With the Mid-Season Invitational coming to a close, the mid-season roster change period is upon us.
On May 24, Riot Games opened up rosters across the globe, allowing for League Championship Series and League European Championship teams to make moves to bolster their lineups and compete for a shot to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship this fall.
Here’s what’s happened so far:
Moves by league and team
League Championship Series (LCS)
League European Championship (LEC)
League Championship Series (LCS)
100 Thieves
April 17: Zikz out, Reapered in as head coach
100 Thieves started its offseason off with a major coaching change, parting with head coach Anthony “Zikz” Gray and hiring former Cloud9 head coach Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu. Reapered will take over the team that finished fourth in the Mid-Season Showdown and has since made another roster change in the mid lane.
April 19: Acquired Abbedagge as new starting mid laner
100 Thieves made the first big mid-season acquisition of the LCS teams this season, acquiring mid laner Abbedagge from Schalke 04 Esports. Abbedagge will replace Damonte and Tommy “ry0ma” Le, who played in the starting mid laner role throughout the spring split and the Mid-Season Showdown.
May 24: Damonte leaves to focus on content creation
After the team cut him from its starting lineup, Damonte announced that he would become a full-time content creator on Twitch, TikTok, and other platforms after the past “turbulent two and a half years.” 100 Thieves hasn’t announced plans for ry0ma, who still remains under contract with the team through November 2022.
Cloud9
May 29: Promotes K1NG, demotes Zven; Mithy becomes head coach
Cloud9 has promoted Academy AD carry Calvin “K1NG” Truong to the starting position on its main roster, with Zven moving down to the Academy position. In the team’s announcement, Cloud9 CEO Jack Etienne said Zven will continue to compete for the starting position throughout the summer while starting for Cloud9 Academy.
In addition to the bot lane change, Cloud9 named Mithy as its new head coach as Reignover moves back into the assistant coach role. Etienne and Reignover said in the team’s video that the head coach position took a toll on Reignover’s mental health and the team unofficially made the swap ahead of the Mid-Season Invitational in early May. Heading into the summer, Mithy will be in charge of the coaching staff.
Evil Geniuses
May 14: Releases Deftly, promotes Danny to starting ADC
Evil Geniuses released starting AD carry Matthew “Deftly” Chen from the organization and promoted 17-year-old Evil Geniuses Prodigies rookie bot laner Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki, formerly known as Shiro, to the starting position.
The news comes after Evil Geniuses failed to finalize a roster change in November 2020 that would’ve landed the team then-TSM Academy bot laner Lost. Lost became the starting ADC for TSM after Doublelift’s shocking retirement and Evil Geniuses retained Deftly for its main lineup.
Golden Guardians
April 21: Hires Thinkcard; Spookz returns to two-way coach
After Kublai “Kubz” Barlas left the team in March, Golden Guardians hired former Dignitas coach Thomas “Thinkcard” Slotkin as its new head coach. With the change, it also moved interim head coach Samuel “Spookz” Broadley back to his two-way player coach, working with both the Golden Guardians main and Academy rosters.
May 16: Promotes Solo, Chime to LCS team, moves Niles, Newbie to academy lineup
Golden Guardians initially signed top laner Colin “Solo” Earnest for its Academy lineup on May 3, but on May 16, it announced it would promote him and Academy support Jonathan “Chime” Pomponio to its starting lineup for the summer.
With the move, top laner Aiden “Niles” Tidwell—who competed for the team in the LCS this spring—to the academy position. Support Leandro “Newbie” Marcos will move to academy as well.
League European Championship (LEC)
Excel Esports
May 18: Signs nukeduck, acquires denyk as new mid laner, support
Excel made two moves this offseason, benching mid laner Paweł “Czekolad” Szczepanik and selling contract rights for Tore “Tore” Hoel Eilertsen to MAD Lions Madrid. In their place, the team signed former Astralis mid laner nukeduck and acquired former Misfits support Petr “denyk” Haramach, both who will join the team this summer.
Nukeduck left the Astralis starting lineup in February and then the organization in March. Denyk’s remained a member of the Misfits organization throughout 2021, but did not compete with the team in spring and has remained inactive since last summer.
Fnatic
May 11: Sells contract rights for Selfmade to Team Vitality
Fnatic will have a new jungler this summer and it may be Bwipo in a role swap. That came after the team decided it would sell contract rights for Selfmade to Team Vitality, where he will become the new jungler, as reported by Dot Esports. The team has assessed the option of signing a backup jungler in the event that a Bwipo move to jungle does not work out, but it hasn’t at this time.
May 11: Acquires Adam as new top laner
In addition to moving Selfmade, Fnatic acquired top laner Adam “Adam” Maanane from Karmine Corp for a €240,000 buyout and a kickback on sell-on profit, as reported by Dot Esports. Adam will be the starting top laner for the team, with the Bwipo change likely but not finalized.
May 26: Confirms Bwipo is new jungler
Bwipo is officially becoming the new jungler for Fnatic after reporting that the decision was being considered following the acquisition of Adam. Bwipo will make the swap following comments he made during an April Twitch stream where he confirmed he declined a contract extension with Fnatic and cast doubt on his future as a top laner for the team. The team also confirmed that it’s moved Selfmade off the roster.
G2 Esports
April 20: Hires Nelson as new strategic coach
While G2 hasn’t made any lineup changes, it will make one change to its coaching staff. Former LNG Esports and Vivo Keyd coach Sng “Nelson” Yi-Wei will become the strategic coach for the team, joining the staff led by Fabian “GrabbZ” Lohmann, as reported by Dot Esports. It’s expected to be an otherwise fairly quiet mid-season period for the LEC dynasty.
Misfits
May 20: Releases Enatron, promotes Candyfloss, hires H1IVA
Misfits has released head coach Ilias “Enatron” Theodorou and promoted one of its other coaches, Alexander “Candyfloss” Cartwright, to the head coach position, as reported by Dot Esports. The team is also hiring Aleksi “H1IVA” Kaikkonen, who’s worked and played for the team in previous seasons, as its new Academy head coach. H1IVA will also have responsibilities for the organization’s LEC team.
Schalke 04 Esports
April 19: Sells Abbedagge’s contract to 100 Thieves, promotes Nuclearint
With the move to ship Abbedagge off to North America and 100 Thieves, Schalke 04 Esports promoted academy mid laner Ilias “Nuclearint” Bizriken to the starting position for the summer. Nuclearint’s never played a pro game before but has competed in the European amateur scene over the past 18 months. He will make his pro debut this summer after competing with Schalke Evolution, the academy side of the LEC team.
May 19: Demotes Gilius, acquires Kirei
Despite a strong run with Schalke in 2020, the team benched jungler Gilius in May and acquired jungler Thomas “Kirei” Yuen from GamersOrigin to be its new jungler. Kirei will return to pro play for the first time since his time on Misfits in 2019.
SK Gaming
May 29: Treatz moving to jungle, Jesiz returns to support; TynX benched
Fnatic isn’t the only European team making a role swap this season. SK Gaming announced on May 29 that support Erik “Treatz” Wessén is moving to jungle and head coach Jesse “Jesiz” Le—who’s previously played mid, AD carry, and support at the pro level—will become the team’s new support. With the change, the team is benching rookie jungler Kristian “TynX” Østergaard Hansen and is making him available on the buyout market for the other teams.
Until the team decides how to proceed forward, assistant coach Thomas “Tom” Diakun is becoming the head coach for SK.
Team Vitality
May 7: Acquires SLT as new top laner
Team Vitality’s been aggressive this mid-season, starting with the acquisition of top laner Enzo “SLT” Gonzalez from Berlin International Gaming, as reported by Dot Esports. SLT will replace Mathias “Syzgenda” Jensen, who as of early May, is expected to move to the Vitality.Bee academy lineup.
May 11: Acquires Selfmade, LIDER as new jungler, mid laner
Selfmade will be the new jungler of Team Vitality, as the team reached an agreement with Fnatic to buy him out from his contract. Selfmade will replace Duncan “Skeanz” Marquet, who will move back down to the Vitality.Bee lineup alongside Szygenda.
But Selfmade’s not alone: Vitality have also bought out mid laner Adam “LIDER” Ilyasov from mousesports, as reported by Dot Esports. LIDER will return to the LEC after competing with mousesports in the German Prime League Pro Division since January 2020. He previously competed on the summer 2019 Misfits lineup in the LEC alongside Kirei and others.
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