Analysis and Opinion

Academy All-Stars: Summer 2020, Support

The LCS Academy Summer All-Stars series, wraps up with my selections at Support.

Criteria

A reminder of my criteria for being an All Star in the Academy league:

  • Peak Performance
  • Versatility
  • Consistency
  • Growth

Get a bit more detail on those criteria in the first post of the series.

Treatz

3 Academy Standouts appearance in 5 weeks

Yes, I know Treatz spent time in the LCS this split, and even played with TSM in the playoffs for a bit before they switched back to Biofrost, but he spent more time in Academy and finished the split there, helping them reach the Finals, and I want to celebrate those achievements.

Treatz was on my radar all year, pairing very effectively with Lost across the laning phase, as a roamer, and in team fights. He paired better with Lost than Biofrost did, in fact. That can partly be attributed to familiarity, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to feel that Treatz is actually a stronger Support than Biofrost on the whole, even though Biofrost fit in better with TSM in the LCS playoffs and will most likely play every game for TSM at Worlds.

There’s so much to praise about this player. He plays a wide range of styles, with Braum, Soraka, and Leona all in one three-game series in the playoffs, adding Nautilus, Thresh, and Rakan in the Finals. That’s six champions in seven games, if you’re counting. His ability to both disengage ganks and lean into 2v2 all-ins created lots of space for Lost to work with, unlocking the league’s strongest Bot laner and leading TSM Academy to play out a competitive series against Cloud9 Academy in the Finals despite TSMA working with a rookie Jungler in Winston and a Mid who was only in his second pro split.

As with some other players, the main thing holding Treatz back from the LCS is his import status. Even then, I think it’s possible we’ll see him move up to the big leagues in another org in 2021.

Diamond

3 Academy Standouts appearance in 9 weeks

Diamond earns a second consecutive selection as 2nd-team All-Star, smoothly integrating with Tomo as a new bot lane pairing and anchoring Cloud9 Academy to another Academy championship. His contributions didn’t stand out quite as obviously as they did in Spring, since his team focused more on playing through the solo lanes, but he was a reliable presence who always managed to leave a mark on the game if you paid attention.

Diamond’s Nautilus was fearsome all split, and engage champions in general were his strong suit, though his Bard, Lulu, and Yuumi also made appearances.

C9 have Diamond locked in to a long-term contract, which he might come to regret since it means other LCS teams will have to pay a buyout to move him up to the LCS. There aren’t a lot of roster openings at Support in the LCS for 2021 anyways, so it might not end up making a difference, but I suspect that if Diamond was a free agent, there might be a couple of teams willing to end a contract with a different player in order to bring him in.

Other Supports of Note

Breezyyy wasn’t able to get his team past Evil Geniuses Academy in the playoffs, but he put together a respectable regular season. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can grow more for next year and put himself in the 1st-team conversation.