​ An explosive Super-Week is going to be kicking off the summer split of the LCS. Today, we take a look at the drastic changes in the North American scene and how they'll change and invigorate the scene and create new stories for the North American LCS. Will Edward resonate well with the rest of Curse? Will Chaulift return to its alleged legendary status? And what about the controversial return of Shiphtur after the success of Team Coast last split?

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Team Coast's controversial return of Shiphtur

From being the laughingstock of the LCS early on and languishing at the bottom of the standings to thrusting themselves into the 2nd place position by the end of the spring split, Team Coast (formerly GGU) is nothing to scoff at. If you were asked how the team would do judging by the first 4 weeks, "top 3" wouldn't even come to the mind as a possibility. Early on, their regular mid player "Shiphtur" suffered the ill fate of being subbed out for the majority of the season due to visa issues.

During this time, "Jintae" came in to fulfill the role of mid laner, starting off weak and then blasting the team ahead, upset after upset. Though surely their success isn't strictly due to Jintae, he fared well against other LCS mid laners and was seen as a rather impressive addition to the team by the end of the season.

@shiphtur GOT HIS VISA APPROVEDDD!!!!!!!!!!! CAN CONFIRM GGU WILL BE AT FULL STRENGTH — Josh Atkins (@NintendudeX) May 30, 2013

After the spring split, NintendudeX, the jungler for Team Coast, made an announcement that they would be returning to having Shiphtur in the mid lane, a controversial decision to many. After spending the grand majority of time helping contribute to the great success and underdog story that GGU (now Team Coast) took part of, it seemed questionable for them to make such a decision, but as far as we know it was on mutual terms between the mid lane "sub" and the team.

Fortunately for the curious, Team Coast will have the very first game to kick off the super week facing off against none other than the 1st place team, TSM. Putting Shihptur up against Reginald will be an excellent benchmark to the potential of Shihptur for several reasons: TheOddOne frequently visits Reginald's lane and Reginald has an unusually aggressive playstyle; Shihptur will be under the immense pressure of being against the top rated team for the very first game of the split in a LAN setting he hasn't become accustomed to.

Chaulift and the continuation of unfamiliar roles

Probably equally as questionable to long time Counter Logic Gaming fans is the current roster setup for CLG and their proposition that any skilled player of any role will be able to fill any role professionally with enough practice. The problem with that is people cannot afford to play catch-up at the moment when the stakes are high and the time between LCS matches are limited.



If we're being honest, CLG hasn't had great results putting people in unfamiliar roles (Locodoco support, Chauster/Hotshot jungle) or forcing them into playstyles that are unfamiliar to them (Voyboy in place of HotshotGG top). However, the team has insisted on grabbing star players and putting them in unfamiliar roles once again -- but this time it brings back the return of Chaulift.

The question is: will it be worth it? Nientonsoh has shown his flexibility in the past, alternating between middle and bottom lane, so there's definitely potential to be tapped into. And what about Bigfatlp, the once deemed legendary middle laner, being in the jungle? Well, it actually makes sense looking at Bigfatlp's skillset. While he may have fallen off in terms of CSing and overall may have become weak in the laning phase, he has always been incredibly strong in teamfights. Now, he can focus on the teamfights and avoid the laning phase issues altogether.

Once upon a time...

Chauster and Doublelift have allegedly caused players in OGN to continuously swap in favor of 2v1ing due to the strength of the duo. However, Saintvicious seems to claim otherwise. They'll be facing up against the duo of Evaniskus and frommaplestreet to see how the pair measures up against other LCS bot lanes.

Though probably not as strong as they once were in their prime some time back, the two have a synergy that allows them to mesh very well due to the unique "student-teacher" relationship between the two. Doublelift has constantly claimed his dislike for supports playing "catch-up" and the necessity of making decisions. With Chauster bottom once again, Doublelift be able to focus on raw mechanics while Chauster can become the mastermind of the bottom lane once more.

The Thresh Prince to Curse

Both the most recent and probably the most shocking was Curse Gaming picking up formerly Gambit Gaming's Edward. Though this should help alleviate the problem of Curse's supposedly weak bottom lane due to Edward seemingly being the pinnacle of 0CS aggression, it brings to question Cop's ability to adapt after having been a rather passive and almost "too safe" player for the majority of the previous season.

Word around the professional scene leads fans to believe that Cop has a lot of potential to improve if he ever acquired an experienced, top tier support and now he has his chance to prove his doubters wrong. Elementz, beloved as he is, was considered too weak to be on the team and Rhux is a much better top laner than a support, meaning judgement against Cop has been unfair at best, and now he really gets his chance to shine.

Wake up, Cop...time to shine.

Aside from gameplay changes, this new acquistion brings a refreshing addition to the stories that can be developed from the North American LCS as it's the first time we've seen a player join another team cross-region since Locodoco's debut with CLG. Edward has left his schooling and native language behind in hopes to help Curse Gaming bring themselves back up to the first place spot in the LCS as they once were for the majority of the spring split.

The bottom lanes, as a result of this change, are very stacked for North American teams, further enforcing the viability of NA on a global scale. A brand new spice has been added, but will we see it's potential right away? Probably not, as the team will only have one day to practice with Edward before the dawn of the new LCS split -- and Curse are not exactly notorious for solid scrim performance.

The Inclusion of two new teams

Though Team MRN and Complexity brought some excellent upsets in both the qualifier and the season itself to the spring split, they were not able to make it through, allowing Cloud 9 and Velocity eSports into the repertoire of competing North American teams. Cloud 9 is a team to be feared and has shown that even after losing two of their star players (Nientonsoh to MRN and then later to Counter Logic Gaming, and Wildturtle to TSM), Cloud 9 has proven that isn't enough to hold them back from being capable of entering the LCS.

The inclusion of Velocity is also an exciting one primarily due the addition of another sibling dynamic. Similar to NickWu of Complexity Gaming and ClakeyD of Team MRN, LCS now presents the Wylie brothers: TheOddOne of Team Solomid and frommaplestreet of Velocity eSports. It's out with the old and in with the new and surely another sibling rivalry will come forth from the inclusion of Velocity, though the teams don't meet until much later in the month.

​ An excited Cloud 9 after a 3:0 crush against Complexity.

Velocity being in the LCS also provides an opportunity for Atlanta to be a part of LoL eSports after having notoriously bad luck with a lot of his teams; now, he can serve an LCS squad as a coach. Though Velocity acquired their spot in a less convincing and more narrow manner than Cloud 9, they still have shown that they are not a team to be trifled with.

Though the LCS may have done a few things that have made competitive League of Legends a bit more stale, it has also created many stories and many opportunities for teams in the amateur scene to rise to professional status. All regions as a whole has a template for success and an avenue to practice extensively and test their limits each and every week. Let's hope the summer season of LCS brings as much hype and entertainment as the previous.