In the heat of the offseason, LCS teams have scoured the world to pick up experienced veterans and talented rookies alike, hoping for their shot at dominating the championship. Now that rosters have essentially been locked down, a few of these moves stand out in particular.
Here’s a look at some POWR picks to keep an eye out for in 2022.
Immortals - PowerOfEvil
With a POWR index of 50.46 in 2021, the seventh highest in the league, PowerOfEvil is a solid player for Immortals to build around for the upcoming year. Having been an essential part of TSM’s victories in 2021, this midlaner boasts the highest average damage per teamfight compared to others in his role, and third highest out of all players.
It’s no fluke that his team last year had impressive showings during the regular season, finishing their round robins second in Spring and first in Summer.
Golden Guardians - Lost
Another carry from 2021 TSM, Lost’s POWR index of 50.53 puts him solidly in the top five for LCS players this past year, and just second amongst bot laners. At the core of this strong rating is his exceptional reliability as a player: Lost holds the title for lowest average deaths for a bot laner and second lowest average deaths out of all players, a notable feat for his role.
Despite this, Lost is no stranger to getting resources from his team and knowing what to do with it: he also averaged fifth highest in gold. With his team for 2022 rounded out by talent like Licorice and Ablazeolive and making a big bet on Olleh’s training in Korean solo queue, Golden Guardians is certainly a dark horse to watch for.
Cloud9 - Fudge
While technically not an acquisition, Fudge’s role in the offseason may be even more interesting. After a dominating year earning a POWR index of 49.58 in the toplane, Fudge will become Cloud9’s mid laner for 2022. When considering this in light of his solid performance at Worlds and significant improvement between Spring and Summer, Fudge’s ability to adapt suggests that he may be the perfect player to perform in this surprising move.
His champion pool flexibility supports this, too: Fudge’s most played champions ranged from carries and bruisers like Camille, Gangplank, and Jayce to the weakside supportive Ornn. On top of this, his existing familiarity playing with returning jungler Blaber could allow C9 to start out with a level of mid-jungle synergy other teams couldn’t hope to match without significant time and practice.
Evil Geniuses - Vulcan
Vulcan’s POWR index of 41.84 puts him solidly in the top three supports of 2021, while also being a veteran player who can now claim Worlds playoffs experience.
His strong performance on Cloud9 has given him the knowhow to support 2021’s Rookie of the Year, Danny, and his shotcalling proficiency makes him the perfect leadership for Danny’s second year in LCS and jojopyun’s first. Vulcan’s propensity for engage supports also perfectly complements these younger players’ aggressive playstyles and mechanical prowess, making Evil Geniuses a strong playoffs contender.
Team Liquid - Hans sama
The one new import on this list, Hans sama might be the key to Team Liquid’s dominance in 2022. A 51.03 POWR index in LEC puts him second only to Jankos in the entire league, and by only a tiny margin: just 0.13 points. Hans sama is credited with being an indispensable part of Rogue’s success in round robins last year, as they finished second in Spring and first in Summer.
Despite their tragic tiebreaker situation at Worlds that kept them out of playoffs, this team was able to go toe-to-toe with LPL’s first seed and former World champions, FunPlus Phoenix. This move allows Hans sama to show off his talents laning with top NA support CoreJJ, and with the rest of the team featuring top talent in Bwipo, Santorin, and Bjergsen, Team Liquid is widely considered the strongest contender for the LCS in 2022.
