Unlike his previous two stints with TSM, Doublelift will be streaming full time following his retirement from competitive play at the end of the 2020 season.
Should TSM continue to perform well, expect SwordArt to continue to be a pivotal fixture in the team’s success.
Heading into the last match day of week 5, FlyQuest was in a must-win situation to keep its Mid-Season Showdown hopes alive. Since FLY lost to IMT, its best possible finishing record in the Spring Split is 8-10. Hypothetically, FlyQuest could tie Evil Geniuses, the latter of whom is currently in 6th place, if EG lost its last three games and also finished at 8-10, but because FLY lost to EG in both meetings this spring, the head-to-head record would bar FLY from the post-season all the same.
DIG punched its ticket to the post-season with a victory over Evil Geniuses and is now tied with TSM for 2nd place at 10-5.
Counter Logic Gaming ended up winning the game against Team Liquid, but the sacrifice was the demise of its 100% First Blood rate in the 2021 LCS Spring Split, which lasted for the first 14 games of the 18 game split.
After its most recent loss to FlyQuest, Counter Logic Gaming's record through 14 games of the 2021 League of Legends Championship Series Spring Split has fallen to 3-11. At 11 losses, CLG has become the second team after Golden Guardians to be mathematically eliminated from qualifying for the 2021 LCS Mid-Season Showdown, which is the post-season tournament taking the place of the Spring Playoffs.
Despite 100 Thieves losing to Evil Geniuses, ry0ma not only held his own, but was easily the strongest performer on his squad. After the loss, 100 Thieves head coach Tony "Zikz" Gray talked about why the team decided to start ry0ma over Damonte, ry0ma's growth as a player since 2020, and the similarities and differences in his approach to the 2021 LCS as the 100 head coach compared to his first year with the squad last season.
CLG mid laner Eugene "Pobelter" Park joined Inven Global for a brief interview to discuss the win against Immortals, the context of his return to CLG's roster following the arrival of jungler Mads "Broxah" Brock-Pedersen, and how and why CLG has improved upon its shoddy mid and late game to go along with a surprisingly strong early game.
A few days after his arrival in North America, Peter Dun spoke to Inven Global about how coaching remotely changed his responsibilities withing EG's system, adjusting to a traditional Head Coach role through quarantine, and the potential he saw in both Evil Geniuses' LCS roster as well as the North American talent pool as a whole.
There's no doubt that CLG has been snakebit this season, but Broxah is maintaining an optimistic perspective now that he's made it through his visa issues. Broxah spoke to Inven Global after CLG lost to 100 Thieves about how his visa issues on Team Liquid in 2020 are providing him with a different perspective on his current situation, what he thinks CLG does well and needs to improve on, and how he feels the new LCS format affects CLG's chances of turning its season around.
It didn't take long for Team Liquid to finish off FlyQuest, and after the win, TL jungler Lucas "Santorin" Larsen spoke to Inven Global about how things played out against his former team, his thought's on Team Liquid's current form relative to its record, and how the changes to the LCS format for the 2021 season affects the competition.
After Cloud9 won its first match of the year against Evil Geniuses this weekend, Vulcan spoke to Inven Global about contributing factors to C9's strong play, went in-depth on his thoughts regarding any adjustment or removal of the LCS import restrictions, and pondered on the potential role of the LCS Players Association in the current situation surrounding the import rule.
UPDATE 2/28: RiotScruffy took to Twitter to correct a statistic featured in the most recent developer update after a mistake was pointed out on the League of Legends subreddit. The previous statistics included games of ARAM and URF, which the community viewed as misleading since competitive balance revolves around and matters most to the standard game mode on Summoner's Rift. RiotScruffy provided updated statistics and said that Riot Games will be putting out another developer update on Friday, March 5 that will, among other things, include the correct statistics updated with a new week of data.
In a brief interview with Inven Global during TSM's winstreak, support Hu "SwordArt" Shuo-Chieh spoke about adjusting to the playstyle of a new region, how Los Angeles played a part in his decision to compete in North America, and his international aspirations as a member of TSM in 2021.
After Team Liquid's victory over Cloud9, head coach Joshua "Jatt" Leesman shared his thoughts with Inven Global on the current competitive jungle meta, the contributing factors of Team Liquid's less-than-stellar first half of spring, and why the team's recent performances give him confidence heading into the second round robin of the split.
During the first round robin of the 2021 LCS Spring Split, Immortals jungler Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir spoke to Inven Global about Immortals' current form and fighting through visa issues to join IMT with support Mitchell "Destiny" Shaw and head coach Andre "Guilhoto" Guilhoto after an arduous 2020 season on Origen.
Mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen spoke to Inven Global about defeating Golden Guardians, Team Liquid's up-and-down start to the Spring Split, and the current state of the competitive mid lane meta.
Let's take a look at some of the more notable reactions and how they've advanced the discussion around LCS imports and North American talent development.
No other LCS CEOs have made any type of public statements regarding the proposal to remove the LCS Import Rule at this time, and after the community reactions to Jack Etienne's and Reginald's statements, it is unlikely we will see anything but of a professional formal statement, if anything at all, from other organizations regarding the proposal.
In a post-press conference Q&A session with TSM, which was part of a recent LCS Mini Media Day on February 16, Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg fielded a question from Inven Global regarding what factors led to TSM's significant improvements shown during its 3-0 week 2.
