Friday night before the first day of LCS, Coach Zaboutine of OpTic Gaming had to make a call. Noh "Arrow" Dong-hyeon, his starting ADC, had still not gotten his visa cleared, and OpTic had to start their Academy player, Toan "Asta" Tran (AKA “Neo”). Since bot lane is so focused on the duo laners’ synergy, OpTic also needed to start the Academy support as well.

Since the bot lane spent their last month practicing with the Academy jungler and top laner, Zaboutine had to decide between using a mixed roster or starting more Academy players. Because the Academy has been scrimming regularly and successfully, they have much better cohesion than the starting roster who has had broken scrims with Arrow out of country. After careful consideration, Zaboutine ultimately chose to start the Academy roster, minus their mid, Marcel "Scarlet" Wiederhofer.

“What’s important to me is that everybody on the outside understands that I’m not randomly making decisions,” Zaboutine said. “Even though it’s not what our fans expected… This is my job, I have to pick what works for D-Day. I knew that the strength of this roster could beat CLG, and they beat CLG.”

There is still no clear indication of when Arrow’s visa will be cleared. Until then, Zaboutine and the rest of OpTic will do what they can to make sure the team is stable and prepared for each weekend. Check back here for updates on Arrow’s visa situation and roster for OpTic.