Post TI6 Roster Shuffle - Wings stays, Fear retires, Miracle to Liquid
It is over. Weeks have gone by and rumors, speculations and teasers kept fans hoping, confused but also engaged. The post-TI roster shuffle has come to a close as new teams emerge in what could be described the wildest shuffle yet. We covered part of the shuffle already, such as the new Secret, OG or the reunion of Black^ and Iceiceice.
Shopify Rebellion
The most anticipated roster announcement of this year’s shuffle was announced only a few days ago, but people are still talking about this new roster.
As 3rd team at TI and long-time teammates, arguments could be made that the team had reasons to stick together. Veteran ! has however announced his retirement as player and will now coach the team. Fans are however doubtful whether or not he will stay retired, as a lot of players before him have announced their retirement, only to return half a year later. That is mostly a Chinese phenomenon though and Fear’s health issues are real, so odds are he will in fact stay retired.
Captain PPD has also decided to step away from playing and has been announced to transition into a business position with Twitch/EG.
As for the actual five man roster, star mid player Aster.Suma1L-, offlaner
Universe and support
zai remain. Joining them will be former OG support
Cr1t-, who’s also going to take on the role as captain. To round out the roster, EG has acquired the assistance of
Arteezy again….again.
Newbee
Newbee was unable to live up to expectations at TI6. Going into the event, the Chinese powerhouse was ranked as favorite for maybe even a top 3 finish. Placing only 9th-12th, the team was bound to undergo changes.
Captain Hao decided to take a break from competitive play and he’s joined by Mu. Whether or not this retirement is only temporary remains to be seen. Filling the void will be former TongFu player Moogy and former Newbee.Y player
无始. Both have shown promising performances and Sccc especially a player to look out for--an explosive mid that can dominate a game and who has recently broke the 9000 MMR barrier and is #1 on the Chinese leaderboards.
As ChuaN also leaves the team, one more position needed to be filled. The support duo dynamic will be a lot clearer from now on, as a true 5 joins with 小能猫. The former iG player will accompany uuu9 from TongFu to this reborn Newbee.
Execration.安博电竞
Representing the Philippines at TI6, Execration was unfortunately already eliminated in the Wildcards. Within a few matches only however, the team showed what they were capable of and especially youngster Abed proved to be a true talent, not just on his legendary Meepo. It is no surprise that the organization decided to build a new team around him and veteran
KimO. Joining them will be Filipino superstar and former Fnatic player
Fnatic.Dj, former Rave player
decon and mid talent
Entity.Gabbi.
The squad already participated in this year’s MPGL and showcased a lot of dominance, completely overwhelming MVP.Phoenix 2-0 in the finals.
Vici_Gaming Reborn
Vici Gaming Reborn placed last at TI6, thus it was natural to see speculations regarding a potential split of the team. Surprisingly enough however, the squad has decided to stay together--for the most part. It was expected to see the team part ways with midlaner NoNo, as they had already preferred playing with coach mikasa going into TI. It was only due to VG.Yang’s visa issues that allowed NoNo to compete with the squad.
Former FTD.Club C player ghost will assume the role of midlaner. The team will also play as the main squad from now on and retire the name Reborn.
LGD Gaming
LGD-Gaming has once again been rebuilt and the process is quite familiar. Two years ago, the back then prodigy Maybe was allowed to build a team around him in order for him to grow into the superstar LGD wanted him to be. That team was later called CDEC and eventually placed 2nd at TI5--without Maybe.
This time around, Maybe is in fact the superstar the organization wanted him to be, and as such a new team will be built around him again. He was allowed to handpick his teammates and has chosen former CDEC.Y players XZ,
Victoria and
PSG.LGD.Ame. The squad had promising performances leading up to the qualifiers for this year’s International, but failed. While XY was an offlaner during CDEC’s impressive TI5 run and has largely played offlane for CDEC.Y as well, it appears that he’ll transition into a support position together with Victoria. Ame is the 2nd 9k MMR player and rank #2 on the Chinese leaderboards.
To complete the roster, former ThunderRobotGaming player Hi joins them as their new offlaner. A former midplayer, who’s been in the Chinese tier2 scene for a while now.
Alliance
Another highly anticipated roster was that of European fan favorite Alliance. The Swedish team has lost a core part of its team in drafter s4 and veteran Akke. As AdmiralBulldog also takes a break from competitive play, captain Fader vår was tasked with the difficult challenge of rebuilding a new, competitive team around him and
EGM.
The Swedish player pool is rather deep though and a registration for the WESG Qualifier revealed and early form of the new roster. Former compLexity Gaming, but moreso former Ninjas in Pyjamas players and thus former rivals Alliance.Handsken and
LIMMP.
Completing the line-up will be another former Ninja, jonassomfan, who has mostly been competitively absent since the Ninjas disbanded, with appearances in some tier 2-3 teams.
Akke and AdmiralBulldog will remain with the brand for the foreseeable future.
MVP Phoenix
The Korean team did well to place 5th-6th at TI6, but the squad decided to split up regardless. As previously reported, Forev and MP left the team to join Secret. The remaining three players decided to stick together. dddd will retain his mid position, but
Febby will return to playing a core role, mainly the carry.
TSM FTX.DuBu remains as the team’s captain and hard support, and is joined by former MVP player
ReiSeN. The last core position is filled by former MVP.Hot6ix player
Velo, who looks to mainly occupy the offlane, but MVP has shown numerous times how flexible their laning decisions are.
A 2nd place finish and their performance at MPGL were admirable and solid, though the grand final loss vs. Execration showed that the team was nowhere near the level of their previous roster yet.
EHOME
Weeks ago, Iceiceice already announced his return to SEA and leaving EHOME. It fit the team quite well, regardless how strong of a player he was. The team may have down well to place 5th-6th, but it definitely showed that iceiceice was and is not a dedicated carry player. EHOME effectively played with 2 offlaners and it hurt them. With Sylar as their new carry, EHOME can look forward to a more traditional position breakdown and can rely on his large carry hero pool. As a final addition to the team, former CDEC player
Garder will join the team as hard support.
compLexity Gaming
A failed attempt to qualify for TI through the wildcards put an early end to coL’s TI ambitions. The squad led by captain Kyle had quite the horrible weeks, if not months leading up to TI, with mediocre online results not allowing them to even qualify for a LAN. LANs they did attend resulted in bad performances and results as well, which is why it came to no surprise that the team announced roster changes a few weeks ago. The Swedish trio of Chessie, Limmp and Handsken left the team. While Chessie remains as coL streamer, the other two have found a home in Alliance.
A leak on stream a few weeks ago revealed plans for coL to pick up former DC player NOUNS.Moo and CIS pubstar
.. Today, the organization announces that these two players have in fact been picked up and that former eHug player jk/
tae , who’ll assume the role of carry. Cancel^^ will play mid and Moo on the offlane, as swindlezz moves on to play hard support.
VG.J
Vici Gaming has assembled a new roster yet again, as VG.Reborn becomes the main squad. The organization keeps players Sr from VG.Reborn and both [player=] and
Flow from the old VG main squad. All three are expected to assume their familiar positions (mid, offlane and support). To complete the roster, former LGD and CDEC carry
悟了 joins the team, as well as former EHOME and VG player
Fenrir.
LGD.ForeverYoung
Another new roster emerges in this shuffle. Interestingly enough, it features two players that would usually "retire" this time of the year. Former LGD captain xiao8 has created a new team around himself and his long-time friend and veteran
0921. They'll be joined by former VG and CDEC player
Elephant.Super！, as well as former CDEC.A mid
IG.Monet and former TongFu support
LPC.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid was supposed to be a team that competed for the top. After Manila, fans expected the boys in blue and white to reach for the title. Instead, the Europeans fell to Fnatic. Roster changes were to be expected. Liquid has bid farewell to midplayer Fata-, who’s decided to take a break from competitive play for a while. In addition, JerAx left to pursue a new adventure with OG. Filling the voids left by both players will be none other than former OG superstar Miracle- as well as former Secret player
BuLba. While Miracle- will naturally take on the midrole, Bulba will try himself again as support player. He’s done so before at TI4 where he already played under the Team Liquid banner.
May the brawling begin
Aside from Wings Gaming, Natus Vincere and Escape Gaming, no TI6 team has kept its roster. In fact, many new teams have been formed since and it makes the fight for a spot at the next Major all the more interesting. The teams listed above are not all the teams that have registered for this coming Major season. Many more out there, be it Kaipi, Empire, or Burning's new iG, all teams are gearing up to prove themselves, even if it has to be through menial online qualifiers. Who will emerge victorious out of this roster shuffle?
Image Sources:
FIRST!!!
Wow, Miracle?!
3rd Xd
4th lmao
4gs roster is lit bruh
5th mom im 5th!
Wildest roster shuffle indeed. TI7, off we go !
NA'VI IS BACK, AND NOT YET CHANGES
8th ggwp
we'll miss fly strategy flying trough Barkawi's mind
10TH Yeah Bois
SAD TOO LATE FOR FIRST
We won't be having fng fn and G in 1 team
We won't be having mmy yyf fy yj zyf in 1 team
Shitty roster changes xd
You left out Fnatic, TNC and Secret which all have massive changes to their line ups.
Why didn't you cover team secret? I think they have an interesting line up, too.
again...again xD
@Duhm Phuk
@Espresso
Read the previous article...
RTZ joins EG/SECRET when its on top just to make it fall to the bottom so he can switch between them again and again and again
What is this sentence? "The most anticipated roster announcement of this year’s shuffle was announced only a few days ago, but people are still talking about this new roster. " People are still talking about a recent event? Shock horror?
Also "that iceiceice was and is not a" would read better as "was not and is not"
Also also, you're missing a player link in vg.r
The most chaotic roster shuffle yet
any1 knows Fear's health "issues"?
dafuk is miracle doing in liquid now ?
That missing name in VG.J should be rOtk
i am best player than all these mentioned, report them
Goodnight sweet prince. :'(
25th... xD
EG and Liquid roster has scary lineup.
Спасибо, что появился перевод!
Спасибо администрации сайта за русскую локализацию!!!
NA'VI IS BACK!
Rtz again!? Why? EG deserves something better
Rip EG
I can't deal with this shit
No OG mention ? One of the interesting rosters. Really ?
Isn't XctN.Rapy banned from all Valve events though? Doesn't seem like a smart move.
lets see the next turney who will be best team
last..
35th lel
37th wtf
38 rofl
arteezy ............... again and ....................... again ..................... xD
I Always wanted Miracle in Liquid as I Love Team Liquid more because of their Supports. Sad that my favourite Support player JerAx is Joining OG. Back then I used to Root for Team Liquid because of JerAx and then root or OG because of Miracle looks like I'll do the same but swapping the players. I wish JerAx and Miracle play together.
Cancel isn't CIS you hack journalist
hmmmmmmmmmm
Where is OG? S4 is like one of the best mids in the world and still no mention of og roster changes?
@Aokuang
It's their temporary offlaner who played at MPGL, XctN.BYB (Bayabas), who is banned from all Valve events. XctN.Rapy (former Rave player) has no bad records of any kind. They announced Rapy's addition after the event though so this current XctN lineup might not be as good as what they showcased last event (with BYB).
Fear has arm problems ..probably from too much mouse clicking