The NA LCS team Phoenix1 had a pretty solid split when they finished third in the standings and established themselves as one of the better teams in North America. Can Xspecial save them from a bad League of Legends run?
NA LCS team Phoenix1 has not been the same as they are sitting at the bottom of the points table and have not managed a single victory yet. They have looked scrappy in their recent matches and are definitely not in the same shape as they were in last season. Their League of Legends team doesn’t have the same execution as before.
Recently, the team announced the acquisition of former Dignitas support Alex ‘Xpecial’ Chu who will most likely be replacing their current rookie support Jordan “Shady” Robison in the starting lineup.
Towards the end of last season, Phoenix1 sold their starting support Adrian “Adrian” Ma to Team Liquid which was questionable itself as most of their victories were coming from their bot lane straight out smashing their opponent’s counterpart. The pair of No “Arrow” Dong-hyeon and Ma formed a formidable combination. This changed when Phoenix1 sold their support to Team Liquid and decided to bring in a rookie support in the form of William “Stunt” Chen.The change in roster surprised fans as the original pair were doing just fine. As the team was adjusting to their new support, Phoenix1 again decided to mess things up and subbed another rookie support Jordan “Shady” Robison in.
As most of the split was over when these changes started to occur, it didn’t have a major impact on team standings in the points table, but things started to mess up once the new split started as Pheonix 1 has not managed a single victory in the new split.
This has compelled Phoenix1 to change their support again but this time instead of a rookie, they are bringing a veteran in Xpecial. He has been in the pro scene for a long period and has played with the likes of Dignitas and NA giants TSM.
This could be a good move for Phoenix1 as pairing up a veteran who has enough game knowledge with their star ADC Arrow could be exactly what they needed. Xspecial can also help with shot calling which can bring more team fluidity on the roster. Xspecial definitely brings more experience to the team. He is also a proven support and a good leader. Hopefully, this will help put Pheonix 1 in a better position to start winning some matchups.