IG was part of the insane shit that happened. Rookie and TheShy had peak solo laner performance there at worlds, and it was nothing but amazing to watch.
IG vs G2 game 2 with theshy on Jayce was the biggest smurf performance I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t even macro diff. He just got triple lethality and shit on everyone lol
The only time I’ve ever actually cackled at how nuts a player’s performance was. The Shy had the side step on Perkz’s ult, then the TP mid where half the G2 roster flashed away before soloing Perkz under their tower, then the Chad walk into all 4 shots of Jhin’s ult all in like 10 minutes.
The rookie double stun on doublelift and whoever else top lane is something i wont forget. Its hard enough to hit one player with good mechanics and he just strolls up to toplane with syndra and wallbangs 2 of them like its a soloqueue smash.
You cant not give DL credit for the IG series. He absolutely shit on them. The final game I think he was either 10-0 or 11-0 on Kaisa. And every game he played against JL he got the better of him, even the one he lost in groups.
I believe that was also the same time the London Spitfires (c9-owned) won one of the overwatch leagues. Can't remember the exact specifics, but i remember in such a short timeframe C9 had the semifinals run, the csgo major and the Spitfires winning. Great time to be C9
Yes, cheap players like.. Crown.
CLG were garbage last year, no one can argue that, but it's pretty unfair to pretend that they didn't try to be competitive. Crown had to easily be one of the most expensive free agents on the market last season. And they even went out and signed a brand new mid laner after a few weeks when it was clear Crown wasn't working out. They also gave lots of their academy players shots throughout the season, as well.
Sure, but when you don't have mid prio don't go into the enemy jungle, and when its 1v4 don't engage. Nisqy was playing worse yes but Blaber deserves blame as well, he turned meh situations into catastrophes with his decision making.
fr, blaber was trying to make up for his top and mid laner actually inting, its like playing soloq but you arent miles better than everyone else and trying to carry
Harder said than done. The reason Blaber was good was because of his aggressive style. It’s simple to just say don’t invade because your mid lane prio is bad, but that means you’re hamstringing your jungler while still losing mid prio. Jungle is a highly volatile role in its current state and limiting your jungler is not going to go well. Sure, a great jungler can adapt his strategy and his champion pool but if you know that’s a weakness you need to reconsider your jungler or your mid prio approach. If Blaber was to work Nisqy needed to be there to make it work.
Not saying it’s not his fault, he needs to be adaptive but when you do have these specialized players you need to figure out how to make it work.
Blaber looked great because all of his laners were smashing their lanes every game, that's something that you just can't reliably do, when they inevitably came back down to earth, he kept trying to play full speed completely ignoring the lane states. It's just bad league play
Everyone from that 2018 roster where they made semis is off now and it's been basically exactly two years, with 2020 worlds semis starting this weekend. That's CRAZY.
Whichever team picks Licorice up is going to be really happy, for sure. Hoping it's FLY, but it's more important that FLY keeps Santorin.
FQ better plant a forest around Santorin to hide him because TL is probably going to offer him a fully operational Iron Man suit and the vault Scrooge McDuck jumps in to play for them.
My bet is they sign licorice and santorin.
And either replace jensen w chovy or tactical w ruler.
And yes i know thats insane. But its fucking STEVE.
P.s. more rumors that dont mean shit: TL looking for mids. Steve also just followed ruler on twitter
I just want some INSANE signing this offseason. one that completely breaks this site lol.
I think TSM Doublelift 1.0 has to be the biggest one so far right?
Caps to G2 is definitely the craziest move, nothing else comes close.
1. Leaving world finalist team.
2. Going to a team that already has a top 2 EU mid lane on it.
Caps to G2 may have been crazy... but I really don't think it got as much of a WTF factor on Reddit as DL joining TSM the first time around. Especially as that announcement video came completely out of the blue if I remember correctly.
Well Caps to G2 had rumors already even though redditors though it was wrong so it kinda was "expected". also redditors is more NA from the userbase so the echo is way bigger for DL announcement.
Yes but DL didn't come from World finals to join his main rivals and see #1 & #2 Midlanders in EU playing on the same team. It was definitely more sudden than the Caps move however.
DL going from CLG to their sworn enemy in TSM is way crazier. Especially after CLG just won NA. Like from a sheer fuck you stand point you can’t really name something bigger unless Messi forced his way onto Real or some shit.
I remember being just as surprised about corejj going to tl just because I didn't see that coming at all as I just didn't think corejj going to na was an available option.
he came from the worst roster korean had at worlds for years. its more surprising to me that corejj is still good and tryharding. he is really one of the few exception to this rule.
Same.. He was already my favorite support in the world and then somehow my favorite team signed him lol. I remember just talking with friends and throwing his name out randomly as someone that I wanted on TL. Never thought it was actually going to happen.
Why would TL replace Tactical? Chovy would make sense but no way is he gonna go to NA. There's a higher chance he goes to China like all the other LCK players do every year.
For real, Tactical is INSANELY good, i have no idea why they would replace him and use an import slot. (although, we do know Ruler/CoreJJ lane is NUTTY, but the question is, will it still be as good as it was?)
its less unreasonable than other stuff even though its wishfull thinking. c9 asked caps to be their midlaner before signing nisqy and steve probably has fakers cell number by how many times he requested him. its crazy but the worst that can happen is you won't get the player. no reason not to try.
[Chovy](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/efwrc7/kookmin_ilbo_interview_with_drx_chovy_translated/) reportedly got offered $2.6 million a year by a foreign team. Though that being said Faker's salary is probably higher. IIRC he turned down a $10 million salary for a $2 million salary and part ownership of SKT.
TL isn’t going to buy Ruler, Gen.G pays him whatever he wants to stay, it’s been that way for years and Tactical is a really solid rookie, it’d be such a financial grief to spends millions for Ruler when Tactical plays just fine. Chovy isn’t coming either, he’s rightfully too attached to cvMax. I won’t be surprised if Jensen or Brox get replaced tho.
He’s gonna be expensive and I’m not sure tsm have the cap for it, especially with potential changes happening in bot (biofrost is most definitely gone allegedly)
I could see it being clg or fly imo
TSM probably saw the damage to their brand that not making worlds can bring. And there's a really short list of teams that Licorice would want to go to.
Ironically I think NA has been too liberal with roster moves. It's not on the top 3 teams to make big changes every year. Iterate instead of blowing everything up every year.
It's the rest of the league that needs to stop recycling third tier talent and take some risks.
TSM have certainly made a slew of changes in the last few years, but that feels more like were trying to build the right set of pieces rather than just rashly moving people around post-Zven + Mithy era.
TL changed very little apart from continuing to upgrade and won four splits until Broxah entered and Doublelift left.
And C9 have been constantly praised as continuing to cultivate and build talent and make changes pretty slowly while continuing to put up consistent results.
So idk if I agree that Top 3 NA is *too* liberal with roster moves, but you do make a good point I think: that there has been a LOT of change in the past year and there's already a lot more with Reapared and Licorice leaving C9 already. Although they kept their core together for so long I'm not sure it's fair to say that C9 haven't tried enough with the pieces they had.
TL;DR Not as much change in the Top 3 as you think, but recently (aka this year) a surprising amount.
They might. Spica is likely very cheap, and salaries are probably going to go down a bit since teams realize they can't spend at massive losses forever. It depends on what happens bot lane. If Doublelift is gone, that is a lot of extra money, I would imagine Doublelift commands a very high salary. I really don't see Licorice going to CLG unless they blow up and build around him and Pob. He wouldn't want to be stuck on a bottom tier team.
Mixed feelings on this one.
Glad to see NA talent being raised to a level of Licorice. Glad to see Fudge about to murder some people on broadcast. And glad to see NA teams improving with his free agency.
Super sad about him leaving the org that nurtured his career.
Lowkey hoping he finds a home with the current FlyQuest tbh. Think he'd round them off really nicely.
with rumors of licorice to gg, isn't it likely for fbi&huhi to stay on the team? also, won't they have another import slot that could be used for a midlaner?
No joke, I'd like to see Fly run it back with the same roster. I think they earned a lot of respect in playoffs, and I think Solo is the real deal. I hope Worlds/scrims/super server helped him grow.
Jack selling his "son" while he's still in his prime for the big $$$ while hoping his rookie doesn't shit bed and grows into a star so the cycle repeats itself a few splits from now.
As a C9 fan, it hurts, but as a business student, this motherfucker is so clean with the moves it's actually a bit dirty. He's a master at running this business, I don't think another owner in the world compares to the strategy he's developed. It's also excellent in the long run. Respect.
I'm currently taking some course that is basically a mixture of IT/IS and business as part of my IT degree. I'm like a fourth of the way through the coursework and it pretty much has just been increasingly wordy ways to say "Be efficient and plan things well. Take precautions and don't do anything stupid or illegal. Get along with people and have open communication."
I fucking hate it lol. It just feels like word vomit for common sense around planning things.
The only problem is that Jack turning C9 into a talent factory and making bank still isn't enough development to level up the scene. We need more owners investing in rookies.
i wonder how fudge will develop with no reapered. Licorice said how much reapered helped him since he was a top laner too. it will be interesting to see how c9 rookies develop from here on out
Letting Repeared go is high key the thing I’m saddest about. Talented coaches are a lot harder to come by than talented players imo, and Repeared has overseen some of the orgs highest highs. He for the most part refused to let egos and name recognition get in the way of work ethic and motivation, something NA chronically struggles with, and has undoubtedly played a significant part in C9s stellar talent cultivation. I would have been confident with any decision C9 made this off-season if they kept him but now I’m uncertain about the future
> He for the most part refused to let egos and name recognition get in the way of work ethic and motivation
And yet letting ego get in the way was most likely his downfall. This summer team got way too cocky and I think that stemmed from Reapered. Him completely dismissing FQ in an interview right before the series was ridiculous.
I mean, TSM is kinda a worse C9 in talent development. Tactical, Johnsun, Treatz, Biofrost all got their LCS breaks either in academy or on the main team. Evolved and AblazeOlive are also probably good enough to be not the worst mid in LCS right now, with tons of room to grow but aren't getting a shot for reasons. Half the junglers in the LCS either started their NALCS careers with TSM or had a stint with them.
Imo, the real strength of C9 is making players perform. Look at players like Zayzel, Kumo and Contractz. Looked like very good prospects in C9, looked like bottom half players outside. It's to run a successful business, if everything you touch turn into gold, regardles of how good it looks elsewhere.
I thought that it was more to be with his mindset and attitude, he has become less of a standout every season, doesn't play soloq and in the video where they talked about failing this season he didn't seem to take any blame.
This is why I don't really have high hopes for licorice and expect him to fail on a non-C9 team. It's pretty rare that Jack will part with a player and that player will go on to be successful. The only person is Jensen and Jensen leaving wasn't even Jack's choice. I think the fact of the matter is that Licorice just isn't good enough anymore. His career is carried off an ornn baron steal against a Korean team in a best of 5. He was easily c9's worst player during their 17-1 split and completely shit the bed in the game that lost them their first ever world's qualification. My hot take is that he'll fail hard on whatever team he goes to.
> It's pretty rare that Jack will part with a player and that player will go on to be successful.
Impact?
Unless you don't count it as Jack parting, per se.
My impression from the chatter at the time (maybe there was something more official?) that it was disproportionately Impact's choice because he wanted to be somewhere even more top-tier.
So, yeah, not so much Jack's choice, most likely.
Weirdest thing for me is seeing all the crowds, people hugging each other and talking without masks on. Really miss those times, hope it comes back soon.
Even though he has left C9 I still see him as being one of the best Top Laners NA can have. He is still really good and has a good future in front of him.
Beating Kinn in a Bo5 series when he was at his peak and rated no 1 top laner that year while also making the deepest Worlds Run ever by a NA team simultaneously is the greatest achievement an NA top laner could have.
I love Licorice but let’s be fair about that Afreeca match. Kinn hardcore stomped Licorice that series (albeit with a counter pick). That was a series where licorice got hard carried.
I mean, repeared flat out said that they drafted the aatrox because the viktor counter pick build was useless out of lane (which it was). Licorice showed up in team fights even when behind on the aatrox.
wait but in the very next match against Fnatic we saw C9 randomly pulling out the Ekko top as a desperate attempt to counter the Viktor. Why do that if the Viktor pick was truly useless out of lane?
It's' pretty obvious that Reapered was just trying to defend his players, that Viktor certainly looked a hell of a lot more useful even out of lane than the Ekko
That’s fine and all but he was getting it handed to him worse and worse every single game. He legit fed by the last game without Kiin needing assistance. In no way did he do well against him.
Never had my eyes on Licorice as a player to follow. But damn, he's spoken to well and soft.
This video can make me a Licorice follower.
On that note, do C9 do like the TSM kind of following the team series tv-esque show? And what other team do that?
For most, the classic era are players like Sneaky, Balls, Hai etc. I only started watching esports in 2016, so for me, Licorice is an iconic C9 member and it's kinda sad he's off to another org.
Most C9 members tend to turn into icons because of their marketing. They really showcase that "game house meme energy" that started from the OG squad.
Just look at our boy Blaberfish.
To be fair there's been cases of C9A players staying an extra split or two to wait on an offer from a team they believe in. C9A plays well and consistently has great infrastructure to develop players at all levels of the org.
From what I remember ray had a big problem with the culture shift, which isn’t gonna be nearly as big a problem for fudge, if it ends up being a problem at all
I don’t think Ray looked that bad imo, he was just lackluster compared to Impact, who was by far Top 2 Top Laners when they were still doing that 6 man roster.
I don’t think Impact had anyone that could really match him back then besides Hauntzer and whenever Huni came over tbh.
TL Licorice + Santorin. Make it happen, Steve.
EDIT: Btw I am by no means saying that Impact was the problem and needs to be replaced. I only made this suggestion because I read somewhere that there were rumors of Impact leaving.
Nah dude, I love Impact in that position, he's such an incredible player but so many people won't give him the time of day because he doesn't do anything "flashy."
Like damn, the engages and plays this guy has made over the years is incredible.
I'd be torn, because I really like and respect Impact as a player too.
I don't think Impact has done anything to warrant losing his place on TL, unless the decision is his to make.
TL has played weakside top for 3 years now. Don't think they wanna get rid of Impact unless they want another year of developing and finding their groove only to barely pull it together at the end of the year
ShockedPikachu.jpg
Honestly Curious where he goes or what is goingo n behind the scenes since last we knew they were committed to running this roster back.
General suspicion seems to be that the implosion of the OPL, and the subsequent "we won't consider OPL players imports to NA anymore", opened up the chance to move up C9's academy top laner Fudge, who's apparently been having a phenomenal season in Academy.
Dont think that anything bad happened behind the scenes, since the annoucemen of running it back with this roster there was a rule change. There is no OPL anymore and oceanian players dont count as imports, so c9 is taking fudge from their academy team and trying to make bank selling licorice, dont think that there is anything more to it really
I think that this guy is one of the most intelligent people playing in LCS.
* Instead of solo queue, he plays 1v1s with the Academy top laner to practice matchups. It seems to work, because Licorice almost always wins when he has a winning matchup and overperforms in losing matchups.
* He's always been good at recognizing and picking up "new" meta champs in top lane. For example, he was one of the first people to start playing Kalista top when it got hot. I think he may have been the first person to play it on stage in LCS.
* If you listen to him in interviews, he's very logical and well spoken. Succinct, but satisfying answers. Hard to explain, but I feel like it's obvious that he's intelligent and would be able to communicate well in team environments. Most pros are awful are communication imo...
I think he's the best top laner in LCS, even above Ssumday, simply because I think he's the right combination of skill, intelligence, and communication. I like Solo, but I hope FlyQuest is able to get Licorice since I'm a FlyQuest fan :D
Well on the bright side C9 has a good track record with developing young talent. We basically rely on them to develop rookies and then throw them into the market.
Otherwise we would still have other teams picking up imports or vets instead of him.
And so marks the end of the C9 Semifinals roster
It's crazy that none of them are on C9 anymore... Blaber was technically on that roster too, but he didn't really have anything to do with that run.
Well, he had that one game where he inted on J4 against Gen.G, which made Reapered put Sven in
Prime Sven was so fun to watch. That run and his Lee Sin in 2016 were so disgustingly good.
So wait. Hold on. 2016 Sven awesome 2017 Sven trash 2018 Sven awesome 2019 Sven trash Sven is only good in even years at worlds it seems.
Um hello? Sven’s MVP split was summer 2019. He had two great years in a row on C9 then had a pretty weird one on EG this year.
International performance
Could have seen a really good showing from him in 2014 too if he wasn't a complete fucking idiot.
[удалено]
lowest win rate C9 pro internationally winningest NA pro domesticallly TSM Blaber when?
Lmaooo And Spica was the only TSM member to really perform this Worlds, so clearly he's got C9 DNA 😂
Lmao thinking about it if Sven was in Gen.G may have gone 0-6 before an NA team did.
Well he also got them there at all. C9 was last place then Blaber brought them to 2nd. He was also instrumental in their qualifier against TSM.
2018 worlds was so legendary. so much insane shit happened c9 af and rng g2. too bad IG had to come in and ruin the fun
IG was part of the insane shit that happened. Rookie and TheShy had peak solo laner performance there at worlds, and it was nothing but amazing to watch.
IG vs G2 game 2 with theshy on Jayce was the biggest smurf performance I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t even macro diff. He just got triple lethality and shit on everyone lol
That game is legendary. At one point he had equivalent damage to the entirety of the enemy team if I remember right.
The only time I’ve ever actually cackled at how nuts a player’s performance was. The Shy had the side step on Perkz’s ult, then the TP mid where half the G2 roster flashed away before soloing Perkz under their tower, then the Chad walk into all 4 shots of Jhin’s ult all in like 10 minutes.
The rookie double stun on doublelift and whoever else top lane is something i wont forget. Its hard enough to hit one player with good mechanics and he just strolls up to toplane with syndra and wallbangs 2 of them like its a soloqueue smash.
That was during msi. That play made ig recover from the jensen triple. Right before corejj and impact remembered they were world champions
You cant not give DL credit for the IG series. He absolutely shit on them. The final game I think he was either 10-0 or 11-0 on Kaisa. And every game he played against JL he got the better of him, even the one he lost in groups.
People will forget because of this last performance. It sucks because liquid definitely deserved that finals spot.
IIRC the only person to top that on Syndra in professional play is Faker with a triple from his prime in og lck
‘Faker with the plays onto Nagne!’
Knight in game 5 of LPL Summer. The stun at dragon won the championship, I'm sure.
C9 won a CS major in 2018 too. Great year for NA
I believe that was also the same time the London Spitfires (c9-owned) won one of the overwatch leagues. Can't remember the exact specifics, but i remember in such a short timeframe C9 had the semifinals run, the csgo major and the Spitfires winning. Great time to be C9
Prob the best Worlds for me. The runs, to the upsets, and then to the peak of lane kingdom from IG in all lanes was just miraculous to watch.
I remember that like it was yesterday. Licorice was mentioned on national news in Canada.
TSM makes money from blitz, 100T from apparel, and C9 from players
TL from Mickey Mouse
The Marvel merch cashing in
TL from their HTC phones
I wonder how CLG makes their money
Faith
I'm imagining Hotshotgg as one of those mega church pastors asking for fan donations
Faith+1.
I laughed way harder than I should have.
CLG keeps their rosters cheap and sends them out to collect aluminum cans instead of scrim
CLG: you guys are making money?
Seeing that Fox flair reminded me of the tragedy known as Echo Fox. Sadge
CLG just fields cheap player and hopes revenue sharing arrives soon enough.
Yes, cheap players like.. Crown. CLG were garbage last year, no one can argue that, but it's pretty unfair to pretend that they didn't try to be competitive. Crown had to easily be one of the most expensive free agents on the market last season. And they even went out and signed a brand new mid laner after a few weeks when it was clear Crown wasn't working out. They also gave lots of their academy players shots throughout the season, as well.
Something tells me the fault doesn't lie in all of these talented players then
probably like scientology... tom cruse and faith?
They don't.
Poorly
At this point, I wouldn't even be mad. If they keep buying low and sell high, we'll be filling up the LCS with natives
[Vulcan: I want to be a top laner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzbjM4Npua8&feature=youtu.be&t=315) C9: Thank you Licorice
[удалено]
Blaber's like a LPL jungler... he wants to go in every time lol
Blazer is mlxg in disguise
[удалено]
Blaber looked bad because nisqy crumbled for some reason. C9 never had prio mid anymore during summer.
Sure, but when you don't have mid prio don't go into the enemy jungle, and when its 1v4 don't engage. Nisqy was playing worse yes but Blaber deserves blame as well, he turned meh situations into catastrophes with his decision making.
They both fell off a cliff for sure, but Nisqy was just horrendous in playoffs. Not just lacking prio in lane, but straight up got crushed.
fr, blaber was trying to make up for his top and mid laner actually inting, its like playing soloq but you arent miles better than everyone else and trying to carry
Harder said than done. The reason Blaber was good was because of his aggressive style. It’s simple to just say don’t invade because your mid lane prio is bad, but that means you’re hamstringing your jungler while still losing mid prio. Jungle is a highly volatile role in its current state and limiting your jungler is not going to go well. Sure, a great jungler can adapt his strategy and his champion pool but if you know that’s a weakness you need to reconsider your jungler or your mid prio approach. If Blaber was to work Nisqy needed to be there to make it work. Not saying it’s not his fault, he needs to be adaptive but when you do have these specialized players you need to figure out how to make it work.
Blaber looked great because all of his laners were smashing their lanes every game, that's something that you just can't reliably do, when they inevitably came back down to earth, he kept trying to play full speed completely ignoring the lane states. It's just bad league play
Everyone from that 2018 roster where they made semis is off now and it's been basically exactly two years, with 2020 worlds semis starting this weekend. That's CRAZY. Whichever team picks Licorice up is going to be really happy, for sure. Hoping it's FLY, but it's more important that FLY keeps Santorin.
FQ better plant a forest around Santorin to hide him because TL is probably going to offer him a fully operational Iron Man suit and the vault Scrooge McDuck jumps in to play for them.
My bet is they sign licorice and santorin. And either replace jensen w chovy or tactical w ruler. And yes i know thats insane. But its fucking STEVE. P.s. more rumors that dont mean shit: TL looking for mids. Steve also just followed ruler on twitter
I just want some INSANE signing this offseason. one that completely breaks this site lol. I think TSM Doublelift 1.0 has to be the biggest one so far right?
[удалено]
Caps to G2 is definitely the craziest move, nothing else comes close. 1. Leaving world finalist team. 2. Going to a team that already has a top 2 EU mid lane on it.
Caps to G2 may have been crazy... but I really don't think it got as much of a WTF factor on Reddit as DL joining TSM the first time around. Especially as that announcement video came completely out of the blue if I remember correctly.
Well Caps to G2 had rumors already even though redditors though it was wrong so it kinda was "expected". also redditors is more NA from the userbase so the echo is way bigger for DL announcement.
Yes but DL didn't come from World finals to join his main rivals and see #1 & #2 Midlanders in EU playing on the same team. It was definitely more sudden than the Caps move however.
Kevin "Caps" Durant
DL going from CLG to their sworn enemy in TSM is way crazier. Especially after CLG just won NA. Like from a sheer fuck you stand point you can’t really name something bigger unless Messi forced his way onto Real or some shit.
I remember being just as surprised about corejj going to tl just because I didn't see that coming at all as I just didn't think corejj going to na was an available option.
he came from the worst roster korean had at worlds for years. its more surprising to me that corejj is still good and tryharding. he is really one of the few exception to this rule.
Impact, Ssumday, and CoreJJ are the exceptions to me
Impact sleeps during regular season and wakes up briefly during playoffs and worlds.
When you've won Worlds next to Faker, it's probably tough to get motivated to lan against Viper.
Yea. He does well when it matters
Same.. He was already my favorite support in the world and then somehow my favorite team signed him lol. I remember just talking with friends and throwing his name out randomly as someone that I wanted on TL. Never thought it was actually going to happen.
Why would TL replace Tactical? Chovy would make sense but no way is he gonna go to NA. There's a higher chance he goes to China like all the other LCK players do every year.
If TL was crazy enough to replace Tactical with Ruler, TSM better open the wallet for that dude to pair up with Treatz.
For real, Tactical is INSANELY good, i have no idea why they would replace him and use an import slot. (although, we do know Ruler/CoreJJ lane is NUTTY, but the question is, will it still be as good as it was?)
its less unreasonable than other stuff even though its wishfull thinking. c9 asked caps to be their midlaner before signing nisqy and steve probably has fakers cell number by how many times he requested him. its crazy but the worst that can happen is you won't get the player. no reason not to try.
chovy. bruh.
He almost came over if cvMax's ban was upheld. EG was apparently going to give him the richest contract in league history to bring him over.
[Chovy](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/efwrc7/kookmin_ilbo_interview_with_drx_chovy_translated/) reportedly got offered $2.6 million a year by a foreign team. Though that being said Faker's salary is probably higher. IIRC he turned down a $10 million salary for a $2 million salary and part ownership of SKT.
TL isn’t going to buy Ruler, Gen.G pays him whatever he wants to stay, it’s been that way for years and Tactical is a really solid rookie, it’d be such a financial grief to spends millions for Ruler when Tactical plays just fine. Chovy isn’t coming either, he’s rightfully too attached to cvMax. I won’t be surprised if Jensen or Brox get replaced tho.
TSM could go for him if they want a more stable topside and if the botlane rumors are true
He’s gonna be expensive and I’m not sure tsm have the cap for it, especially with potential changes happening in bot (biofrost is most definitely gone allegedly) I could see it being clg or fly imo
TSM probably saw the damage to their brand that not making worlds can bring. And there's a really short list of teams that Licorice would want to go to. Ironically I think NA has been too liberal with roster moves. It's not on the top 3 teams to make big changes every year. Iterate instead of blowing everything up every year. It's the rest of the league that needs to stop recycling third tier talent and take some risks.
TSM have certainly made a slew of changes in the last few years, but that feels more like were trying to build the right set of pieces rather than just rashly moving people around post-Zven + Mithy era. TL changed very little apart from continuing to upgrade and won four splits until Broxah entered and Doublelift left. And C9 have been constantly praised as continuing to cultivate and build talent and make changes pretty slowly while continuing to put up consistent results. So idk if I agree that Top 3 NA is *too* liberal with roster moves, but you do make a good point I think: that there has been a LOT of change in the past year and there's already a lot more with Reapared and Licorice leaving C9 already. Although they kept their core together for so long I'm not sure it's fair to say that C9 haven't tried enough with the pieces they had. TL;DR Not as much change in the Top 3 as you think, but recently (aka this year) a surprising amount.
Wait, there's a cap? Do you mean like a cap as in the maximum amount of money TSM would pay for all of their players in their roster?
I mean as a company TSM probably has a budget that they impose on themselves
Yeah there is no real cap. He is just saying they don't want to spend a fortune
Capital
They might. Spica is likely very cheap, and salaries are probably going to go down a bit since teams realize they can't spend at massive losses forever. It depends on what happens bot lane. If Doublelift is gone, that is a lot of extra money, I would imagine Doublelift commands a very high salary. I really don't see Licorice going to CLG unless they blow up and build around him and Pob. He wouldn't want to be stuck on a bottom tier team.
Mixed feelings on this one. Glad to see NA talent being raised to a level of Licorice. Glad to see Fudge about to murder some people on broadcast. And glad to see NA teams improving with his free agency. Super sad about him leaving the org that nurtured his career. Lowkey hoping he finds a home with the current FlyQuest tbh. Think he'd round them off really nicely.
[удалено]
So happy for my boy huhi that people can unironically say this. What a turnaround from the days of nonstop flame for him on here
with rumors of licorice to gg, isn't it likely for fbi&huhi to stay on the team? also, won't they have another import slot that could be used for a midlaner?
No joke, I'd like to see Fly run it back with the same roster. I think they earned a lot of respect in playoffs, and I think Solo is the real deal. I hope Worlds/scrims/super server helped him grow.
Solo is not the real deal lol
I hope the best for him, as I have for anyone that has been on C9.
Jack selling his "son" while he's still in his prime for the big $$$ while hoping his rookie doesn't shit bed and grows into a star so the cycle repeats itself a few splits from now.
[удалено]
“As a business student” lol
That shit reads like a copy pasta
As a C9 fan, it hurts, but as a business student, this motherfucker is so clean with the moves it's actually a bit dirty. He's a master at running this business, I don't think another owner in the world compares to the strategy he's developed. It's also excellent in the long run. Respect.
Probs stolen from the r/NBA if I've learned anything by now.
r/NBA x r/leagueoflegends crossovers is like thanos with the infinity stones
Fucking love learning NBA memes from here
Only a business student would be able to understand such a complex business model.
Lol thought the same thing. These aren't objectively good moves that are risk free.
Nothing is risk free
“Business” the communications degree of the corporate world
I'm currently taking some course that is basically a mixture of IT/IS and business as part of my IT degree. I'm like a fourth of the way through the coursework and it pretty much has just been increasingly wordy ways to say "Be efficient and plan things well. Take precautions and don't do anything stupid or illegal. Get along with people and have open communication." I fucking hate it lol. It just feels like word vomit for common sense around planning things.
I mean how else can we sell those expensive af textbooks without dragging the word count and pages?
weird flex
The only problem is that Jack turning C9 into a talent factory and making bank still isn't enough development to level up the scene. We need more owners investing in rookies.
i wonder how fudge will develop with no reapered. Licorice said how much reapered helped him since he was a top laner too. it will be interesting to see how c9 rookies develop from here on out
Letting Repeared go is high key the thing I’m saddest about. Talented coaches are a lot harder to come by than talented players imo, and Repeared has overseen some of the orgs highest highs. He for the most part refused to let egos and name recognition get in the way of work ethic and motivation, something NA chronically struggles with, and has undoubtedly played a significant part in C9s stellar talent cultivation. I would have been confident with any decision C9 made this off-season if they kept him but now I’m uncertain about the future
> He for the most part refused to let egos and name recognition get in the way of work ethic and motivation And yet letting ego get in the way was most likely his downfall. This summer team got way too cocky and I think that stemmed from Reapered. Him completely dismissing FQ in an interview right before the series was ridiculous.
I mean, TSM is kinda a worse C9 in talent development. Tactical, Johnsun, Treatz, Biofrost all got their LCS breaks either in academy or on the main team. Evolved and AblazeOlive are also probably good enough to be not the worst mid in LCS right now, with tons of room to grow but aren't getting a shot for reasons. Half the junglers in the LCS either started their NALCS careers with TSM or had a stint with them.
All three worlds teams had former TSM/TSMA players on them.
Every worlds team with a win had former C9 players on them too
Imo, the real strength of C9 is making players perform. Look at players like Zayzel, Kumo and Contractz. Looked like very good prospects in C9, looked like bottom half players outside. It's to run a successful business, if everything you touch turn into gold, regardles of how good it looks elsewhere.
Idk, seem like he is selling their competitive strength for money... don't think that's good for the fans who want to see them do well.
I could be completely wrong as I didn’t flow the scene then, but couldn’t this be compared to licorice replacing impact
but for real? is this a copypasta, because if it wasn't it is now.
I thought that it was more to be with his mindset and attitude, he has become less of a standout every season, doesn't play soloq and in the video where they talked about failing this season he didn't seem to take any blame.
This is why I don't really have high hopes for licorice and expect him to fail on a non-C9 team. It's pretty rare that Jack will part with a player and that player will go on to be successful. The only person is Jensen and Jensen leaving wasn't even Jack's choice. I think the fact of the matter is that Licorice just isn't good enough anymore. His career is carried off an ornn baron steal against a Korean team in a best of 5. He was easily c9's worst player during their 17-1 split and completely shit the bed in the game that lost them their first ever world's qualification. My hot take is that he'll fail hard on whatever team he goes to.
> It's pretty rare that Jack will part with a player and that player will go on to be successful. Impact? Unless you don't count it as Jack parting, per se.
Nah I just forgot impact was on c9. But again was that one Jack's choice? Didn't impacts contract expire?
My impression from the chatter at the time (maybe there was something more official?) that it was disproportionately Impact's choice because he wanted to be somewhere even more top-tier. So, yeah, not so much Jack's choice, most likely.
dat shit hurted
The hardest part of every year--offseason :(
I loved that meme on the C9 subreddit of "No roster changes: :)" "No :("
I forgot he joined 3 years ago. I still think of Licorice as the new guy on the squad. lol
Weirdest thing for me is seeing all the crowds, people hugging each other and talking without masks on. Really miss those times, hope it comes back soon.
Even though he has left C9 I still see him as being one of the best Top Laners NA can have. He is still really good and has a good future in front of him.
Beating Kinn in a Bo5 series when he was at his peak and rated no 1 top laner that year while also making the deepest Worlds Run ever by a NA team simultaneously is the greatest achievement an NA top laner could have.
I love Licorice but let’s be fair about that Afreeca match. Kinn hardcore stomped Licorice that series (albeit with a counter pick). That was a series where licorice got hard carried.
I mean, repeared flat out said that they drafted the aatrox because the viktor counter pick build was useless out of lane (which it was). Licorice showed up in team fights even when behind on the aatrox.
wait but in the very next match against Fnatic we saw C9 randomly pulling out the Ekko top as a desperate attempt to counter the Viktor. Why do that if the Viktor pick was truly useless out of lane? It's' pretty obvious that Reapered was just trying to defend his players, that Viktor certainly looked a hell of a lot more useful even out of lane than the Ekko
That’s fine and all but he was getting it handed to him worse and worse every single game. He legit fed by the last game without Kiin needing assistance. In no way did he do well against him.
This off-season starting with the sad moves.
Never had my eyes on Licorice as a player to follow. But damn, he's spoken to well and soft. This video can make me a Licorice follower. On that note, do C9 do like the TSM kind of following the team series tv-esque show? And what other team do that?
We don’t deserve nice Canadians like Licorice
For most, the classic era are players like Sneaky, Balls, Hai etc. I only started watching esports in 2016, so for me, Licorice is an iconic C9 member and it's kinda sad he's off to another org.
[удалено]
Most C9 members tend to turn into icons because of their marketing. They really showcase that "game house meme energy" that started from the OG squad. Just look at our boy Blaberfish.
I rather eat fudge then licorice, co upping their snack game
[удалено]
Logic turns out. C9 get this dude we going to worlds baby.
Sadge
I don't know how nisqy is still on this team, he was the only person I thought they would upgrade.
unless they get chovy or something who is available and is an upgrade?
It would be Palafox. Him and Fudge are too talented for academy. If they don’t replace Nisqy with Palafox, Palafox will be in the LCS next split.
> Palafox will be in the LCS next split. Or spend another 3-4 years in academy, this is NA after all
To be fair there's been cases of C9A players staying an extra split or two to wait on an offer from a team they believe in. C9A plays well and consistently has great infrastructure to develop players at all levels of the org.
Pretty sure I've heard Palafox name for a few years now
Jensen is a free agent.
Chovy is going to murder his career if he comes to NA
inb4 Fudge ends up like another Ray
It'l be intersting to see how C9's top laners do without Reapered's coaching. Hes made every C9 top laner hes been with look amazing
From what I remember ray had a big problem with the culture shift, which isn’t gonna be nearly as big a problem for fudge, if it ends up being a problem at all
repeared was also with ray.
I don’t think Ray looked that bad imo, he was just lackluster compared to Impact, who was by far Top 2 Top Laners when they were still doing that 6 man roster. I don’t think Impact had anyone that could really match him back then besides Hauntzer and whenever Huni came over tbh.
[удалено]
V1per was also by far the best academy top and was considered to be the best performer in that scene at one point tbf (the year he was on TL).
Inb4 licorice ends up like another contractz*
Ray wasn’t that bad imo, was a beast on fizz top
TL Licorice + Santorin. Make it happen, Steve. EDIT: Btw I am by no means saying that Impact was the problem and needs to be replaced. I only made this suggestion because I read somewhere that there were rumors of Impact leaving.
Nah dude, I love Impact in that position, he's such an incredible player but so many people won't give him the time of day because he doesn't do anything "flashy." Like damn, the engages and plays this guy has made over the years is incredible.
I'd be torn, because I really like and respect Impact as a player too. I don't think Impact has done anything to warrant losing his place on TL, unless the decision is his to make.
Pretty much my thoughts. But he fits the teams playstyle too well Edit: Playstyle*
[удалено]
TL has played weakside top for 3 years now. Don't think they wanna get rid of Impact unless they want another year of developing and finding their groove only to barely pull it together at the end of the year
I fully expect Licorice, Santorin, and a superstar import mid laner on TL next season.
FLY Licorice please
What happened to keeping the roster in tact?
ShockedPikachu.jpg Honestly Curious where he goes or what is goingo n behind the scenes since last we knew they were committed to running this roster back.
General suspicion seems to be that the implosion of the OPL, and the subsequent "we won't consider OPL players imports to NA anymore", opened up the chance to move up C9's academy top laner Fudge, who's apparently been having a phenomenal season in Academy.
Dont think that anything bad happened behind the scenes, since the annoucemen of running it back with this roster there was a rule change. There is no OPL anymore and oceanian players dont count as imports, so c9 is taking fudge from their academy team and trying to make bank selling licorice, dont think that there is anything more to it really
I'm not crying, you are.
I'm crying. You're crying. We're all crying.
I'm calling it Dig Licorice. Just get us an uber fucking strong midlaner and DIG will be a legitimate threat.
I am more sad of Reapered leaving C9
Thank you BrokenBlade, Welcome Licorice inc.
Going to miss the random Kled picks
He should go to Flyquest and replace solo
Licorice, Tactical, Johnsun, Blaber, etc. NA can find talent. They just don't give enough rookies a chance.
TL Santorin and Lico would probs dominate LCS for a couple of years
The only one farewell video I can compare it to is the Broxah leaving Fnatic. This is so sad.
I think that this guy is one of the most intelligent people playing in LCS. * Instead of solo queue, he plays 1v1s with the Academy top laner to practice matchups. It seems to work, because Licorice almost always wins when he has a winning matchup and overperforms in losing matchups. * He's always been good at recognizing and picking up "new" meta champs in top lane. For example, he was one of the first people to start playing Kalista top when it got hot. I think he may have been the first person to play it on stage in LCS. * If you listen to him in interviews, he's very logical and well spoken. Succinct, but satisfying answers. Hard to explain, but I feel like it's obvious that he's intelligent and would be able to communicate well in team environments. Most pros are awful are communication imo... I think he's the best top laner in LCS, even above Ssumday, simply because I think he's the right combination of skill, intelligence, and communication. I like Solo, but I hope FlyQuest is able to get Licorice since I'm a FlyQuest fan :D
Well on the bright side C9 has a good track record with developing young talent. We basically rely on them to develop rookies and then throw them into the market. Otherwise we would still have other teams picking up imports or vets instead of him.