The Power Players of the NA LCS Expansion

Who will join these teams as the premier collection of NA LoL talent?

Even before this year’s World Championship, Riot Games announced that Season 5 would be bigger than ever before, and part of that claim is expanding the premier circuits of the Western world, the North American and European League Championship Series, from 8 teams to 10.

A tournament called The NA LCS Expansion will begin this Nov. 15 and will feature 14 teams hungry for the stable monthly salary and a shot at the Summoner’s Cup the LCS brings. With many former LCS players and veteran Challenger Series players featured in the attending teams, it’s easy to pick out forerunners from the group based on popularity alone.

However, there’s a reason why those players have been in the LCS before, and the drive to rejoin the ranks of their region’s elite may be the defining factor that leads the veteran teams to victory.  Let’s meet a few of these teams and see the pool of talent they have to work with going into this crucial tournament.

Curse Academy

The Curse organization’s Challenger Series team nearly made it into the LCS by going up against a Counter Logic Gaming team that was reeling from a devastating downward spiral towards the end of the 2014 Summer Split. Though they were up two games in a best of 5 series, CLG pulled together to win three games straight and retain their spot, which leaves the five players of the Academy vying for a new slot in the NA circuit.

The Roster:

Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell

Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco

Lae-Young “Keane” Jang

David “Cop” Roberson

Michael “Bunny FuFuu” Kurylo

If many of these names sound familiar to you, it’s because Saint, Cop and Bunny Fufuu were all on the main Curse roster at some point. Saintvicious has been in the professional scene for years, with tenures on both Team Solo Mid and Counter Logic Gaming as well. Saint will be looking to show that his best days aren’t behind him and that he can still rank among the top junglers in his region.

Cop is fresh off the main Curse roster and is eager to prove himself under new management should CA make it into the LCS (an LCS ruling states that no organization can own more than one team per league, meaning Curse must sell off CA if the team makes it into the LCS). One of the most consistent AD Carries in NA, Cop’s levelheadedness has allowed him to quietly go toe-to-toe with any lane opponent until he explodes into the late game with sound positioning.

Bunny Fufuu has been making waves in the Challenger scene and many consider him the best support in the region that does not currently compete in the LCS. He pulled off many highlight reel Thresh plays over the 2014 season, including many predictive, ‘MadLife’ hooks and flays on midair opponents.

Aside from these three veterans, the mid lane is manned by Keane, a Korean player who also reached the #1 spot in the Oceania server before settling in NA. His signature champion, Orianna, has shown some of the most precise ball control and Shockwave placement in recent memory. Hauntzer is also no slouch, as he was originally a mid lane player that transitioned to the top lane rather seamlessly and managed to put up good numbers over two Challenger Series splits.

This powerhouse roster arguably makes Curse Academy the overall favorite to take a spot in the LCS, and with the wealth of experience and talent on the team, it’s hard to dispute that.

compLexity

Complexity was the only LCS team to lose in the most recent promotion tournament, falling to Team 8 in a very tight 3-2 series. While a bit of controversy hovered around potential changes and players being booted from the team, the organization has silenced the rumors by splitting its LCS roster, forming two teams: compLexity.White and compLexity.Black.

coL.Black Roster:

Kenny “i KeNNy u” Nguyen

Jake “Xmithie” Puchero

Neil “PR0LLY” Hammad

Robert “ROBERTxLEE” Lee

Royce “Bubbadub” Newcomb

coL.White Roster:

Jonathan “Westrice” Nguyen

Kevin “Kez” Jeon

Greyson “goldenglue” Gilmer

Josh “Impactful” Mabrey

Derek “Lohpally” Abrams

This isn’t the first time the organization has decided to double down on its chances by having two teams, and it did pay off once before when the team formerly known as compLexity.Red entered the LCS.

The roster of Black retains PR0LLY, widely considered to be the best player on the squad that made the LCS and by far its most popular personality. The solid bot lane of ROBERTxLEE and Bubbadub make a return as well, and while ROBERTxLEE put up a few impressive weeks here and there, his partner struggled to keep up, mustering some of the poorest stats among supports in the 2014 NA LCS splits.

These three are joined by former XDG jungler Xmithie, one of the only pinoy players to make it big in the NA scene. His time with XDG saw him travel to the Season 3 World Championships, but fail to make it out of group stage. i Kenny u has been thrown from team to team over the last year or so, but has always managed to adapt quickly despite the new teammates and atmospheres, and there’s no doubt he can do so one more time.

Of the LCS coL squad, Westrice’s veteran knowledge and Kez’s strategic mind are matched with goldenglue, the initial replacement for William “Scarra” Li on Team Dignitas, who put up an impressive Challenger Series performance over the past year, as well as impactful, formerly of Curse Academy and Lohpally, most recently from LoLPro, acting as the team’s field strategist.

It’s hard to tell how the split will affect either team as coL as a team had a hard time keeping up with the rest of the LCS teams for the better part of the 2014 Summer Split. One can hope the divide will breathe new life into the organization, though it feels like coL is merely hedging bets to have at least one team to keep in the Challenger Series at the very least.

Team Coast

Team Coast was the biggest disappointment of the promotion tournament. After dominating the Challenger Series for most of the year, they replaced goldenglue and then top laner Keenan “Rhux” Santos for two Korean solo queue prodigies right before the promotion match, and they failed to deliver as Coast got swept 3-0 by a refocused Evil Geniuses.

Now Coast has rebuilt, again reaching across borders to rake in new hires. Will this new experiment pay off?

Roster:

Cristian “Cris” Rosales

Matt “Impaler” Taylor

Jesse “Jesiz” Le

Brandon “DontMashMe” Phan

Jamie “Sheep” Gallagher

Coast’s new roster is made of veterans from both LCS divisions. Cris was the former top laner of Velocity eSports. Impaler and Jesiz hail from Europe and were on Supa Hot Crew and SK Gaming, respectively. DontMashMe was on the organization’s first LCS team, when Team Coast was still Good Game University. Sheep enjoyed a stay on XDG as a notably talented support before his team failed to remain in the LCS.

While the American players all tasted defeat and ejection from the LCS in the past, Impaler and Jesiz are coming off rather successful seasons. Impaler captained the Supa Hot Crew to go from fledgling European upstart at the beginning of the year to a formidable team that went toe-to-toe with Europe’s best. Jesiz went from being a relative unknown in the professional scene to the mid laner of a resurgent SK that made this year’s Worlds.

While the EU imports may carry most of the burden when it comes to carrying the team, that’s not to say the other players are weak points. The talent certainly is there, and this cross-country team could be just what the Coast organization needs to regain an LCS spot.

Team Fusion

If Coast seemed like an international affair, then Team Fusion truly lives up to its name, pairing NA talents from different LCS teams with Korean stars. While Team Fusion is the only organization to have not previously been in the LCS, three of its players are LCS veterans, and they have the added X-factor of having Korean players that have competed in the OGN, the most competitive scene in the world that contains SK Telecom T1 K, KT Arrows and both dreaded Samsung Galaxy teams.

Roster:

Yoon “MakNoon” Ha-woon

Joshua “NinentudeX” Atkins

Kim “HuHi” Seong-jin

Zach “Nien” Malhas

Nicolas “Gleebglarbu” Haddad

Nintentude X enjoyed a lengthy stint in the LCS as the former Team Coast jungler until the team’s booting from the league. Nien was originally from the now disbanded Team MRN, but was quickly picked up by CLG to become its top laner. After stepping down from CLG, Nien has returned to his AD Carry roots on Fusion. Former TSM support Gleeb has gone back to his old and admittedly more entertaining name and hopes to prove that he has gotten over the initial nerves that stunted his growth and forced TSM’s management to replace him with Korean veteran, Ham “Lustboy” Jang-sik.

The biggest story around Team Fusion is definitely MakNoon. A huge figure in Korea, MakNoon has been on three major Korean organizations over the years, namely the Azubu, KT and Najin brands. After taking his wealth of experience to Brazil to coach paiN Gaming, MakNoon looks to rekindle an old rivalry with Choi “Locodoco” Yoon-sub, who has found a home as TSM’s coach.

HuHi is a Korean talent who has played  in the OGN before, but for a much shorter period and on a much less successful team in Bigfile Miracle. Despite this, the experience he brings from Korea’s next level play is more than enough to measure his worth.

As a wildcard entering the LCS Expansion, Team Fusion will be looking to make a statement and perhaps replicate Cloud 9’s flawless entry into the LCS as well as an instant transition to complete dominance — something no other team has been able to do.

Anything can happen

While these are the teams to watch out for in the tournament there are other seasoned squads such as LoLPro and hungry upstart teams that have climbed the team ladder to compete. Who knows if one of these unknown teams can pull off an upset and go the distance?

Something crazy always has a chance to spark, but what’s sure is that there will be League of Legends action this weekend, and it will be one heck of a show.

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