The Lock-In tournament, which is North America's preseason competition, will soon be kickstarting the 2022 League of Legends season in a week's time. While all 10 NA pro teams will be participating in the event, fans will have to wait a bit longer to see Cloud9 (C9) and Team SoloMid's (TSM) full-strength starting lineups for the LCS. Both orgs recently announced that they will not be able to field their main rosters for Lock-In, mainly due to travel restrictions.
TSM and C9 add Eastern talent to LCS rosters
TSM and C9 both underwent huge roster changes in the off-season. (Practically every team did, after all, except reigning LCS champs 100 Thieves). C9 parted ways with superstar mid laner Luka “Perkz” Perković, put veteran ADC Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen on the Academy lineup, and had Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami roleswap from top to mid. Then, they picked up three up-and-coming Korean players—Park “Summit” Woo-tae, AD carry Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol, and support Kim “Winsome” Dong-keon—to round out the roster.
Meanwhile, TSM turned to the other Eastern powerhouse to find a starting mid laner and support. Newcomers Zhu “Keaiduo” Xiong and Wei “Shenyi” Zi-Jie hail from China's second-tier League of Legends Development League (LDL). They're coming in to fill some big shoes; TSM still hasn't quite replaced their iconic player in Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, though Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage certainly had an admirable solitary season with the org. Last year's record signing of Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh also didn't pan out well.
With the highly international rosters for both squads, the only way for the players to work well together is to practice together a lot—perhaps even more so than those without the language barrier. However, to both teams' dismay, various issues have hindered their off-season preparations and will prevent their starting rosters from debuting as a whole in Lock-In.
Visa issues delay NA debuts of player imports
Cloud9 had flown over to Korea to bootcamp, but Fudge and Academy mid Jouhan “Copy” Pathmanathan both couldn't join the trip due to visa issues. And vice versa, the players and staff coming from Korea encountered visa delays, which means they won't be arriving in NA until February, according to head coach Nick “LS” De Cesare.
Travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic similarly mean that TSM's imports will likely not arrive in LA in time for Lock-In, according to the org's announcement. Without any consistent practice, the team felt it best to just field the Academy roster for the entirety of the preseason tournament. Fans will not see any of the starters—including the ones in NA, that is Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon, Mingyi “Spica” Lu, and Edward “Tactical” Ra—until the LCS regular season itself.
As such, TSM's Lock-In lineup will consist of: top laner V1per, jungler Hyper, mid laner Takeover, AD carry Instinct, and support Yursan.
Meanwhile, Cloud9 will field a mix of main LCS and Academy players, mainly because the Academy squad also has an import in Sebastian “Malice” Edholm who hasn't arrived in NA yet either. Their Lock-In team will involve top laner Darshan, jungler Blaber, mid laner Fudge, AD carry Zven, and support Isles.
With their NA debuts delayed, both squads' imports will be quite set back in terms of integrating with the rest of the team. For C9, luckily the bootcamp already helped bridge the gap, but it will still be a long way to go especially with Fudge missing out on crucial KR practice. Slow starts for both rosters might be expected when the LCS regular season kicks off on February 5, meanwhile fans can still look forward to some exciting games when Lock-In begins on January 14.
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