HotshotGG subs in for CLG midlane, LiNK to jungle - interview with CLG GM

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

League of Legends team Counter Logic Gaming will be using George 'HotshotGG' Georgallidis as their sub for the first week of LCS as their jungler, Marcel 'Dexter' Feldkamp continues to be unavailable due to visa complications. More surprisingly though, is the fact that HotshotGG will be playing in the mid lane, while current midlaner Austin 'LiNK' Shin moves to the jungle for the weekend.

onGamers spoke to CLG General Manager Kelby May before the start of the games to clarify the decision and provide an update on the situation.

onGamers: Any updates on Dexter's visa?

Dexter's visa application was filed with rush processing and the immigration lawyers who assisted us with the case are anticipating his case to be approved any day. It is expected that he will be able to rejoin the team for next week's LCS matches.

Why did you decide to throw Hotshot into mid and put LiNK jungle?

Since Dexter was only anticipated to miss 1 week of LCS, the team looked for a solution to the situation which would provide the best results in the short term. After reviewing potential replacements for jungle and mid, the team determined they would have the best results with HotshotGG mid and Link in the jungle. Since his retirment Hotshot has played mid lane almost exclusively in solo queue at the challenger level. Also, having recently stepped into a more involved coaching role, the team and Hotshot felt that their familiarities with each other would give the team the highest chances for success in the short term instead of introducing an entirely new player for 1 week of play.

How prepared is LiNK to jungle and how ready is Hotshot to play the mid role?

As mentioned in the previous question, HotshotGG has played mid almost exclusively in solo queue for the past 6 months. Link has always been capable of playing most roles and champions at the competitve level and actually seriously considered a role swap to jungle for the team after Season 3 World Finals. Of course it cannot be expected that either will play as well as their counterparts on the ideal starting roster, however this is what the team felt was best as a quick fix until Dexter is able to return to the US.

How much practice did the team have with Hotshot prior to his participation in today's matches?

The team has been playing 2-3 scrim blocks per day (plus solo queue time) 6 days per week since CLG Camp concluded.

What are the team's expectations going into this week with the sub situation?

Realistically, the team is just hoping to not go 0-4 and put the main roster in too large a deficit at the beginning of the season. The roster was feeling quite strong with Dexter, but his absence is rather impactful as CLG is not only being forced to play LCS matches without him, but is missing out on valuable practice time with their new player. This roster with Dexter was only formed 2 weeks before BotA and has not gotten to play with him since, so the full roster is still very new. This practice time without Dexter has not been entirely wasted however as he has adjusted his schedule to stay up late into the early morning to watch most of CLG's scrims so that he may provide feedback and develop his own ideas on how the team will best improve once he returns.