Korea versus Korea Finals and all three Korean seeds performed well. This upcoming year's SKT T1, KOO, KT, and Longzhu feature four extremely solid rosters that will be a goliath of a challenge for any other region to defeat.
Top 5 Games of 2015
LoL eSports released their top 5 games for 2015 to much criticism from analysts. If you rename the video "Top 5 Exciting Games of 2015" it might be more appropriate.
Top 5 Soundbites of 2015
The top 5 soundbites of 2015 showcase some of the most memorable moments in League of Legends eSports this year.
