Unicorns of Love will stick with most of IEM-winning roster in 2017

We know one European LCS roster for next year: the Unicorns of Love are sticking with four of the five starters used this past split. The announcement was made Sunday morning, before the Unicorns defeated both Team SoloMid and Flash Wolves en route to the IEM Oakland crown.

Update, 11/26: UOL announced starting jungler Min-su “Move” Kang is now a free agent.

During November’s offseason madness, roster swaps typically happen with great frequency among LCS teams, with teams sometimes switching in an entirely new group of five players.

But as the scene continues to develop and stabilize, the hope is rosters will find some stability as well. We saw it this year in Europe with Splyce, who stuck with a young roster after an eighth-place finish in the Spring and became one of the top teams in Europe in the Summer, making an unlikely qualification run to Worlds.

UOL saw a smaller version of that growth within the Spring, building a new roster around two veterans: a reliable carry (top laner Tamás “Vizicsacsi” Kiss) and a reliable playmaker (support Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov). After looking like, without question, the worst team in the region to start the split, the Unicorns grew tremendously as a team, finishing in fourth place and winning IEM Oakland. Now we get to see the same group again next year.

UOL 2017 roster:

• Top lane: Tamás “Vizicsacsi” Kiss (Hungary)
• Jungle: Not yet filled
• Mid lane: Fabian “Exileh” Schubert (Germany)
• AD Carry: Kyoung-min “Veritas” Kim (South Korea)
• Support: Zdravets “Hylissang” Galabov (Bulgaria)