VCS Summer 2021 roster summary for every team!
This summer split in the VCS has been very tumultuous for multiple teams, as there has been some various big roster shake-ups.
A lot of well known names have left the scene, but in return we have some very exciting rookies that will make their VCS debut. It can be safely said that it has been one of the biggest roster shake-ups coming from spring into summer split, and thus makes the split even more exciting to watch!
My name is Nguyen Anh Thang, and I’ll guide you through all the roster changes that has happened over the course of this Summer Split!
Burst The Sky Esports
ROSTER:
Top: RyuK, Cehin
Jungle: Draktharr
Mid: Glory
Bot: Aomine
Support: Elio
Coach: YT
Changes:
In: Cehin, YT
Out: TH (top), Bigkoro (bot), Vinboiz (bot), Iris (Coach), Hankay (Coach)
For BTS, it will be a very difficult task to make a good run into the summer split. The roster maintained their core identity with Draktharr + Glory as their jungle-mid duo, however they lost a very solid piece in the bot lane with Bigkoro leaving BTS. They also parted with top laner TH, bot laner Vinboiz (who briefly played in the Summer promotion tournament) and both staff members Iris and Hankay.
In return they brought in Cehin, a rookie top laner who previously played for Puppies Esports and YT who will be making his coaching debut after failing to seek opportunities as a player in League of Legends: Wild Rift. After having trialed with Saigon Buffalo, Aomine returns onto the BTS roster as starting bot laner. Completing the roster we have RyuK and Elio on top and support.
My prediction will be that the roster will finish last place in the VCS. Losing Bigkoro AND both coaches can be very difficult to cope with, as they might lack the necessary experience to compete at a higher level for a better placement. The big question mark will be the influence of their new head coach YT. Even though he has played competitively with all of these players, it will be a different task as a head coach for a team that is set for low expectations in the VCS.
Luxury Esports
ROSTER:
Top: Coated, Kemken
Jungle: Killerqueen, Sorn
Mid: Blazes
Bot: Shine
Support: Bisbo
Coach: Calm
Changes:
In: Coated, Calm
Out: Yin (support), Tear (coach)
Luxury Esports made little changes for their summer roster. They retained all of their players, apart from subtitute support Yin who only played twice for them. Coach Tear has been released due to a betting offense in the VCS. He has been banned for two years, after betting on his own team against a match versus Team Secret.
With the release of the two former members, they acquired Coated from Team Secret and Calm who has been a pro player before in the VCS. Luxury Esports managed to ace the Summer promotions against the likes of Burst The Sky and BOX Gaming in a quick 3–0 succession.
In my opinion, Coated is an excellent pick-up. Even though Kemken is a solid bottom-half top laner, Coated is a step above him and could lead to a good boost to the Luxury Esports squad. I think Coated had a great Summer 2020, but had a slump through Spring 2021. In potential he could live up again and be a top-3 toplaner.
On the other side, we still have to factor in their weakside which is their bot laner Shine. Frequently, he would be the main player who would get caught in important moments. Whether it would be nerves, or rookie mistakes, lets hope he could bounce back and be a solid bot laner for Luxury Esports. I predict Luxury Esports to be the 7th best team in the league.
SBTC Esports
ROSTER:
Top: Hiro02 (Formerly TH), Marcus
Jungle: K1thy1
Mid: Vin
Bot: Celebrity
Support: Slay, CBL
Coach: Violet
Changes:
In: K1thy1, Hiro02, Marcus, Vin, CBL
Out: Zeros (top), Yijin (jungle), Dia1 (mid), Petland (mid), Noway (bot), Venus (support)
The biggest roster change comes from SBTC Esports. After their first ever split in the VCS, they had to immediately rebrand their main roster. Their main pillars in the team — Zeros and Dia1 — are banned for different incidents, whilst Yijin has been dropped due to underperformance.
The most shocking exit would be from Venus, who has been caught for illegitemate reasons, and is serving a prison sentence in Vietnam.
In exchange, they brought up known names in the VCS, but also some rookie power. We will quickly debrief the known players.
First we have CBL, who came off Team Secret and has numerous years under his belt. Together with Celebrity, they have a bot lane that has played previously with each other. Early in CBL’s career he was known as Combatlao and would refine himself as the Thresh-prince of Vietnam, even having montages of his Thresh back in the day. Nowadays, he has evolved himself to a well rounded champion pool to whichever his team needs.
The second player is Vin, also known as Vince. Vin shortly played for OPG Esports back in 2020 as a top laner. It was definitely a false start for his VCS career, since his main role is in fact mid lane. Vin is mostly known for his Yasuo play, and we might see some target bans targeting Vin’s Yasuo.
Lastly, we have Hiro02, also known as TH. After a split on Burst The Sky, Hiro02 joined SBTC Esports in what would be his 4th VCS team after being on QG, EVOS and BTS. A tumultuous career, where he would mostly join bottom-4 teams and rise on the occasion sometimes. Vladimir would be his go-to pick when the match-up suits him — his only champion with a positive win rate over 10+ games.
For the rookies we have K1thy1 and Marcus. K1thy1 is a fresh jungler who has never played in the VCSB before, and has reached the peak of Grandmaster in Korean ranked. Marcus comes from Young Buffalo — Saigon Buffalo’s youth team.
My projection for this team is that they will end up on the 6th place this season. Even though their bot lane is well known and a stable force to be reckoned with, their topside is what left to be desired if they want to make a push into the play-offs spots. Celebrity & support can definitely carry some games, which we have seen in the past, and should still be better than Luxury Esports and BTS Esports in my opinion.
Team Flash
ROSTER:
Top: Yoshino
Jungle: Meliodas, Dante
Mid: Pake
Bot: Divkid
Support: Palette
Coach: Sergh, Stark
Changes:
In: Dante
Out: None
The total collapse of Team Flash since last year has been saddening to watch. If you think about it what they had before; EGO, Kati and Slayder as star-players on their team, its a night and day difference to what we have right now. The 2020 FL squad only participated in the Mid-season showdown as the only international tournament they would ever participate together, and not at worlds 2020 due to COVID-19 as the winners of VCS Summer 2020.
Nevertheless, the only change that has occured is the addition of rookie jungler Dante, who came over from Young Buffalo. Dante was a former rank 1 player on the Vietnamese server. The rest of the roster is filled with Yoshino — Meliodas — Pake — Divkid and Palette.
In my opinion, Team Flash should finish out 5th place. This is because I do think the team has improved since coming together in Spring Split and other VCS teams have regressed, so that would make FL a good 5th place contender. A player that definitely could carry a lot of games for FL would be their top laner Yoshino. Yoshino has always been one of the best top laners in the VCS, and could lift his team into higher standards. I also think they have a slight off-set in reaching the 4th place, if one of the teams above them start to implode.
Team Secret
ROSTER:
Top: Nagiya, Simon
Jungle: DNK
Mid: Artifact, Jerry
Bot: Slayder, Eddie
Support: Phi1
Coach: Archie
Changes:
In: Simon, Jerry, Archie
Out: Coated (top), Jarvis (top), CBL (support), Jad (support), Hope (coach)
Its difficult what to think about Team Secret overall. They have great key players in DNK, Artifact and Slayder but fail to found a good foundation to their overall team cohesion from what it looks like. Every time Team Secret tries to make an upgrade, the team synergy takes a hit and you could definitely see it in their gameplay. The best iteration from this team has been Hani-DNK-Artifact-Celebrity-Venus which had a clear identity, but that’s already 3 splits ago.
Team Secret said goodbye to Coated, Jarvis, CBL, Jad and Hope. The two that I want to highlight the most are Coated and CBL, who have been replaced by Nagiya and Phi1. Even though both players played pretty well on their former team, Team Secret preferred to move on from them which could be seen as questionable. The times that Nagiya and Phi1 played on stage were not that impressive to make them inferior above both of these players.
For their additions they signed Simon, Jerry and Archie to their roster. First of all, both Simon & Jerry played on OPG Esports that relegated in VCS Summer 2020. Simon is mostly known for being a former Pyke top one trick in solo queue, but has been in his competitive career mostly a duelist player with champions like Renekton and Volibear.
Jerry didn’t play that many games for OPG, but he plays a feast or famine playstyle, which you could definitely see in his picked champions. In his latest played champions, he preferred the assassins like Leblanc, Yone and Qiyana.
Lastly, we have Archie as head coach. Archie is definitely a legendary player and one of the best players from Vietnam back in the days who had a very lengthy career. As a coach, he comes over from CERBERUS Esports which he had small succeses with, building up the roster which we discuss later. Now on Team Secret, the organisation wants him to do the same thing for them and get the results that he achieved over the course of his career.
Team Secret should be a solid 4th place team. Their individual players should be good enough to have a top-4 placement. For now their biggest question would be how their team cohesion and teamplay looks like.
CERBERUS Esports
ROSTER:
Top: Poss, Pun
Jungle: EGO, Xuhao
Mid: Yado, Jane
Bot: Artemis, Puddin
Support: RonOP, Hieu3
Coach: Yuna
Changes:
In: Poss, Jane, Puddin
Out: LL (Top), Phuc1 (Jungle), Archie (Coach)
For CERBERUS Esports, this will be their strongest iteration as of today. With EGO coming back from illness and Poss being eligible for VCS play the team looks more ready than ever. Poss will be the first ever imported player that will play in the VCS. CES also promoted Jane and Puddin to their main roster to complete their 10-men roster.
Leaving the squad will be LL, Phuc1 and Archie. Over the course of the VCS, LL has been one of the longest serving players in the league so it’s sad to see him leave. With EGO being recovered, there seem to be no place for Phuc1 in the squad which leaves him as a free agent.
The biggest question will be: “How good will Poss perform in the VCS?” It has almost been two years since Poss’ last competitive game on Team WE in the LPL. It will be a fun experiment to see how an import could perform in the VCS, with definite communication barriers inside and outside the game. With only coach Lee (Icarus) as his native speaker, things could get dire quickly if the team doesn’t perform.
Cerberus has been the team that always performs well during the early stages of the season, but falls back later on. You get excited for their start, but leave slightly disappointed, akind to a Vietnamese KT Rolster. My prediction will be that they will end up 3rd place, similar to last splits performance. Most of their current roster is staying unchanged, and their star player in Artemis should carry most of their games. Cerberus’ teamplay has always been stellar to watch, and overall a pretty enjoyable team to watch that tends to play for the late game.
Saigon Buffalo
ROSTER:
Top: Hasmed
Jungle: BeanJ
Mid: Froggy
Bot: Arrietty, Shogun
Support: Taki
Coach: Ren
Changes:
In: Shogun
Out: Rby (mid)
Saigon Buffalo retains their core roster, with a small change in the sub position. Over the course of this year, teams didn’t expect the rookie squad of Saigon Buffalo to have a direct impact on the league. The general perception of the team before Spring season was dire. People expected them to be relegation tier, however this was proven otherwise. Players stepped up that people didn’t expect them to have, and everything clicked into pieces for the Saigon Buffalo roster during Spring and they finished on the second place just behind GAM Esports. A formidable performance from the rookie squad.
Rby will be leaving the roster, only having played 7 games for them. Strangely enough, Rby only has played against GAM Esports and Team Flash. In return, another rank one Vietnam player will be promoted into the VCS as Shogun gets a chance to compete against Arrietty in the bot lane. Arrietty, who looked shaky at times could be seen as the weak point of the squad, and for him to have someone compete with him should be a good sign.
My projected placement for the Saigon Buffalo squad would be on the 2nd place. In my opinion, their main benefit is that they are always innovating and trying out new things. If we look back at last seasons performance, the main player that stood out the most was Froggy. With the whacky champions that the team picked, they often created a draft advantage which resulted into the enemy team questioning what to do in draft and in game. While some experiments didn’t pan out as they liked, its always something to keep in mind when watching this team. The fascinating thing about the roster, is whilst the roster is a near rookie team, the team plays as if they have been together for a very long time. And yes, if they make it onto worlds, I’m fairly confident in that Saigon Buffalo could make waves at the highest level through their strategy and gameplay.
GAM Esports
ROSTER:
Top: Kiaya
Jungle: Levi
Mid: Kati
Bot: Sty1e
Support: Bie, Hankay
Coach: Jackiewind
Changes:
In: Hankay
Out: Easylove (bot)
After two full splits of missing out on trophies, GAM Esports conquered the VCS title by beating out Saigon Buffalo 3–1. Prior to that split, people started to question the roster moves that GAM Esports had laid out for themselves. GAM fans worried that they released the best mid lane player from Vietnam in Dia1, and also a rock solid piece in support player Slay. It turned out completely different, as Kati and Bie were even better than both of the former players who left for SBTC Esports.
The changes that GAM Esports has made were minimal. Easylove exited the team, whilst Hankay joined the team as a substitute / coaching position. Since GAM’s main roster wants to stay in tact, they didn’t need a 6th man on their roster. Therefore a sub like Hankay (who was a former player, turned into a coach) was ideal For GAM Esports.
With no doubt in my mind I think GAM Esports will end up in the first place in this VCS Summer Split. With dominant players like Kiaya, Levi and Kati, they are a big force to be reckoned with. GAM Esports has little to no weaknesses in their team roster, and shoud be a cut above the rest. The reason to why GAM has little to no weaknesses is not only are they well oiled in their practices, their consistency has always been top notch as well. Despite losing the VCS titles in 2020 during play-offs, they always have been the number 1 team in the regular season since VCS Summer 2019!
Their goal in their mind will also be to prepare for Worlds 2021 in China, and delivering a very good performance for the VCS. With a year of absence for the VCS, I truly hope that we could deliver a great performance and make a name for ourselves again.
Thank you for reading this long debrief about the VCS Summer 2021, and we will see how this split will go for every team. I’m very excited how everything will pan out!
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