Doublelift and Bjergsen join 100 Thieves

It’s not a simulation, the 2022 League of Legends offseason is real. The two most successful players in LCS history are joining forces once again, this time on 100 Thieves. Bjergsen and Doublelift will be joined by two rookies and incumbent starting jungler Closer, who has agreed to resign.

Doublelift unretired to join 100 Thieves

According to reports, bot laner Doublelift has reached a verbal agreement to join 100 Thieves of the LCS. After not having played for two full years, he is coming out of retirement to be their starting ADC. This comes just days after Swedish bot laner Unforgiven, who last played for the MAD Lions in the LEC, agreed to join the roster. It’s still unclear how the dynamics of the roster will work out, considering the level of play we last saw Doublelift at.

On top of that, the former strategic coach for the MAD Lions, is joining 100 Thieves as the head coach. Head coach Kaal is the first hire of new General Manager Jungle Juice. Despite seeing moderate success throughout their careers, they have big shoes to fill with Reapered and Papa Smiothy moving on.

Bjergsen chose 100 Thieves over Flyquest, Closer resigns

Sources say that Danish mid-laner Bjergsen is reuniting with his running mate from the Team Liquid and TSM days. Bjergsen, who also retired alongside Doublelift, spent the previous season with the Team Liquid super team. Despite having the most storied legacy of any LCS player, his performance in 2022 raised a lot of questions. The eight-figure Team Liquid roster failed to win anything and missed the World Championship.

 Everything we have heard since their season ended, has pointed at Bjergsen in one way or another. Head coach Guilhoto came out saying that the mid-lane champion pool was handicapping the rest of the map to some extent. Despite all of this, Bjergsen still drew a lot of attention around the LCS. One up-and-down year can’t discredit the GOAT of the LCS, alongside a depleted mid-lane player pool. 

His transition will be helped by the resigning of star jungler Closer, who had entertained offers for quite a while. A return to Europe was not out of the question, but in the end, he chose to resign after hearing about the big moves. He helped 100 Thieves win their first-ever LCS championship, and is the fundamentally sound and versatile jungler Bjergsen might need to win another one. 100 Thieves might have thought about replacing his big contract, but after losing Kenvi and getting Bjergsen, losing the best jungler in the LCS didn’t make a lot of sense.

Tenacity becomes top lane starter, Busio locks down support role

After a year on the bench, top laner Tenacity is finally getting his chance to shine. He was promoted from the Academy roster last year, but sat the entire year apart from some meaningless games. 100 Thieves went into the 2022 season claiming that it was a 6 man roster, but incumbent starter Ssumday just had a career year. Now that his contract has ended and he is moving on, it’s time for the young blood to take over. Top laner Tenacity and jungler Kenvi helped the developmental teams at 100 Thieves to win everything that was possible in 2021. Now they are both LCS starters, albeit Kenvi is on Immortals. 

But another highly touted prospect is joining him in the starting lineup, with support Busio being promoted to the main roster. Busio role swapped to support from mid in 2020 after joining 100 Thieves Academy, and has found great success ever since. Apart from established names like Doublelift raving about his potential in Champions Queue and inhouses, he has also earned the NA Keria nickname. Those are quite the shoes to fill, as Keria took T1 to the semi and grand finals of the World Championship in his first two years. But either way it’s great to see homegrown NA talent get the opportunity, instead of importing and over spending. 

Unforgiven heading to 100 Thieves Academy

Just a week after Unforgiven had committed to 100 Thieves, Doublelift is joining the roster. This pegs the Swedish bot laner as the starting Academy ADC for the foreseeable future. Doublelift was probably promised the starting role so he would sign, but nothing rules out Unforgiven taking the spot. He came into this off-season after a year of being the starting bot laner for the MAD Lions in the LEC. 

He impressed fans and management with his performance in the regional leagues, prompting a promotion to the main roster. The team was coming off a year in which they won two LEC championships but also lost their two best players to free agency. The 2022 MAD Lions exceeded expectations, securing the best record in the LEC during the summer split.

The 2022 LEC MAD Lions 

But everything onwards would go down as a demise worthy of book writing. The team slumped out of the LEC playoffs despite having the reigning LEC MVP on their roster and 4 of the 5 players on the All-LEC First team. Due to Riot’s suspension of the LCL at the World Championship, the LEC had secured a fourth seed instead of the usual three. Those same MAD Lions went to the biggest international event of the year, without winning a single best-of-five series. This would come back to haunt them, as they would be 3-0 swept by EG in their last match of the Play-In stage. 

Now Unforgiven finds himself as the second option, despite probably being the better player right now. The crowded ADC pool in Europe’s regional league made Unforgiven expendable, despite not being a solid individual performance. On the other hand, the last time we saw Doublelift play was on the infamous 2020 TSM roster, which also included mid-laner Bjergsen. They were the first and only first seed to go winless (0-6) at the Group Stage of the World Championship, in a very disappointing fashion. Reports say that Unforgiven drew interest from many LEC teams and LFL powerhouse Karmine Corp. Karmine Corp might be the closest you can get to an LEC spot in terms of pay and exposure, but reports say Unforgiven wanted to play on stage, not online. 

Doublelift in Uzi’s footsteps

This entire situation reminds me of the 2022 BLG roster in the Chinese LPL. In the 2021 offseason, BLG announced that they had acquired ADC Doggo from PSG Talon. Doggo had just come off an amazing performance on the World’s stage, drawing interest from many teams. But after signing the promising player, BLG managed to secure the rights for bot laner Uzi. 

Despite being the best bot laner in the world during his career, the Chinese legend was facing health problems and had been retired for two years before BLG acquired his contract. 

As big as his brand was, Uzi made just 9 appearances for BLG in 2022 before he was benched. After that, he returned to full-time streaming, still under the BLG flag, but letting the younger Doggo claim the starting role. Only time will tell how this 100 Thieves bot lane will work out. Having a top 5 LEC bot laner on your academy roster is never a bad thing, you just don’t want distractions surrounding your team. 

Header: Riot Games