Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen, the former superstar European AD carry player, is signed to Cloud9 but won’t be playing any games at the LCS or Academy levels.
Zven has been officially announced as a part of the Cloud9 Academy team, but is conspicuously missing from the roster that was later shown. Why is Zven going to be playing all of Cloud9 Academy’s scrims, but none of their stage games? The answer comes down to import restrictions in both the LCS and Academy leagues.
Is Zven on Cloud9?
Zven is signed to Cloud9 as an official part of the League of Legends branch of the organization, but cannot be used during official Academy matches due to Cloud9 already filling their three import slots allowed for official Riot-endorsed play between Academy and LCS. This decision was announced in a sponsored video from Cloud9 detailing its Academy roster. In the video, new head coach Nick “LS” de Cesare claims that this restriction is because “Riot doesn’t care about Academy”.
Others have said that it’s reasonable to limit the number of major region imports in North America’s developmental scene. Either way, Cloud9 intends to sub Zven out for Academy games, instead opting to rely on Calvin “K1ng” Truong to play out the Academy games in Riot’s official league. Zven will still be playing in the vast majority of scrims and practice with the Academy roster, but Cloud9 is unable to officially field him due to their two new imports on the C9 LCS roster.
Are cross-league import restrictions fair?
There are upsides and downsides to the approach Riot has opted for with the league restrictions between Academy and LCS. The upside of restricting the number of major region imports allowed to play for any given organization is that it maintains more slots for native North American talent to grow, but the downside is limiting the potential strength of Academy rosters.
It’s unclear what Cloud9 will do with Zven in the long run, but for now he’s stuck in limbo between free agency and Academy.
