eSports teams by nature have a high turnover rate, and the nature of League of Legends as a 5-man team game makes this all the more evident in the scene. The hours needed to keep up in this highly competitive world are grueling and the stress can be intense; the most common issue plaguing LoL teams is the difficult interactions and relationships between team members who need to work together like a well oiled machine.
Thus, fans of the game have become used to teams making drastic roster changes. Teams like Against All Authority have actually had their entire roster changed in single swings, leaving the teams entirely unrecognizable. Here, though, I want to focus on two teams in particular, one because of its strong name in not only the League of Legends scene but the eSports community as a whole, and another because of the rarity of roster changes we’ve seen from them in the past.
Curse Gaming
I’ve spent much of my time as an eSports fan being a Curse fanboy; I learned to jungle from Saintvicious streams and guides, and have always enjoyed the professional, if somewhat lackluster, attitude they have brought to the game. Curse has spent much of its time being a “4th place” team, with a strong start but a lack of steam to drive those victories into the end of tournaments. Their moments to shine at the top have been few and far between, but they’ve been a solid team with mostly minimal roster changes since Season 1.
Curse members, new and old, are ready to take Season 4 by storm.
This last season, though, heralded the end of an era for Curse. LiQuiD112, the team’s manager, has verified a series of roster changes which leave the team almost entirely unrecognizable to Curse fans. Saintvicious, my favorite jungler who, unfortunately, has fallen on serious inconsistent play over the last year, is stepping into a coaching position. New players have taken positions within the team, leaving the roster as follows:
- Top Lane: Quas
- Mid Lane: Voyboy
- Jungler: IWillDominate
- AD Carry: Cop
- Support: Zekent
Voyboy’s move to mid-lane was interesting, as he’s been a well known top laner for much of the game’s life, and I’m happy to see Cop retain his position as AD Carry; for a short time, Aphromoo was set to take the position, but LiQuiD decided (thankfully) to keep him off the team, retaining Cop in his position. IWillDominate is returning to the scene after his 1 year ban from competitive play due to his poor attitude in play, and is quoted to be working hard to have a better attitude for the community.
This is an aggressive move for Curse and I’m excited to see where they go with it. I’m almost relieved, after the poor showing from the team over the last season, that I’ll get a chance to maybe find a new favorite team. Still, maybe the changes for Curse will be for the better!
Team SoloMid
Team SoloMid (TSM) has been a powerful name in the LoL eSports scene from the beginning, and for their entire time as a team has seen only three individual roster changes. This has made them probably the most consistent team in League of Legends, and though their roster change isn’t as numerically significant as Curse, it is in many ways more important.
TSM has been a massive influence on the LoL scene for ages.
Reginald, TSM’s long-standing Mid-lane player and primary shot-caller, has opted to step down from his position and take over as coach for the team. In exchange, TSM has picked up Bjergsen, a 17 year old Mid-laner from Denmark. Bjergsen is known for his aggressive, assassin-oriented play with champions like Zed and the often underestimated Syndra. He also has a wide champion pool that makes him very difficult to ban against, and I believe he will be a strong addition to the TSM roster. TSM’s highly aggressive, fast paced play and fans-oriented style have made them the real showmen of LoL, and Bjergsen keeps tightly to that style of play; in truth, Reginald could hardly have been replaced by a more appropriate Mid.
League of Legends Season 4 is highly anticipated, and I for one am excited to see what Curse and TSM do with their new rosters; North America has really started showing that we want to take eSports seriously, and maybe this is the step we need to be competitive.
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