The League of Legends offseason has really started to pick up steam, as the first organizations around the world begin official roster announcements. Ahead of the pack are Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, Misfits Gaming, Hanwha Life, and SK Telecom. Each of these teams have released official announcements regarding large portions of their 2019 rosters.
Team Liquid
Just like last year, Team Liquid seems to be the first North American organization out of the gate. They were the first team to announce a new talent acquisition – Cloud9’s Jensen. TL brought him on to replace Pobelter in mid lane, then shortly thereafter announced CoreJJ as support. CoreJJ most recently played for GEN.G in the LCK, but did play in North America for Team Dignitas in 2015. These two newcomers round out their roster, including Impact, Xmithie, and Doublelift from last year.
Misfits Gaming
Febiven moving to Misfits was one of the first roster announcements of the off-season. ESPN reported that Soaz may also join, which turned out to be true. Jesiz remains a coach, while Maxlore confirmed he renewed his contract with Misfits as jungler. LCK support GorillA is their most recent acquisition, which makes another high-profile Korean signed by a western team for 2019. Hans Sama most likely rounds out the roster in bot lane.
100 Thieves
100 Thieves is the other NA organization with multiple roster announcements so far. So far this offseason, 100 Thieves confirmed Ryu would move from mid lane to assistant coach, while bringing on Huhi from Counter Logic Gaming as the new starter. They also acquired Bang, the legendary Korean AD carry from SK Telecom T1. They have not confirmed the rest of their roster, but Ssumday, Anda, and Aphromoo are most likely sticking around.
SK Telecom T1
The best team in the history of League of Legends is getting ahead of the curve for 2019 too. SKT announced Khan, Crazy, Haru, Clid, and Teddy as part of their rebuild around Faker and Effort. Khan has been Kingzone/Longzhu’s star top laner for two years now. Haru stepped up as GEN.G’s starting jungler last year, and Teddy represents the only redeeming factor from Jin Air over the last two years. Crazy played top for bbq Olivers last year, and Clid jungled for JD Gaming. They will most likely play substitute to Khan an Haru. It is unclear whether SKT will put together a 10-man roster, or if these eight are the completed lineup. Nonetheless, they have locked down solid players ahead of the pack of LCK teams.
Hanwha Life Esports
HLE is one of the first LCK teams to announce a full roster for 2019. The organization confirmed it is keeping Lava, Sangyoon, and Key from its 2018 squad, while signing Moojin from the LMS’ Flash Wolves and Thal from SKT. SoHwan of Jin Air, and Bono and Tempt of bbq Olivers signed on as potential substitutes, as well. While not necessarily the star-studded lineup that some LCK teams may create, HLE is certainly ahead of the game this offseason.
CREDITS
Images from Team Liquid’s Twitter, Misfits’ Twitter, and Yahoo Esports
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