By Griffin LaMarche

From Worlds finalist Fnatic coming second to last in the LEC, to World champions Gen.G running 2-4, to the disappointing starts to the season from 100 Thieves, Golden Guardians and Team Solo Mid, the 2019 Spring Split has been off to a rocky start for these teams. With a wild offseason of trades, imports and new teams in the league, Esports’ new guard has swept the rug under the old.

In Europe, all-star team and 2018 Worlds finalist Fnatic have suffered from a very poor beginning to their season, currently sitting at 2-6. The only roster swap they made over the season was bringing in former MAD Lions mid-laner Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek to replace Rasmus “Caps” Winther. Although it seemed that Nemesis was going to be a downgrade from Caps, that wasn’t the issue that plagued Fnatic. Overall, the team’s synergy has not met expectation, highlighted by a game where star AD Carry Martin “Rekkles” Larsson went 1/8/4 in a match against FC Schalke 04. While Fnatic has won games against Rogue and exceL Esports, it still could not hold a candle to top teams like G2 Esports, Misfits Gaming, FC Schalke 04 or Team Vitality. Unless Fnatic can turn things around, it is likely the team might miss playoffs.

While Korea has been the dawn of Griffin, SANDBOX Gaming and the revitalization of SK Telecom T1, other star teams such as KT Rolster and Gen.G have not been able to keep up with the new guard of the LCK. KT Rolster traded away their star bot laner Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu to Kingzone Dragon-X and Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong to SK Telecom T1. Since then, KT Rolster has not had the pressure needed in the bot lane to succeed. Gen.G lost both midlaner Lee “Crown” Min-ho and support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in to North American teams OpTic Gaming and Team Liquid. While Gen.G did acquire jungler Han “Peanut” Wang-ho, Gen.G has not found any success in team fights, and team synergy is at an all time low.

When it was announced that Golden Guardians were to acquire top laner Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell and Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung, high hopes were placed on the team to finish in the top four of the Spring Split. Yet after Week 3, the team sits in eighth place with a record of 2-4. While Golden Guardians did face off against higher-tier teams such as 100 Thieves and Cloud 9, losses to both Echo Fox and FlyQuest raise red flags about the team. However, GGS did finish Week 3 2-0, beating both OpTic Gaming and upsetting Team Solo Mid, possibly leading to a strong turnaround for the rest of the split. 100 Thieves were another team expected to finish in the Top 3 with two-time World champion Bae “Bang” Jun-sik joining the team, but team synergy is still at a low. 100 Thieves started the season 0-3, and though they turned around their record to sit 3-3 after Week 3, all winning team fights and victories felt indecisive and not clean.

With failure, of course, comes success. G2 Esports, Team Liquid and Griffin remain undefeated in their respective leagues, and new teams and roster swaps on SANDBOX Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming, Misfits Gaming and Origen have added a fresh new breath for the 2019 season.