As the LPL moves into the Summer Split, fresh blood is often what teams need to make that final push towards worlds. In this off-season, five different teams picked up eight rookies. Today’s article will introduce those rookies to you, as well as which teams they joined.
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Victory Five needed to make quite a few changes. After going 0-16 in spring, it was time to pick up fresh blood. For this reason, SamD joined the squad. Currently the only Korean player on the roster, many questioned if SamD was the best pick-up. He has little to no competitive experience, with only 11 games played prior to his LPL debut, most of which on Suning-S, the academy team of Suning. This didn’t stop him from showing up on Day 1, picking up MVP in game two in their match win against Dominus.
Ppgod has been with the FunPlus family since 2018. Due to Crisp being a world-class support, he never got a real chance. While always promoted to the main roster during the NEST or Demacia Cups, he never saw time in the LPL. With Max leaving V5 for the academy team, the organization decided to give Ppgod a chance to debut in the LPL.
Lastly, ZYF joined from V5 87, the academy team of Victory Five. Not much is known about him, due to him only playing three competitive games. He is expected to be benched for most of the split.
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Academy mid laner Shanks joined the team during the off-season. While he only has the LDL 2020 Spring Split under his belt as competitive experience, he looked a class above other mid laners. With five game MVPs, Shanks was the MVP of the LDL last spring. With seven different hero picks, Cassiopeia seems to be his most comfortable pick, with a 3-0 record playing her.
On the main roster of World Elite, their mid lane is where most of their questions remain. Plex didn’t impress in the series he played, and Teacherma is a very hit or miss mid laner. Many fans are expecting Shanks to become the starting mid laner, once the split gets going. WE already said that they want to wait a bit before debuting Shanks, due to his young age and inexperience.
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After having a rough time for most of the split, BLG finally managed to show up, but it was too little too late. Falling just short of playoffs, BLG decided to change up a few things. Besides promoting their academy jungler, BLG moved former carry Jinjiao to the support position, and promoted Wings from the academy team. Ever since February last year, Wings bounced back and forth between the main roster and the academy team. However, he never saw LPL playtime on the main roster, as he only played in the Demacia Cup.
Now, with Jinjiao moving over to support, BLG, Wings has his opportunity to start on the main roster. While BLG Junior had a middle of the pack finish to the LDL Spring 2020, Wings had quite a few stand out performances, picking up four MVPs. Many fans are excited to see his debut on the main roster of BLG.
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In one of the most curious moves of the off-season, EDG promoted BBD to the main roster. While yes, EDG has room to improve in the Summer Split, the carry role, which is BBD’s role, wasn’t the issue. In fact, Hope, who is EDG’s starting carry, was on the second all-star team, with Puff being the only carry in front of him. What is even more curious is that BBD didn’t play for EDG Youth Team in the Spring Split this year. In fact, he hasn’t played any professional games this year. So with that, many can conclude that it’s unlikely that BBD sees any playtime this split, and will just serve as backup to Hope.
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The last team to pick up rookies for the summer was Suning. Suning is another team that fell just short in the Spring Split, so any positive changes could mean playoffs. The first rookie picked up was View, their academy jungler. View joined Suning-S, the academy team, in the end of 2018. View has a very diverse champion pool, with Jarvan being his most play hero by quite a bit. However, his playstyle is much more passive, and he is quite the capable tank player, which is very different then what SofM likes to play.
The second promoted player is Owo. Suning has a history of promoting plenty of players, with 3 of their academy players from spring being on this list. Owo joined the Suning family a year ago, and last summer helped lead Suning-S to a third-place finish in the LDL. While it is unlikely that he will see much playtime over SwordArt, the team probably wanted to promote him to train directly under the legendary support. He also has previously built synergy with Bin and View, in case they end up playing the latter.
And that concludes the list of rookies joining the LPL this split. While some, like Owo or ZYF might not see a lot of playtime, others, such as Shanks, are expected to become top tier players. Sometime in the future, any one of these players could become the next LPL MVP.
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