Early this morning, North American League of Legends organization Cloud9 announced that mid laner Hai “Hai” Du Lam was stepping down from its main squad for a role on the management team.
This brought an end to the longest-standing roster in professional League of Legends, and immediately raised the obvious question: Who will replace him? In April, the Daily Dot reported that European mid laner Nicolaj “Incarnati0n” Jensen had signed with Cloud9. But that doesn’t mean Jensen has a lock on the open roster spot. Another player will get a tryout for the position, sources close to the organization tell the Daily Dot: C9 Tempest’s David “Yusui” Bloomquist.
Both Jensen and Bloomquist will be coming off bans that will be lifted on May 11. Jensen received his ban January 2013 after he allegedly DDOS’d other players and also displayed “abusive behavior and poor sportsmanship,” according to Riot. Initially, the ban’s duration was uncertain. But in April 2013, Riot Games made it permanent. The ban covered all official-Riot Games events, effectively ending Jensen’s competitive career.
Since then, Jensen has hit number one on the Europe West solo queue ladder consistently over the past two years and has impressed the likes of many teams. Despite his ban from competitive play, Jensen has coached several teams, most notably SK Gaming, who he helped qualify for the League World Championships last year.
Likewise in the U.S., Riot banned 17-year-old mid laner Bloomquist for the 2015 Spring Split after his team, Cloud9 Tempest, using a ringer in the 2015 Spring Challenger Series qualifier. The ban was not as severe as Jensen’s. Bloomquist and his teammates have been competing in various non-Riot Games affiliated tournaments such as the League One NA Cup and the AlphaDraft Challenger League. Bloomquist has dominated in these events against his opponents in the mid lane.
Since his entry on the competitive scene in early 2014, Bloomquist has played with multiple teams. But he’s best known for his time at LoLPro in the 2015 Expansion Tournament and his current outpost at Cloud9 Tempest. Hailed as one of the best up-and-coming mids, he’s nevertheless never been given an LCS tryout, as teams have been nervous to sign a player who was still a full-time high school student. It’s clear now, however, that Bloomquist plans to put his schooling on hold to pursue a chance at the pros.
Late last month, Riot announced that Bloomquist and Jensen would both be unbanned on May 11, with both being eligible once again for competitive play. Jensen is currently still in Europe, but should be moving stateside in the coming weeks.
Cloud9 did not respond to a request for comment.
Photo via Riot Games | Remix by Jacob Wolf
