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When Immortals swapped their LCS and Academy rosters around three weeks ago and then came out and actually won a couple of games, it forced some people to re-evaluate their opinions about the perceived lack of talent in North America’s tier 2 league. Then Poome and Contractz came up and helped 100 Thieves spoil Cloud9’s big at an undefeated season.

Sure, IMT “Academy” is anchored by Xmithie, Apollo, and Hakuho, but Allorim and Insanity are definitely playing their parts. And 100 Thieves have Ssumday, which at times renders any other observation about their roster moot—he’s just that good. But caveats aside, there is real potential in Academy, and I’ve been working to highlight it all year long.

The success of recent Academy-to-LCS promotions got me wondering: if I could take the players currently competing in Academy and form them into an LCS-eligible “super team,” who would I pick?

Find out below!

Check stats for all of these players on the Academy 2020 Summer Regular Season page

Criteria

I am only going to consider a player for this roster if they do not have significant recent LCS experience. I’m not setting some hard-and-fast criterion like number of LCS games played within the last X months; I’ll be more subjective. But the intent is to discuss players who have either never had a real, sustained LCS opportunity, or who have been out of the LCS for a decent period of time. Under my soft criteria, a player like Potluck or ZionSpartan is eligible, but someone like Huni, WildTurtle, or Contractz is not.

Top Lane: Fudge

If you’ve been reading Academy Standouts at all this year, you saw this selection coming a mile away. Fudge has been a wrecking ball in Academy, carrying when he’s given the chance (which is increasingly often) but also performing well on Ornn duty.

Fudge entered Academy as one of the most-hyped members of the Oceanic Influx, given his inexperience and high ceiling. He has very much delivered on that promise. And with K1ng out for the Summer split, Fudge’s role in C9 Academy has only grown.

If I considered someone like Soaz or Huni eligible for this article, this might be a different story, but given the selection of available choices—and even if those players were available—it didn’t take me long to land on Fudge as the cornerstone of my roster.

Domestic Alternative: ZionSpartan

Not Eligible: Lourlo, Allorim, V1per, Huni, Ruin, Deus, Soaz

Jungle: AnDa

There’s strong competition for the Jungler position between AnDa and Inori, with a handful of young players chasing hot on their heels. Fanatiik, Potluck, and Winston have all shown potential, but the greater experience of the EGA and C9A junglers has produced stronger player, with more consistency.

Of the two, I’m inclined more towards AnDa. He has carried more games, taking a very active role more often than not, whether he’s on Volibear, Trundle, or Graves. He’s good at being in the right place at the right time.

With so much youth around, AnDa’s previous time playing in the LCS speaks in his favour. He can help lead Fudge and the other young players to come.

Best Alternative: Inori

Not Eligible: Akaadian, Dardoch, Xmithie, Meteos, Grig, Contractz

Mid Lane: Yusui

Mid is a very difficult choice, because there are several viable players to choose between. I’ve been a Yusui guy for quite a while, and I’ve really appreciated his diversification this year, and his ability to fulfill his role effectively despite the unfortunately subpar performances of his team as a whole. He is still most comfortable as an aggressive carry and side laner, but he has put in good showings in other styles recently, as well. Palafox could be considered as a domestic alternative but I’ve seen more assertiveness and independence from Yusui, with weaker jungle help, so I put more faith in him for now.

Giyuu and Triple are worth considering, if you want to go the import route. Both players have struggled with consistency, but have had some brilliant games. Giyuu has had better jungle help this year, but I still think he has done a little more and has a higher ceiling than Triple.

Fudge is taking one of my import slots, and I’m saving the other one for a different role where I think I see a larger increase in value. So that makes Yusui my choice.

Import Alternative: Giyuu

Not Eligible: Insanity, Froggen, Fenix, Eika

Bot Lane: Lost

The biggest threat to choosing Lost here would be if you considered K1ng available. Given K1ng’s visa issues due to COVID-19, it would feel a little disingenuous to pick him here, but if not for that, it would be a real toss-up between the two players.

As it is, I’m putting in Lost as my second import, for his ability to carry under pretty much any circumstances, even without the absolute strongest team around him (which would be the main line of reasoning for not choosing K1ng, for what it’s worth).

If you chose to take an import somewhere else, someone like Asta, Prismal, or Deftly might be worth considering from the domestic options, and choosing between them would be difficult. But the value for taking Lost here is too high for me to go down that route.

Domestic Alternative: Asta

Not Eligible: Apollo, Altec, Mash, WildTurtle

Support: Diamond

Throughout the Spring split, Diamond shared in K1ng’s success as they partnered to be the clear strongest duo lane in Academy. Diamond has some of the playmaking and engage-readiness of Vulcan, though without the polish yet, and he and K1ng were excellent in lane as well. I chose him as an All Star for Spring.

Playing with Tomo in Summer, Diamond hasn’t stood out quite as brightly, which shouldn’t be surprising, but he has still managed to make himself noticeable, and I suspect he’ll be a key part of C9 Academy over the coming weeks as they most likely make a return to the Finals.

Treatz could be a very viable alternative here, especially since you’d be pairing him with Lost. But Treatz is a European import, so that would require replacing Fudge. I’m not willing to make that sacrifice.

Import Alternative: Treatz

Not Eligible: Gate, Hakuho, Poome

Full Roster
Fudge, AnDa, Yusui, Lost, Diamond

Overall, this roster has carry potential from every role, though I would typically lean towards setting up Fudge as the primary pressure point. Both Fudge and Yusui are capable split pushers, and can also play utility roles, with Fudge perhaps looking slightly more comfortable in that position. Lost and Diamond should do very well in lane, assuming they click as a duo—this is a theoretical exercise, of course, so maybe Lost and Diamond wouldn’t work well together—and if either Fudge or Yusui is struggling in a given game, Lost is eminently capable of coming in behind them and carrying.

There’s plenty of engage threat in these players. Diamond, Fudge, and AnDa are all strong playmakers, and you can watch Yusui’s recent Galio game against FLY Academy to see pulling the trigger, as well.

If you put this roster into the LCS, AnDa would probably have to do a lot of heavy lifting. I’d expect teams to attack the solo lanes, both because of the snowball potential that both Fudge and Yusui possess, and because of both players’ limited experience at the top level of play. Yusui has only had a few LCS games, and Fudge has played one full split of OPL and less than a year of Academy. I’d hope that AnDa could be a stabilizing factor, and that’s one of the main reasons I picked him over Inori.

Of all these players, Fudge is the strongest, but I most expect to see Diamond in the LCS next. Diamond is a domestic player, while Fudge would take up an import slot, making it far more difficult for a team to fit him into their LCS plans.

Bonus!

After forming the roster above and removing those five players from the available pool, you could also make some waves with:

Full Roster #2
ZionSpartan, Inori, Giyuu, Asta, Treatz

This would be a more mid/jungle-focused team, with Giyuu running wild and ZionSpartan as the glue holding it all together.