5 LoL Teams to keep an eye out for in 2022
It has been 43 days since we last saw the best League of Legends team go head to head and it was Damwon Gaming who came out on top and were ultimately crowned the world champions. It feels like a lifetime ago and a lot has changed during the time, with so many interesting and unexpected off season moves in the free agency. The eleventh season of League of Legends will be about reconstructing their preferred playstyle completely for every region in my opinion with so many changes to the items and the game itself. These are the five teams that everyone should definitely keep an eye on for the upcoming season and we will explain why!
5- Edward Gaming:
Expected Roster: Gimgoon, JieJie, Scout, Viper and Meiko
Although nothing is confirmed as of yet, but there are rumors circulating of Edward Gaming going for Viper and Gimgoon around the community right now. The Korean duo would definitely strengthen the prestigious Chinese organization that has been quite underwhelming for the last three seasons. Edward Gaming would provide a strong core to their roster with Scout and Viper being the main pieces of the puzzle with Meiko and Gimgoon providing a lot of expertise to help the team through with their experience. Another important factor behind their resurgence could be how Riot Games is shaping up the META to reward the ADC players more and there will be definitely changes by the start of the season that would give the marksmen players a lot of power in their inventory.
4- Cloud9:
Roster: Fudge, Blaber, Perkz, Zven and Vulcan
Cloud9 was the best team in North America during the first half of last season and there were legitimate talks around the scene for them being the best team in the west ahead of G2 Esports but they dropped the ball in the latter half of the year and had one of the worst downfalls in the history of League of Legends. This year they made big changes not only to their roster but their coaching staff too which is a really interesting development in my opinion and could prove to change the landscape of how North American teams view the best approach to the game itself. Reignover is regarded as one of the best junglers of all time and he taking up the Head Coach spot along other coaches like Mithy, VeigarV2 and Max Waldo makes them almost a coaching staff comprised of superstars.
Mithy has always been called one of the most intelligent players to ever play the game in Europe and he guided Fnatic to the Quarter Finals of the Worlds this year, while Max and Veigar have helped dozens of challenger players to climb the SoloQ and improve their overall game in the last couple of years. If this approach works for them then it would provide a lot of other organizations the motivation to hire legit coaches rather than their own ex-players in the future.
3- G2 Esports:
Roster: Wunder, Jankos, Caps, Rekkles and MikyX
The best team to ever come out of Europe was part of the two biggest moves in the history of European League of Legends this off season. Perkz was the undeniable leader and the centre piece of the organization ever since they came onto the scene and him leaving for Cloud9 was a move that no one actually saw coming true, but it was clear that he left a big gap behind to fill and there was only one player who could fill that for G2 Esports. It was Rekkles who also pulled off the upset when he did not re-sign with Fnatic after staying with the organization for years, and joined the team that had been his biggest rival for years.
With Rekkles in the team, G2 Esports would have a player that is regarded by many experts as the best ADC player to every come out of the west and there should be all the respect in the World for Perkz who role swapped to assemble an all-star team but this might even be better than the previous iteration for G2 Esports as Rekkles is a player that wants to play this role and would definitely provide more balance to the team. If G2 Esports want to win Worlds, this is their year!
2- Damwon Gaming:
Roster: Khan, Canyon, Showmaker, Ghost and Beryl
The world champions lost their star top laner in Nuguri and their coaching staff but definitely replaced them with world class replacements. They signed Khan and Coach Kkoma which would give their team a new identity but would in no way make them any worse. Khan is still regarded by many as one of the best top laners in the world despite a difficult year in China with FunPlus Phoenix this year and Kkoma would be returning to Korea too due to personal family reasons after his brief stint in China. Canyon, Showmaker are definitely improving every passing day and Damwon pairing them up with experienced veterans like Khan and Kkoma would provide a new outlook for the rookies and they will be definitely looking to start the season with statement performances that they will be going for the Summoners cup again this year.
1- T1:
Roster: Canna, Cuzz, Faker, Teddy and Keria
The biggest organization in the world of League of Legends will be the team that everyone would be looking at this season as this might be the last season of Faker with the team that he has played for during all of his career. Team T1 upgraded their roster with the acquisition of Keria who was widely regarded as one of the best supports in his rookie year this season. There are some excellent players like Clozer and Gumayusi in the shadows right now waiting for the time they will be the starters of T1 so Faker and Teddy would need to bring their absolute best this year if they want to win Worlds because with the acquis ion of Damwon Gaming’s world champion coaching staff, this is the year to bring out everything on the table.
