The League of Legends offseason is starting to die down, with most LCS organizations finalizing their rosters publicly. Most changes feel warranted, given each team’s 2019 performance. Some fans are having difficulty imagining how certain roster changes might impact their favorite teams. Meanwhile, Pobelter, Damonte, Aphromoo and Sneaky are not currently on a starting line-up. Taking all of the announced changes into account, here are the five most intriguing differences going into LCS 2020.

Cody Sun to 100 Thieves

Cody’s move to 100 Thieves is more intriguing from a narrative standpoint than from a practical standpoint. The bottom lane change from 100 Thieves’ perspective makes sense, especially when factoring in the “Bang for their buck.” Cody is probably cheaper and performed really well in 2019 compared to Bang. Meteos is also returning as jungler, while Pr0lly and Aphromoo are out. These roster moves immediately bring 2018 to mind, when 100 Thieves benched Cody Sun just before playoffs and leading into the World Championship. Fans who jumped ship over the way 100 Thieves handled Meteos, Cody, or even Ssumday in the past will be cheering for these changes to work out in 2020.

Dardoch to TSM

Another offseason, another jungler joins TSM. For the past few years, TSM seems to come into the Spring Split with a new jungler that should be able to solve their problems from the previous year. They have a honeymoon phase, but over the course of the year, things start to go wrong, eventually resulting in them missing Worlds and Reddit making suggestions as to which players they need to change. Dardoch is the newest jungler to step into this role, following his most recent time on OpTic Academy. Personality-wise, Dardoch is in contrast to TSM’s most recent junglers–Spica, Akaadian, Grig, MikeYeung–which makes this move one of the most intriguing of the entire offseason.

Keith to GGS Support

One of the big head-scratchers of the offseason, Keith will be the starting support for Golden Guardians. Yes, the GGS Academy bottom laner is role-swapping to support FBI on the LCS roster. The organization put out a video showing some of the behind-the-scenes of offseason, where they failed to come to an agreement with Hakuho. Coach Inero and Manager Danan Flanders then discussed the idea of swapping Keith to starting support because “he’s mechanically better than most of them,” referring to the remaining available supports on the market. ADC to Support role-swaps have worked out before (Aphromoo, CoreJJ), but that does not mean every marksman can make the transition successfully at the pro level. Maybe Keith will become another legend, or maybe GGS will utterly fail.

sOAZ to Immortals

It is always a big deal when a veteran player from outside of North America joins an LCS team, and sOAZ to Immortals is no different. The French top laner has gone from 2018 World Championship runner-up to ninth place in the LEC Summer Split with a star-studded Misfits roster. He is probably coming to LCS to get a fresh start with a new organization and all new teammates. Alongside Xmithie, Eika, Altec and Hakuho, sOAZ has something to prove this split, which makes this team scary. If he is unable to put up better performances, then fans are going to seriously start questioning sOAZ’s abilities after nearly 10 years of pro play.

Zven to C9

Zven to Cloud9 is is going to be a strange transition, and Sneaky being off the team is even weirder. Such a joking, memer team might clash with Zven’s serious persona. He is the type of player to call others out on issues, and it may have caused tension within TSM. Bringing this attitude into C9 is not necessarily bad, but it will feel pretty contrasted with Sneaky’s role and personality on the team. Adding him over Sneaky also does not feel like a clear upgrade, which puts more pressure on Zven in the eyes of the fans. Like sOAZ, if C9 somehow flops, then fingers will start to point at Zven as a player to avoid for future teams.

Images from TSM.gg, Cloud9’s Facebook, and 100 Thieves’ Youtube

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