eSports Roster Changes You Should Know

 

In the recently held ELeague Tournament, Cloud9 won the Major causing most teams to reshuffle their rosters. The match that kicked off during the new year saw CS: GO get into action in a heavily favored FaZe Clan competition.

Its conclusion led to a domino effect with changes expected in both European and North American regions. And with the Valve Major roster rules no longer restricting roster shuffles, the impact should be felt across the board.

Cause of the Roster Changes

Teams are expected to use common strategies to win the tournament. However, after the sizzling match between FaZe Clan and Cloud 9 in the recent competition, it became apparent that most participants lacked the cohesiveness and strategy shown by the two teams.

The approach has become extremely difficult over time, especially with the Brazillian SK Gaming contesting for the top spot in the world. Note that this team was announced the best in 2017.

Hence, roster changes become inevitable to help you get rid of performance problems and improve synergy. Since the changes affect the overall performance of the team, bettors should take note of these reshuffles when placing bets on their favorite teams.

The European Region Shuffles

The most notable changes were made in the European region with trades being performed between Danish star players and Optic Gaming, Astralis and the North. Virtus Pro was no exception amid these controversial changes as it dropped TaZ and added Michu.

The premise for the reshuffle in this region is to create competitive teams that can contest in high-level offline tournaments.  This summary shows the roster changes in the EU region:

• Astralis dropped Kjaerby and added Magisk
• North dropped Konfig and Cajunb. It added Mertz and Kjaerbye
• Gambit Esports let go Ftch and added Seized
• Team Envy released SIXER, xms and added hAdji and kioShima

Other teams like BID, Heroic, Team LDLC and Ninjas in Pyjams also dropped several of their players. The only groups that did not make the changes include Fnatic, Mousesports, FaZe, Vega Squadron, G2 Esports and Natus Vincere.

North America Changes

The changes began at the beginning of the year with claims that NA LCS would be franchised. Up to ten teams had already booked spots in the LCS.

As such, the new LCS teams comprise a mixture of new and old teams with reputable groups like the Dignitas and Immortals being kicked out in favor of the higher-performing NBA-backed teams.

OpTic and Liquid teams made the most remarkable changes with both teams taking players outside its region. For other groups, it was more of a transition period with most of them opting to take players who would make a competitive force at the international level. Team Liquid dropped jdm and Stanislaw and added NAF and Steel.

• SK Gaming

Dropped: felps

Added: Boltz

• Renegades

Released: Slemmy

Added: FNS

• Torqued (formerly known as GX)

Released: dapr, DaZeD, witmar

Added: koosta, steel

The only renowned team that did not make any roster changes is Cloud9 as it won the last Major.