NA Expansion Tournament Rundown
Writer – Olle ‘WP Martinsmamma’ Nylander, 13th December 2014
Curse Academy
Active roster: Hauntzer, Saintvicious, Keane, Cop, Bunny FuFuu.
Chance to qualify: Very good.
Curse started out as Children of IWDominate the team at the time showed great promise and was quickly picked up by Curse to try and qualify for the 2013 North American Championship series.
In the beginning C.A. was not performing as well as had been hoped, but team owner and manager Liquid112 didn’t relent and kept making the required roster swaps and decisions to move the team forward.
When the team qualified for the NA challenger series in spring 2014 via the 5v5 ranked ladder, where they faced competition favorites Determined gaming.(Picture, http://league-central.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/iE4QWoQAXMycc.png). While this ended up being a 5-8 place#1 NACS spring these results were not good enough for #2 NACS. As hoped C.A. performed a lot better and got a spot in the NACS Playoffs, all they needed now was a top 3 position to get into 2014 summer promotion. Sadly the team fell just short of the finish line losing to Complexity Black ending up in 4th.
Once again they swapped their roster, but this time with stars. They picked up ex curse jungler “Saintvicious” and old XDG midlaner star Mancloud. They also added on players Cris, Bunnyfufu and Impactful. With this lineup they ended up taking 3rd in NACS summer 2014. In the second instalment of the Challenger series C.A. ended up placing 2nd only losing out to favorites “Team Coast” in the finals. The team managed to qualify for playoffs once again.
With the new addition of Keane they performed well and only lost to Team 8 in the finals, receiving the 2nd seed for the promotion tournament.
CLG picked them for the promotion games and once again C.A. were not the favored team, they fought tooth and nail but ended up losing the series 2-3.
Now in the LCS 2015 expansion tournament Curse Academy has a seed and is looking like a favorite to get into the Spring LCS 2015.
Team Fusion
Active Roster: MaknooN, NintendudeX, Huhi, Nientonsoh, Gleebglarbu
Chance to qualify: Dark horse.
Team Fusion is a team that came out of nowhere, however they are now one of the most hyped teams coming into the expansion tournament. The team consists of players that have been hated on, loved, and treated really harshly by the community in general. Other than Huhi the whole team has played for a top team in their region at some point and now they’re back to show that they can do it again.
But where is Team Fusion from? Earlier this year there was a lot of drama regarding North America’s 3rd spot team LMQ. There were rumours that they might get bought by another organisation, in the end the deal ended up not happening, but the team owner “Veyloris” was openly adamant about getting a LCS caliber team. (Direkt link to proof, http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2lmli4/team_fusions_owners_are_the_same_guys_who_were/).
But not only has the management of Team Fusion been able to get some great players together, they also managed to get a great supporting staff and it seems they’re investing heavily into it.
So even though it’s a relatively new team, all the players have previously shown that they’ve got what it takes to perform. So even though the team has not been together for too long it appears that they have the management to get where they want.
Fusion was also quite lucky, getting a W.O. over Team Confusion and got 2 games to scout Enemy Esports. They then stormed into the series picking poppy and beating their opponents 2-0, showing superior teamfighting and turret dives.
Complexity.Black
Active Roster: I Kenny U, Xmithie, Pr0lly, RobertXLee, Bubbadub.
Chance to qualify: Good
Coming into the expansion tournament one of the teams with the most drama surrounding them was Complexity. After removing Pr0lly from the roster, followed by RobertXLee and Bubbadub leaving the team it meant they didn’t have three original qualifying players so they couldn’t keep their seed spot in the expansion tournament. The team had been performing better and better in the LCS before getting knocked out which is one of the reasons people were so surprised when Pr0lly was removed from the lineup.
Complexity being in a tough situation but wanting to keep their seed decided to re-sign Pr0lly, Bubbadub and RobertXLee to get the best possible chance of getting back into the LCS. Now with the additions of I Kenny U and Xmithie both well renowned players it seems that in the upcoming expansion tournament
Complexity’s chances skyrocketed to claim that spot and once again get back into the North American LCS.
Team Coast
Active Roster: Cris, Impaler, Jezis, Dontmashme, Sheep.
Chance to qualify: Decent
Team Coast is one of the older teams that once placed 2nd in the NA LCS playoffs, but never again have they reached such heights. They had performed really well on occasion with old star players Zionspartan and Shiptur.
Sadly in the 2014 spring split they got relegated and sold of their better players. They performed really well in the Challenger series placing 3rd in the playoffs but after that loss EU newcommer “Santorin”. Now the team has been rebuilding and has finally found a stable roster including EU talents “Impaler” and “Jesiz”, both of which have shown huge potential in the EULCS.
One reason it might not look too good for Team Coast coming into the expansion tournament is that they have not played with each other for too long and with strong teams such as Complexity and Curse Academy as competitors it’s going to be really tough to advance. However they have played really well on the ranked 5s ladder but as always that does not indicate enough.
Admittedly they did perform in their games against Call gaming and LoLPro with the Impaler Jezis combo really helping the team out in early game control.
Complexity.White
Active Roster: Westrice, Kez, Goldenglue, Impactful, Lohpally
Chance to qualify: Slim.
Complexity White is one of the teams that got the short end of the stick just before the expansion tournament. They lost the seed that they would’ve had if they had kept 3 out of 5 players from their previous roster, and now “Westrice” and “Kez” are in quite the pickle. They don’t have their old teammates and they had to place as high as possible on the ranked 5s ladder to get the best possible seed instead of the number 3 seed they thought they would’ve had in the beginning. But not only that, they’re in bracket B which Curse Academy, one of the favorites, are also in!
Admittedly they do have the management of Complexity behind them, which has proven that they know how to upset time and time again. But it’s going to be really tough for the squad to get through the tournament and qualify seeing as so far they have not shown anything special.
Team LoLPro
Active Roster: Flaresz, Thinkcard, Yusui, Wizfujin, Keithmcbrief
Chance to qualify: Slim.
Team LoLPro is one of the teams that has not only been around for a long time but also been really consistent in their tournament performances… Sadly it’s not been too great seeing as their consistent ranking has been the middle of challenger. The team was originally supposed to be more of a European Curse, but when the LCS came into play Curse.EU had to disband, thus beginning Team LoLPro of North America.
The team quickly found players to fill their roster getting funneled from Curse.NA players like Nyjacky and Cop was once in the team, but sadly the talent filled roster fell apart quickly followed by trying the best to find local players which they could use.
What’s interesting is that Team LoLPro has been performing well as a team in all the games I’ve seen but has lacked the individual play, this is something teams with good management do where I think the credit goes to Curse. Hopefully this will be able to carry them in the upcoming tournament seeing as right now they have the weakest roster in the history of the team.
But the team should not be considered out yet. Both Thinkcard and Yusui has been talked about as up and coming players, so I expect nice play from both of them.
Enemy Esports
Active Roster: Cackgod, Inori, Wolfe, otter, Bodydrop
Chance to qualify: Slim
This is the team I would’ve put as darkhorse if they did not end up in the bracket they’re in. They’re currently in the bracket with Fusion esports, whom I think likely to be the winner. It’s a shame because this team has just the mix of well known really good players and the unknown quality team players that could’ve made an upset!
Enemy Esports has been in the scene since 2012 when team owners Clerkie and Chachi created the team in hopes of it growing into something big. In the beginning the team had trouble finding a skilled roster and really tried to break into the scene. Luckily the organization recently found available players, but they’re also really good ones. Both Otter and Inori have shown over the season that they are players you can count on. The team recently had a good showing in the Fall NA Blackmonster cup and have been improving a lot on the ranked 5s ladder recently placing 2nd only behind Team Coast!
F5
Active Roster: Rhux, ShorterAce, Gate, Prototype White, Rule18
Chance to Qualify: Low.
F5 started out as a team Rhux and team manager Mizzpeach started up after leaving Team Coast. At the time they played under Motion gaming and quickly gathered a roster. Sadly not long after roster issues started and people was brought on and off and it took them two months to finalize their roster, just one week before the ladder lock.
They ended up placing 7th place on the ladder and getting into the expansion tournament facing Zenith E-sports in the first round. After a tough loss in the first game they got themselves back into the series winning it 2-1 with convincing Maokai play followed by a great team showing they advanced. In the second round they faced fan favorites Complexity. Black and it looked like F5s dream to get into LCS was over. But once the games started F5 showed that the practice they had together really mattered and they really pulled it out of the bag. Rhux once again showed that he is still a capable player and he really stepped up followed by Gate being a playing surprisingly well in mid lane, and going into the upcoming games F5s teamwork really was their strong point.
Monstar Kittenz
Active Roster: ChumpJohn, XSojin, Arcsecond, Hoofspark, Hanjaro.
Chance to qualify: Slim
Monstar Kittenz placed 9th on the NA Ladder and qualifying for the expansion tournament and placing them against Complexity.White in the first round.
The team formed earlier in the summer with the ambition to get into the NA LCS. In their first series against CoL.White they surprised a lot of people by grabbing one win once again proving that you’ve got to be prepare when facing unknown teams. Hoofspark played really well but sadly it could not grab them a second win and they went out in the first round losing 2-1. I personally hope to see more of them especially their ADC Hoofspark and jungler XSojin, both showed a lot of skill and that’s what I’ll try to remember from this series.
Zenith Esports
Active Roster: TheSoloKing, Mimo, Easy, Frostalicious, k1.
Chance to qualify: Low
Zenith has been around since May 2014 but didn’t show any real results until the NACS Summer#2 where they qualified but immediately went out in the quarterfinals vs Team 8.
The team had a lot better showing in the blackmonster cup placing 3rd, this time beating Team 8 and gaining some confidence going into the Expansion tournament.
In the expansion tournament they ended up facing F5 in the first round a team which most thought Zenith would beat. And with a strong showing in the first game it looked like most people were right. Sadly they fell short in the second game followed up by losing pretty badly in the third game, ending up going out in the first round.
TheSoloking played exceptionally well though and I hope to see more of his Swain in the future, but probably with another team because their teamfighting wasn’t very good.
Noble Truth
Active Roster: Tonnington, Razelock, Leonard, Nocturnal, Ralara.
Chance to qualify: Slim.
Noble Truth, formerly known as Team Confusion was an unknown team that qualified to the NA Expansion tournament via the ranked 5s ladder. They faced off against Enemy Esports in the first round and being the clear underdogs they really had no pressure on them coming into the games.
In the first game both teams looked very shaky but Enemy straightened that out pretty quickly and thus gaining control of the game. It felt like Noble Truth never really got into the series and their vision was really disappointing at most times thus causing them to lose.
Noble did not really have anything spectacular in their games and their game plan was poorly executed, hopefully in the future we’ll see this team come back more polished.
Fission Esports
Active Roster: Mysterious, Azingy, Abou222, I am the IRS, Indvisible.
Chance to qualify: Slim.
All in all the team called “Azingys team” like many others, eleven to be exact. qualified for the expansion tournament via ranked 5s ladder. They got a lot of hype around them with famed player Azingy on the team. Sadly for them they faced LoLPro who were more established and looked very promising. LoLPro prepared their picks and bans really efficiently against them, banning out Azingy, forcing him on simple picks such as Pantheon and Jarvan.
It seemed after the first game Azingy started to tilt slightly and was really off his game. Furthermore the rest of the team simply couldn’t cover for him or each other. It was a bit disappointing because Azingy is known for a reason and it didn’t seem the right Azingy showed up for these games.
Call Gaming Team
Actice Roster: Darkblight, Lucid, Envirnonmental, Rakin, Stuntopolis
Chance to qualify:Slim
Call Gaming is another rather unknown team that placed high on the ladder rankings thus qualifying into the Expansion tournament. Sadly for them they faced Team Coast in the first round, so for them to advance they had to take a huge step and improve by a wide margin out of nowhere.
In the first game they got behind really early but thanks to some solid Rammus play by Lucid they managed to keep in the game a lot longer than thought. But all in all they sadly got crushed and once Coast tasted victory once they just went in for more.
The strongest point of the whole series was the jungler Lucid, he really showed how big of an impact a good jungler can have on a team. But as always it’s a team game and in the end no matter how hard he tried he simply couldn’t do everything alone. With that said it would not surprise me if Lucid get’s picked up by a better challenger team shortly.
That's all from me, thanks for your time and I hope you've learned a little about these upcoming challenger teams!
See you all on the rift,
Olle 'WP Martinsmama' Nylander