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Category: LoL

Team Vitality reveal new roster for Summer Split

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

French org Team Vitality have opted to reveal their new roster for the LEC Summer Split. Here is their announcement:

Team Vitality reveal new roster for Summer Split – Who did they sign?

Vitality have brought on BIG Clan player SLT for Top, Fnatic player Selfmade as Jungler, and Mousesports player LIDER as their newest Mid-laner. We’ve seen multiple rumours these past few weeks, and it’s great to see that they were true. What’s interesting is that they’ve decided to keep 2 of their latest additions, Crownshot and Labrov in the bot lane.

Here below is the full Team Vitality lineup for the 2021 LEC Summer Split:

Players:

  • Enzo “SLT” Gonzalez – Top Lane
  • Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek – Jungle
  • Adam “LIDER” Ilyasov – Mid Lane
  • Juš “Crownshot” Marušič – ADC
  • Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis – Support
  • Markos “Comp” Stamkopoulos – Substitute

Coach:

  • Mateusz “Tasz”  Borkowski

What about their former players?

With this change, Vitality have moved a majority of the former roster to the LFL squad. This includes Top laner Szygenda and Jungler Skeanz transferring, while ex-mid laner for Vitality, Milica has opted to leave the team.

It’s very apparent that Vitality did not have the best 2021 Spring Split. Here they are bringing a mixture of experienced and young talent to hopefully improve their results moving forward.

Visit www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

MSI 2021 Viewership – The Hottest Mid-Season Event Ever

Posted on by Gabriel Sciberras

What an incredible event! It seems that competitive League of Legends has conserved the momentum from Worlds 2020 into this awesome Mid-Season Event. Concluding last week, the competition was simply epic. And not only the competition too, but the viewership was also phenomenal – read on as we talk MSI 2021 Viewership.

MSI 2021 Viewership – Beating Out 2019

What’s essential with an event like MSI? Accordingly, when it comes to viewership it always needs to either equal or improve on previous years. And in a big way, that’s what MSI 2021 carried out easily. While last year’s iteration was sadly cancelled, we’ll be comparing this year’s event to that of 2019.

Royal Never Give Up MSI
Credits: Riot Games

Accordingly, I’ll thank Esports Charts for making such data publically available. Starting with 2019, here’s how the event fared a couple years ago:

  • Peak Viewership – 1,704,326
  • Average Viewership – 537,619

Moving over to 2021, let’s see what we’ve got:

  • Peak Viewership – 1,839,876
  • Average Viewership – 711,465
MSI 2021 Invitational
Credits: Riot Games

Also, this is a new record for the yearly series, and what an awesome way to pull it off. A steady increase in all parameters was seen from last year’s event – an incredible achievement for Riot Games.

We can’t wait to see how LoL progresses.

For more esports news, visit: https://www.esportsguide.com/news

100 Thieves parting ways with Damonte

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

North American organisation 100 Thieves have just revealed that they are parting ways with their current mid-laner Damonte. Here’s their announcement:

100 Thieves parting ways with Damonte – Why?

According to the statement above by 100 Thieves, this decision was solely on Damonte’s part as he’s interested in exploring the content creation space, and seeing what he’s able to come up with. In a video he posted, Damonte explains that he tried his best to join another LCS team, however that didn’t manage to work out. This meant that his only option as a pro would be to find an academy team, and that is something that he does not want to do.

Back in March, Damonte was transferred to the 100 Thieves academy team. As a replacement, Australian League of Legends professional player Tommy “Ryoma” Le took his place. Now with the end of the Spring Split, he decided to temporarily step away from competitive play.

Here are some of the team’s best results with Damonte:

  • 4th in the LCS Spring Split 2021 – 4th April 2021 – $20,000
  • 3rd-4th in the LCS Lock-In 2021 – 29th January 2021 – $0

What’s next?

Taking this step in his career means that we won’t be seeing him in the League of Legends competitive scene for at least 6 months, the entire length of the summer split. He states that this is not the end of him competing, but he just wants to take this time as an opportunity to try out something new.
Visit www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

Royal Never Give Up MSI Champions – Making History for the LPL

Posted on by Gabriel Sciberras

Just like that, the MSI Invitational 2021 is already over as the most exciting competitive LoL event so far this year! Indeed, each day was simply phenomenal this past week. Bearing this in mind, we have a new victor. Yes, with Royal Never Give Up MSI Champions, a new narrative is being written while DWG KIA take a seat. Follow us as we view their journey!

Royal Never Give Up MSI – DWG Finally Challenged

Heading into the MSI Invitational 2021, there was a clear favourite in DWG KIA. However, many considered Royal Never Give Up and up-and-coming threat. Indeed, this was evident quickly as the team placed first in the Group Stage with a flawless start.

Credits: Royal Never Give Up Twitter

Moving forward, it’s in the Rumble Stage that things spiced up. Here, DWG and RNGU were matched up. Although DWG may have placed first overall, they only two losses they suffered were both to none other than RNGU – this spelled trouble for them.

In the knockout stage, it all boiled down to an epic BO5 finals between DWG and RNGU, so close to championing for the LPL region. Here, an incredible battle ensued to the final map, where RNGU made history and claimed victory.

Credits: LoL Esports Twitter

Why is this such a massive victory? There are three main reasons:

  1. DWG KIA questioned and are no longer seen as worldwide dominant threats like they have been these past few months
  2. RNGU are only the second team ever to win the MSI Invitational more than once, like SK Telecom T1
  3. The LPL is back on top for the time being

For more esports news, please visit: https://www.esportsguide.com/news

CvMax returning to DRX as head coach

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

LCK Team DragonX has just revealed that their former coach, CvMax will be returning to DRX as head coach after his temporary suspension. Here is their announcement:

CvMax returning to DRX as head coach – Why the suspension?

Back in December of 2020 reports floated around that the coach had received a 5-month long suspension. Along with the suspension he was fined a million won, which is equivalent to $883 by the SKEFC (South Korean Esports Fairness Committee. The reason for this fine was due to actions while he was coaching another LCK team, Griffin. An entire investigation took place by Riot Games themselves. And on top of that, there was a police report that was filed by Sword (Griffin’s top laner) for alleged assault.

Here are some of his best achievements as a coach:

  • 5th-8th in 2020 World Championship – 15th October 2020 – $100,125
  • 1st at Rift Rivals 2019: LCK vs LPL vs LMS vs VCS – 7th July 2019 – $80,000
  • 2nd in LCK Summer 2018 – 8th September 2018 – $53,440
  • 2nd in LCK Spring 2019 – 13th April 2019 – $52,943

CvMax returning to DRX as their head coach is good for the team. It’s very clear that CvMax is a very talented coach, getting multiple top finishes in previous regional and international competitions. We’re sure he’s able to help the team get a better finish in the LCK Summer Split.

Visit www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

Schalke 04 Esports signing Kirei as Newest Jungler

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

Schalke 04 Esports have just announced that they are signing Kirei as their newest jungler. Read on for more information about this move:

Schalke 04 Esports signing Kirei as Newest Jungler – Who is he?

24-year-old Thomas “Kirei” Yuen is a League of Legends professional player from the Netherlands. He’s been competing since 2014 and has been on quite a couple of tier 2 teams. Most notably: Gamers2, Paris Saint-Germain eSports, Dark Passage and most recently GamersOrigin. At the time of writing he has an approximate total of $21,381 USD in esports earnings.

Here are some of Kirei’s achievements:

  • 1st in LFL 2020: Championship Finals – 26th October 2020 – $35,568
  • 8th/9th at MSI 2019 – 2nd May 2019 – $15,000
  • 5th-8th in European Masters Spring 2018 – 22nd April 2018 – $9,656

This is what Tim Reichert, Managing Director at Schalke 04 Esports said about the move:

“Today we’d like to announce that we’ll be replacing Gilius with Kirei for our LEC Summer Split. We looked into options for the Jungle position in this offseason, and very early on realised that Kirei could be a great fit for us. He then try-outed the team, together with Nuclear, and based on the feedback of Coaching staff, management and players, we have a very good feeling going into Summer Split with this Jungle-Mid Duo.”

Source

He’ll surely be a great fit for the Schalke squad and we can’t wait to see how they perform in the LEC Summer Split!

Visit www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

MSI Knockout Stage Preview

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

The Mid-Season Invitational has concluded its Rumble Stage, and is now to its final 4 teams. Here’s our MSI Knockout Stage Preview:

MSI Knockout Stage Preview – Who’s left?

Before yesterday’s matches, we already had a clear idea of which teams would eventually make it. The event has certainly delivered in terms of competition and for the first international LAN event in months, it’s surely been a blast. Here’s how the Rumble Stage concluded with regards to its standings:

  • 8-2 – DAMWON Gaming
  • 7-3 – Royal Never Give Up
  • 6-4 – PSG Talon
  • 5-5 – MAD Lions
  • 3-7 – Cloud9
  • 1-9 – Pentanet.GG

Above, we can clearly see Korea, and China’s dominance in international competition. Both Damwon and RNG have shown tremendous strength in their matches and were definitely the most dominant in the entire event. Unfortunately with these teams having such a good lead, it meant that the team from OCE Pentanet.GG were eliminated. They’ve shown a valiant effort to make it big at this event, and they’ve surely exceeded everyone’s expectations.

On the other side of the eliminations, we’ve got North American team Cloud9. Many had expected that the team wouldn’t win the event, but there were some that believed they would make it further in the event. Nonetheless, disappointing finish and they’re out of MSI.

Upcoming Match-ups

Only a handful of matches are left in the event. Here’s the upcoming matches heading into the final stages of the Mid-Season Invitational:

May 21, 2021 – 15:00 CEST

  • Royal Never Give Up vs PSG Talon

May 22, 2021 – 15:00 CEST

  • DWG KIA vs MAD Lions

Visit www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

Excel Esports officially sign Nukeduck

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

UK esports organisation Excel Esports have opted to officially sign Nukeduck as their newest mid-laner. Here is their announcement:

Excel Esports officially sign Nukeduck – Why?

In a previous article, we’ve already highlighted how beneficial this roster change is going to be for both parties. On one hand we’ve got Excel Esports which has been struggling to make some damage in the LEC. And on the other we’ve got a hungry player who is determined to do what it takes to get his team to the top.

Here are some of Nukeduck’s best achievements:

  • 2nd in the EU LCS Summer 2018 – 9th September 2018 – $58,075
  • 2nd at the LEC Spring 2019 – 14th April 2019 – $56,605
  • 9th/10th in Season 3 World Championship – 4th October 2013 – $45,000

What’s next for Excel?

As it stands at the moment, the team consists of only 4 members. According to multiple reports, current support player for Misfits, Denyk is joining the team. Be on the look out for an announcement real soon!

As many of you know, Nukeduck is one of Europe’s best mid-laners. During the Spring Split, Excel’s mid-laner, Czekolad struggled quite a bit against some of the region’s best players. Hopefully this change will impact the team positively and they’ll manage to get a better result in the upcoming Summer Split.

Visit www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!

NRG LoL – Signing Vietnam’s GAM Esports

Posted on by Gabriel Sciberras

For the most part, most LoL oriented news is focusing on the ongoing MSI Invitational. Yet, there is still plenty of commotion going on in the community. Indeed, NRG LoL is re-entering the scene thanks to a new investment. Accordingly, read on to see how GAM Esports were acquired!

NRG LoL – A Regional Threat?

For those unaware, NRG is an international, USA-based esports organization. Bearing this in mind, it’s no surprise that the organization has a history in League of Legends. Yet, last time around, it wasn’t so successful – being 4 years ago.

Credits: NRG Twitter

That’s why this move makes sense. They’ve acquired GAM Esports, the best Vietnamese team, recently winning VCS Spring Split 2021. To do so successfully, NRG Asia was also formed – facilitating this move.

Here’s are some thoughts from NRG co-founder and CEO Andy Miller:

With so much passion around esports in Southeast Asia, we thought Vietnam was the perfect place to launch NRG’s global expansion.

CEO and Co-Founder of NRG – Andy Miller
gamesports
Credits: GAM Esports

Indeed, the reasoning is simply. NRG LoL now plans to make it to Worlds every year by keeping this roster on top of the region.

Further on, we’ll be keen to see how this new team takes on this new name.

For more esports news, please visit: https://www.esportsguide.com/news

MSI Rumble Stage – Teams Finalized

Posted on by Nathan Bonello

With the group stage just concluding, the teams have been finalized for the MSI Rumble Stage. Here’s everything you need to know heading into the next stage of the event:

MSI Rumble Stage – Who qualified?

Out of 11 teams, only 6 teams were allowed to partake in the Rumble Stage of the event. These teams qualified due to placing in the top 2 of their groups. Here’s a short list of each team that qualified, sorted by their respective group:

Group A:

Group B:

Group C:

How will the Rumble Stage play out?

The format for this stage of the event is that 6 teams will play in a double round-robin. This means that each team will take on every single team in the group twice in a best of 1. The top teams from the Rumble Stage advance to the knockout stage (Playoffs) and the bottom 2 are eliminated.

Rumble Stage Schedule

MSI continues on the 14th of May, and will play out till the 18th. Here are the Day 1 Match-ups for the Rumble Stage:

  • 15:00 CEST – DAMWON Gaming vs Royal Never Give Up
  • 16:00 CEST – MAD Lions vs Pentanet.GG
  • 17:00 CEST – PSG Talon vs DAMWON Gaming
  • 18:00 CEST – Royal Never Give Up vs Cloud9
  • 19:00 CEST – PSG Talon vs Pentanet.GG
  • 20:00 CEST – Cloud9 vs MAD Lions

Visit www.esportsguide.com for more esports news!