League of Legends Championship Series stars Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng have decided not to participate in the 2019 All-Star event. Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi and Bae “Bang” Jun-sik will take on their invitation slots instead.
Team SoloMid’s mid laner Bjergsen, who has also recently acquired partial ownership of the organization, told his fans on Twitter that he’ll be boot camping in times of the event.
“Sadly I won’t be able to attend All-Stars this year because I’ll be in Shanghai boot camping with our new roster,” Bjergsen tweeted. “I really do appreciate the votes and how loyal you all continue to be through good and bad times.”
Doublelift shared a YouTube vlog thanking his fans for voting for him, but saying he wishes to enjoy the event from a more casual perspective. Even though he was the fan favorite, the bot laner of North America’s best, Team Liquid, will be there to just make content and have fun.
Sneaky and Bang will represent LCS at the event
Evil Geniuses’ new bot laner Bang and Cloud9’s former bot laner Sneaky will be going to the All-Star as the third and fourth fan picks, respectively. Sneaky, who is famous for his cosplay, shared with his fans he has accepted the invitation while asking which character he should cosplay on this year’s stage.
Bang, former player for Korean team T1, joined the LCS last year as an import for 100 Thieves. He will be starting the 2020 season with Evil Geniuses. He tweeted a quick message to his fans to let them know that he will be attending the event.
League fans take the opportunity to criticize the LCS
LCS teams struggled at this year’s World Championship, and with the offseason roster shuffles and signings in the spotlight, many are criticizing the structure of the regional scene. Each team is allowed two foreign players or imports, and some fans believe this diminishes the opportunity for NA players to grow. The undeveloped amateur scene and issues with in-game ping in North America are often mentioned as well, with accusations of little effort being made to nourish new domestic talent in the region.
This issue especially shows as two out of three LCS representatives at this years’ All-Star are Korean. Both Bang and Jo “CoreJJ” Yong, the third invitee come from Korea, with only Sneaky being a native product.
