With the 2014 League of Legends World Championship at a close, it is now time to see who will join the other eight teams in Europe and North America in the upcoming League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split. The first ever expansion tournament will allow two more challenger teams to enter the ranks alongside the other eight confirmed LCS teams for a shot to become the best in their region. With an already heated off-season, there are several headlines to think about. However, ranked below are five things all viewers want to know about the upcoming promotion tournament.
5. Will the upgraded Curse Academy qualify?
After pushing Counter Logic Gaming to all five games in their best of five series during the relegation tournament, Curse Academy looked to solidify their roster for another chance to enter the North American LCS. To do this, they released former AD carry Impactful and top laner Cris to add promising former Team LoLPro top laner Hauntzer and veteran LCS AD carry Cop, who recently left Team Curse’s main roster after a promising fourth place finish. They will join old pro jungler Saintvicious, promising support BunnyFuFu, and astonishing mid laner Keane. There are a lot of pros for this Curse Academy lineup. Hauntzer seems to get better and better every split, Cop and Bunny FuFu have played together before, and Keane has a larger champion pool than most mid laners, including his pocket mid lane Hecarim.
4. Will Amazing change H2K Gaming’s LAN misfortunes?
The promising H2K Gaming roster of Europe signed on Team Solomid’s former jungler Amazing, fresh off his World Championship run. He replaces their old jungler Trashy, who was aggressive but not tactical in some of his decision making. Amazing brings both tact and aggression to a jaded H2K roster that cannot seem to qualify for LCS. Mid laner Febiven, AD carry Hjarnan, and top laner Odoamne are all young talents with lots of potential. With the leadership Amazing can bring to their jungle, they may just have a chance to qualify this time around.
3. Fusion Gaming?
Fusion Gaming burst onto the scene when it was announced a few weeks back. The supposed roster includes legendary Korean top laner MakNoon, former Team Coast jungler NintendudeX, Korean mid laner Huhi, Nientonsoh returning to AD carry, and former Team Solomid support Gleeb. This roster looks like a force to be reckoned with, and with how wide open this expansion tournament is, there is a chance for a ragtag team like this to qualify. Complexity, Curse Academy, and Team Coast, the other favorites in this expansion tournament, all made roster changes recently. It is truly an even playing field.
2. Will a more diverse Millennium qualify?
It was unbelievable to see Millennium, a longtime stalwart of the European LCS, upset by the third place challenger team Unicorns of Love. However, it happened, and Millennium is making sure it never happens again. They made a bold move by replacing Kottenx for Korean jungler H0R0, recently released from SKT T1S. Millennium also signed Ryu, former mid laner for the Korean team KT Rolster Bullets after their longtime mid laner Kerp left the team. With these new Korean imports, a solid top laner in Kev1n, and a bot lane that has worked together for a long time, Millenium look like favorites to requalify in the expansion tournament.
1. What is up with Team Coast?
Fans were shocked and disgruntled when the promising Team Coast entered the relegation tournament against Evil Geniuses, hosting two new Korean solo queue solo laners, Ringer in the mid lane and Miracle in the top lane, replacing the solid duo of Goldenglue and Rhux respectively. Coast ended up losing the best of five series 3 to 0 in what looked to be a massacre. To make up for their mistake, Coast now decided to add two new players to the mix. They first added LOD, former mid laner for Team LoLPro to replace Ringer and Cris from Curse Academy to play top lane in place of Miracle. With Team Solomid taking promising jungler Santorin from them, they were in need of a jungler and decided on former Supa Hot Crew player Impaler from Europe. They also added Jesiz, former SK Gaming mid laner from Europe as well, forcing LOD back into free agency. This roster has been one revolving door since last Spring’s relegation tournament, with AD carry DontMashMe and support Sheep the only two surviving what seems to be a very confusing team environment.
