SKT Wins Worlds
After four weeks of epic battles on the rift that included a multitude of upsets, heartbreaks, and dominating performances, the 2015 League of Legends World Championship comes to a conclusion. In the end, SK Telecom T1’s assertive performance crowned them the first ever two time World Champions in League of Legends competitive play history. Rivaling the run that Samsung White had in last year’s Worlds, SKT has dominated in every series this year, only dropping one game in the finals the entire championship.
SKT started off the year strong, going 17-1 in their series during the Summer split and 35-6 overall. They finished the regular season and playoffs in first place, dominating the LCK. They drew Group C, which also featured Chinese team EDG, a team many thought was as good as SKT after beating them at MSI. That proved to not be the case, as the Chinese region as a whole fell flat at this year’s Worlds. They swept through the group stage, knocked out both European hopefuls, and finally defeated familiar foe KOO Tigers. The end result is another championship for Faker and Bengi, and a claim as the best franchise in League of Legends.
CLG terminates Doublelift’s contract
In the biggest news coming out of North America,
CLG has released their ADC, Peter ‘Doublelift’ Peng. It didn’t take long for a team to pick him up though, as Team SoloMid has already signed him to a contract to be their ADC. Doublelift started his professional League of Legends career in Season 1 and brings a ton of experience to TSM. He is also widely considered the best ADC in North America. He’s a world renowned player and is respected in international tournaments.
Doublelift’s release from CLG came as a surprise, as him and support Aphromoo were a lethal duo in the bottom lane for the team. In Doublelift’s first public comments on his new deal, he seemed motivated and ready to prove CLG has made a huge mistake (watch out fellow ADCs for Doublelift’s wrath next year). Doublelift stated, “Joining TSM will be a new chapter in my life, one that I am both excited and proud to be a part of. I hope to prove myself and earn the welcome of TSM fans worldwide. I am determined to use this fresh start to break through my current limits and dominate the competition harder than ever.”
Meanwhile, former starting ADC Jason ‘WildTurtle’ Tran has been moved to TSM’s substitute roster and has been given permission to seek a starting ADC position on another team (ironically, CLG will be taking a hard look at him).
Cloud9’s Lemonnation retires
After stating during the summer that this would be his last year playing competitive League of Legends, Daerek ‘Lemonnation’ Hart has joined the analyst team for C9, effective immediately. C9 has stated they are only looking for one more member to join the team, albeit either a jungler or support role. Longtime mid laner and current jungler Hai will either fill the jungle roll or support roll, depending on which direction C9 management decides to go in.
Two TSM Legends Retire
NA top lane staple, Marcus ‘Dyrus’ Hill,
announced his retirement after TSM was eliminated from Worlds. Dyrus has been playing League of Legends since its beta phase. Besides YellOwStaR, he is the only player to have qualified for all 5 League of Legends World Championships and is the only North American player to have played in every NA LCS split. Dyrus will be moving to the TSM Retirement House (yup, it’s a real thing).
Also retiring is longtime support Jang-sik ‘Lustboy’ Ham, formerly of Azubu Blaze and spending his last competitive year with TSM. Lustboy will still be with TSM, moving to an analyst position.
TSM cuts Santorin
After an up and down year, Lucas ‘Santorin’ Larsen has stepped down from his position on the team. The departure was mutual, and it was clear near the end of the season that it just wasn’t working out.
Team Dignitas EU sold
Dignitas EU has a new owner after the
Follow Esports group acquired the rights to the team. This effectively separates Team Dignitas ownership of two professional League of Legends teams, leaving them with exclusive ownership of the North American team. New rules passed by the pro-gaming League of Legends circuit prohibits an ownership group from owning two teams, which resulted in the sale of Dignitas EU. Original estimates of the team value was pegged at $500,000, but reports indicate that Follow Esports paid close to $1,000,000.
Four of the Dignitas EU player contracts will be transferred to Follow Esports, including Martin "Wunderwear" Hansen, Chres "Sencux" Laursen, Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup and Nicolai "Nisbeth" Nisbeth. The team will hold tryouts for the last available position as well as actively search for a head coach and player analysts. Dignitas EU has already qualified for next year’s League of Legends Championship Series and will have a chance to compete for a spot in Worlds.
