At the end of Week Two of the HCS Summer Season, the first of two transfer periods opened up. Before long, rumors were abound and the community sought for scraps of news. With the second transfer period coming up, let’s recap some of the roster changes that have happened as well as what we can expect.

Str8 Rippin

Str8 Rippin has had the most changes, with both Aaron “Ace” Elam and Bradley “APG” Laws reportedly departing the roster. In lieu of these two players, Str8 acquired Timothy “Rayne” Tinkler from Team Liquid and played their matches this week with Hamza “Commonly” Abbaali. The Str8 roster will now likely be Rayne, Commonly, Richie “Heinz” Heinz and Dan “Danoxide” Terlizzi.

This change is somewhat confusing. Str8 has lost a lot of slaying power from APG as well as losing out on overall damage output and aggressiveness due to Ace leaving. Despite this, they have picked up two very objective-minded players. While Commonly is relatively similar to Ace in terms of objective plays and damage output, Rayne does not compensate for the slaying ability lost. Combined with Heinz already being another objective-focused player and that leaves Danoxide with more pressure to slay.

Team Liquid

Team Liquid has made a trade with Str8 Rippin, gaining Ace in return for Rayne. The Liquid roster is now Ace, Zane “Penguin” Hearon, Braedon “StelluR” Boettcher and Kevin “Eco” Smith.

This roster change may not have necessarily improved or worsened Liquid to any significant extent. While Ace does perhaps bring some more damage output to the team on paper, he also lacks the chemistry that Rayne had with the roster. This will likely leave Liquid in a similar spot to what they would have been in if they had kept Rayne.

Ronin Esports

Ronin has dropped the most controversial player in the HCS, Carlos “Cratos” Ayala for Visal “eL ToWn” Mohanan. The roster is now eL ToWn, Cory “Str8 SicK” Sloss, Tyler “Spartan” Ganza and Ayden “Suspector” Hill.

Similarly to Str8, this seems like only a slight upgrade. eL ToWn does fill the same support role as Cratos did, with only slightly better slaying ability. However, eL ToWn still struggles in his individual gunfights. His strongest asset to the team will likely be his already well-developed chemistry with Spartan, but Ronin will likely remain at the bottom of the rankings for the duration of the season.

Luminosity Gaming

In a surprise move, it is expected that Luminosity will be dropping Cameron “Victory X” Thorlakson in order to pick up APG. APG has already stated multiple times on stream that he intends to leave Str8 and the LG is looking to pick him up. The roster will now presumably be APG, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Joe “TriPPPeY” Taylor and Tommy “Saiyan” Wilson. All the while, rumors of retirement are swirling around Victory X.

This change could go either way. APG adds more slaying power to the team but now nobody on the roster is especially objective focused. If the squad can compensate for this by over-slaying and having the other players adapt, then this could help LG. If not, Luminosity could slip back down the ladder to join Ronin and Str8 Rippin. Victory X and Ninja also were a proven duo, so chemistry and play-style clashes could also come back to bite LG.

How do you feel about these changes? What teams do you think will improve? Which will worsen? Be sure to share your opinions!

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Header image by ESL Halo.