TSM’s 2016 roster reunites for NLCS In-House games

Although Riot Games postponed the LCS, the coronavirus isn’t keeping players from doing what they do best: competing. This past weekend, hosts Ovilee “Ovilee” May, Clayton “CaptainFlowers” Raines, and Isaac “Azael” Cummings Bentley hosted the NLCS “No LCS Cuz Sick” games. These matches rounded up 20 LCS players to compete through In-House games, bringing some much-needed entertainment to League of Legends fans everywhere. Players were free to group up as they wished, and viewers had the chance to re-live TSM’s 2016 lineup.

Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng grouped with his old TSM teammates to create “FREESM”. The lineup included Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, and Vincent “Biofrost” Wang. The games were live-streamed on Ovilee’s Twitch channel and brought in 20,000 viewers, while individual player streams added on to the count. The matches lasted for three hours, and spoiler alert: FREESM won both games.

THE N.L.C.S. WILL GO LIVE AT 12:00PM PST WITH @CAPTAINFLOWERS & @RIOTAZAEL LEADING THE CAST!

We've got BIG games in store for everyone in place of the #LCS so be sure not to miss it!

Tune in at: https://t.co/nBRfJLY5bU for the cast or any of the players' streams! pic.twitter.com/fkoUHFWUep

— Ovilee May (@OvileeMay) March 15, 2020

Winning games

The first match pit FREESM against “The Boiz”. This roster included Can “Closer” Çelik, Omran “V1per” Shoura, Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer, Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes, and Andy “Smoothie” Ta. Unfortunately, The Boiz didn’t stand a chance once FREESM showed their excellent communication and teamwork in late-game. With Svenskeren making a couple of risky moves and the team securing baron, they managed to push against the enemy’s Nexus and win.

In the second game, FREESM played against “Xmithie’s Ravers”. This team consisted of Sergen “BrokenBlade” Çelik, Jake Kevin “Xmithie” Puchero, Jérémy “Eika” Valdenaire, Ian Victor “FBI” Huang, and Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun. The first game gave Xmithie’s Ravers leverage, as they earned 4 Drakes, 1 Dragon Soul, and a Baron. Although they seemed to do well, FREESM turned it around with an ultimate comeback, eventually ending the game and claiming victory.

Keeping the community together

Overall, FREESM’s witty banter and jokes brought fans back to 2016-2017 TSM. Viewers were reminded of how well these players synergize with each other and how entertaining their matches are. Amid the difficulties of the ongoing pandemic, viewers had some positive content to watch. As the LCS has yet to announce the continuance of the official competition, the community stays hopeful as players continue to support each other.

LCS inhouses were great! We had 3k viewers as the scuffed secondary stream, and @OvileeMay consistently hit 20k on the main stream!

If coronavirus keeps tryina keep us down, we'll just meme it to death with more personal hygiene and scuffed games. Thanks everyone!

— Clayton Raines (@CaptainFlowers) March 15, 2020

Hopefully, the LCS teams and staff can push for more reunions like the NLCS in the future. After all, more people are staying home during the pandemic, and they probably need something to replace the regular LCS time slot with. What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.