With the off-season underway, many roster moves have been rumored in the past few weeks. Most notably, Team Liquid has been rumored to be stockpiling North American talent. We already know owner Steve Arhancet isn’t afraid to pay with big dollars for players. With Team Liquid being accepted into franchising, even more money will be available for the team to spend on big name players.
becoming immortal
This may be a meme, but Team Liquid have been one of the most active teams this off-season. With Immortals being rejected from the NA LCS, many of their players were up for grabs. Team Liquid was quick to pull the trigger in acquiring 3/5 starting members from their roster.
Jacob Wolf first reported that they acquired the contracts of former Immortals players Jake “Xmithie” Puchero, Andy “AnDa” Hoang, Eugene “Pobelter” Park and Cody “Cody Sun” Sun. Xmithie, Pobelter and Cody Sun have built up synergy having qualified for Worlds last year and placing second with Immortals. AnDa is seen more as a project player who was a sub on the Immortals team.
Xmithie was regarded as the best jungler in NA during the Summer Split. His improvement was a major reason why Immortals qualified for their first World Championship after narrowly losing to TSM. The meta became extremely favorable towards his style and he flourished because of it.
Pobelter has often been regarded as the best mid lane talent actually from North America. He’s been in the scene from a young age and actually started out on team Curse. He is valuable as a talented player who doesn’t take an import slot.
Cody Sun may have struggled at Worlds, but during the regular split him and Olleh were one of the better bot lane duos. He’ll look to build off a solid rookie season in which we saw him improve vastly from spring to summer.
Adding more star power
We may have thought Team Liquid was done after acquiring most of the Immortals roster, but there was more. News broke from ESPN’s Jacob Wolf that Team Liquid would be acquiring Cloud 9 top laner Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong. This is huge if it’s true. Impact has shown to be one of the best top laners in the world when he’s at his best. Having to sub out last year showed inconsistencies in his play, but if he’s a full time starter he can prove that he’s one of the best again.
Impact has been praised for his improved communication and mechanics. He also has one year left before he can become an “NA resident” player which could be valuable moving forward.
Lastly, Team Liquid have been rumored by The ScoreEsports to have acquired star ADC Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. Doubelift has been a star domestically. Arguably one of the strongest ADC’s in the west, acquiring Doublelift would be a huge addition. During his time at TSM, Doublelift has been heavily criticized for his international performances. Domestically, he’s a monster, but we’ll need to see that he’s not burning out as being one of the first pros of the LoL scene.
What Will the Lineup Be?
While Team Liquid have been in many rumors of adding loads of talent, nobody knows what their actual lineup will be. Does the addition of Xmithie mean the end for former star Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin? Team Liquid also acquired Korean mid laner Son “Mickey” Young-min towards the end of last split.
They’re also rumored to have two new ADC’s with Cody Sun and Doublelift. Does this spell the retirement of Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin? Will they stick to their “10 man” roster with the Academy team? No team has been able to successfully make six man rosters work outside of Korea. Team Liquid’s owner, Steve Arhancet, seems to be serious about winning. With these additions they might be able to finally break their “forever fourth” curse and find their way to Worlds.
With many new teams entering the scene, Team Liquid at least have the advantage of having been in the LCS for so long. They should know by now how to win and build a successful team. With the money available now more than ever, they’ll need to show that they can rise above the rest.
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