LCS Teams That Missed Worlds
Due to the LCS only having three representatives at the League of Legends World Championship, as opposed to the LoL Pro League’s (LPL), and the League of Legends European Championship’s (LEC) four — based on the regions’ previous World Championship performance — the LCS has a remaining seven teams that had their LoL season end early.
In the wake of FlyQuest claiming the first LCS 2020 Spring Split Finals spot, the last World Championship seed for the LCS was also claimed. North America will be represented by three teams in the biggest international tournament of the year. North America is represented by Team Liquid, Team SoloMid, and FlyQuest. This is the first and only international tournament so far, as the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational was delayed and later cancelled back in April due to COVID-19.
In this article, we will be focusing on those seven teams that didn’t make the cut, and are stuck at home like the fans of the teams and the LCS itself. We will also be looking at their overall performance for the year.
Counter Logic Gaming
Throughout the 2020 season, Counter Logic Gaming had an abysmal 7-29 total record compounded between the Spring and Summer splits. Counter Logic Gaming finished in last place during the Spring Split with a 3-15 record, and they finished in ninth place with a 5-13 record in the Summer Split — a slight improvement.
The team struggled to barely improve from split to split, having mid laner Eugene “Pobelter” Park replace Lee “Crown” Min-ho partway through the Spring Split. Even though the team found more success with Pobelter, they benched him once again alongside jungler, Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin, with only two weeks left in the regular season of the Summer Split. This was a last-ditch effort at claiming the final LCS playoff spot, but it would prove to just be that - an effort.
Immortals
Returning to the LCS once more after successfully purchasing OpTic Gaming’s parent company last year, the team revamped it's roster, bringing in veterans of the game such as top laner Paul “sOAZ” Boyer from Europe and jungler Jake “Xmithie” Puchero after he was released from Team Liquid.
The team struggled through its first Split back, posting an 8-10 record and finishing at eigth place. Immortals continued to struggle through to the Summer split, having numerous roster changes such as benching their veteran jungler, and subbing in their entire Academy roster in Week 3. After finally finding deciding the roster that would conclude the Split, Immortals ended the season with an even worse Split — finishing in last-place with a 4-14 record.
Dignitas
The tenured esports organisation began their return with a reported contraction extension of top laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon worth over $2 million last year. The team united him with veteran players such as Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black and Henrik “Froggen” Hansen, also bringing in young talent in Johnson “Johnsun” Nguyen.
Dignitas came just short of playoffs in the Spring Split as they finished at seventh place with an 8-10 record after losing a tiebreaker versus Golden Guardians for the last spot. Although a noticeable decline and a release of Huni, the team was able to make it to its first playoffs since returning to the LCS, just to be swept by Team SoloMid in the losers’ bracket.
Golden Guardians
The logo wasn’t the only change for Golden Guardians, as this was a much-improved LCS this season for the organisation. The team made changes in the mid lane, swapping Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer and bringing in Tanner “Damonte” Damonte, while also trying different combinations of players in the bot lane, ultimately deciding on Ian “FBI” Huang and former mid-laner Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun as their support for the Summer Split. This bottom lane duo would end up becoming the consensus 'best bottom lane' in all of the LCS by Summer Split’s end.
Golden Guardians finished in sixth place with an 8-10 record, just to be swept out of playoffs by FlyQuest in the Spring Split. They were much improved come Summer, finishing at fifth place and upsetting Team SoloMid in round one of the playoffs with a sweep.
100 Thieves
The thieves completely overhauled their roster coming into this year’s LCS season, only keeping their carry top laner in Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho, while bringing back AD carry Sun “Cody Sun” Li-Yu and jungler William “Meteos” Hartman— after a controversial end to last year’s season. The team also brought in a fresh new face in the mid lane in the form of Tommy “ry0ma” Le. In hopes to better their first season in the LCS, 100 Thieves added former League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) caster Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith as their General Manager.
The team started better than they finished last year, having finished with a 10-8 record at third place in the Spring Split. They had their playoffs aspiration hopes slashed by Team SoloMid in the first round losing 3-2. The thieves had a decline in the Summer Split finishing in seventh place, and being one of the last two teams to claim the final playoff spots, just to once again get their playoffs run ended early this time by the hands of an Evil Geniuses sweep.
Evil Geniuses
Like other organisations, Evil Geniuses also returned to the LCS this season after acquiring Echo Fox’s LCS spot. The organisation began its year by acquiring a variety of players from a variety of teams. They first acquired three players from Cloud9’s roster, one of them being the former 2019 LCS Summer Split MVP Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, as they had no players coming into the league. To later round out the roster with LEC Vitality’s Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro and 100 Thieves’ Bae “Bang” Jun-sik.
It was a great start to their return as they finished in second place with a 10-8 record, getting past the first round in the playoffs to later lose to the eventual champions in Cloud9 in the second round during the Spring Split. The team would have a noticeable decline, finishing at sixth place in the Summer Split, even with the acquisition of Huni from Dignitas, and Goldenglue to be able to play Huni due to the LCS’ two-player import rule. Nonetheless, the organisation finished strong for its first year back, ending at a fifth-sixth place in the playoffs.
Cloud9
The most surprising team to not make the World Championship this year was Cloud9. They started the year by benching their tenured veteran AD carry Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi — to much backlash — while also maintaining their top side of the map as well as their mid lane. They gave up three of their players to Evil Geniuses while trying to build the best bottom lane possible with Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen from Team SoloMid, and the consensus best support in NA, Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme from Clutch Gaming/Dignitas.
They had a historic 2020 Spring Split run, only having lost twice in all of the split. Cloud9 dropped one game in the regular season, and one game during their dominant playoff run. They culminated their near-perfect season with a 3-0 sweep of FlyQuest in the finals — winning their first LCS final in six years.
Cloud9 continued their dominance into the Summer Split starting with a 9-0 record, later faltering with uncharacteristic losses in an attempt to try new compositions and strategies. The former champions went from first-place to barely hold on to their playoff bye at second-place. They got sent to the losers bracket by the current team waiting in the finals, FlyQuest, in a handled manner, to later fall in the final World Championship qualifying match to Team SoloMid.
The team who managed to get the furthest out of any NA team in World history failed to make the World Championship for the first time in the organisation’s existence — breaking a seven-year streak.
Images via lolesports