The May 28 signing of top laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon from Dignitas to Evil Geniuses has brought about a unique challenge for his new squad.
They’ve decided to move to a seven person rotating roster to incorporate the ruling where only two non-NA residents can start on the Rift at any one time.
Huni, a South Korean native, although close, hasn’t met his residency requirement quite yet. With him is European mid laner Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro, and South Korean bot laner Bae “Bang” Jun-sik.
Coming from ESPN, “Evil Geniuses is experimenting with a seven-man roster, and we came into this split with the intention of having a seven-man roster,” Evil Geniuses assistant coach Connor “Artemis” Doyle said. “It does mean that there’s chances that you’ll never see the seven-man roster; there’s chances that Huni and Deftly roster gets more games than the Bang roster. I’m not going to lean one way.”
Evil Geniuses support Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam added that another reason behind having a rotating lineup, specifically between their two top laners, is to leverage Huni’s veteran experience. The team wants Huni and Kumo to work closely together, with Huni teaching Kumo some of his more underappreciated strengths around the map as well as a larger variety of top lane matchups.
Although good in concept, a rotating roster is tough to manage. Telling a talented player who could have a starting position on another team that they will be benched in favor of another player is a challenging task and can easily foster resentment on a team.
Evil Geniuses kick off the 2020 LCS Summer split in their opening match against 100 Thieves on Friday.
