NRG Esports will start LOD over Altec this week

After a bumpy loss to Cloud9 last weekend, NRG Esports will make a change in the bottom lane as it prepares to face Renegades and Team Impulse.

The team will use Benjamin “LOD” DeMunck in place of Johnny “Altec” Ru for this week’s League Championship Series (LCS) matches, sources close to the team and players tell the Daily Dot. The reasons for making the move are currently unclear, but the team’s staff indicates that the player took himself out of the lineup this week.

DeMunck, a Challenger Series AD carry on Ember, is no stranger to the LCS. This will be his third time on loan to a squad this split, as he previously substituted in for Renegades in place of Aleš “Freeze” Kněžínek—who had visa issues earlier in the split—and Echo Fox in order to have a strategic advantage playing with his Ember teammates, who were also on loan.

NRG Esports currently sits in fifth place with a middling 6-6 record, not where the team hoped they’d be after signing the biggest Korean import in North American history, Lee “GBM” Chang-seok. 

Over the past few weeks, NRG management has floated ideas to improve the team’s performance. Last week, the team considered potentially replacing jungler Galen “Moon” Holgate and looked to retired professional jungler Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera to fill the spot. That deal has yet to go through, despite Rivera meeting with the team’s management to discuss the possibility.

Putting DeMunck in for Ru may be the latest attempt to jump-start the team. NRG will meet Renegades and Impulse this weekend, the two teams at the bottom of the standings, a decent schedule to try a potential roster.

Update 8:05: Added Tweet indicating why Ru is out of the lineup.

Photo via Riot Games/Flickr (All rights reserved, used with permission)

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