Fans should ‘knock it off’ about CLG’s roster swap controversy, says MonteCristo

During the final weekend of the 2022 LCS Spring Split, Counter Logic Gaming’s roster swap decision was met with mixed opinions from the North America League community. However, esports analyst and commentator Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykkles thinks people just need to “knock it off”.

The roster swap decision is always a matter of controversy in the League of Legends-related competitions, in this case, the NA community is somewhat disappointed with CLG’s recent announcement of taking in their academy players at the expense of the entire original starting roster for the final week of the Spring Split.

CLG explained that the academic players were given a chance to show their skills, adding: “showcase their talent on the main stage.” However, the NA community thinks otherwise. They argued that CLG’s move was unfair, especially to teams that are still looking to make their way to the playoffs.

CLG’s roster swap controversy

CLG revealed its decision on March 27, announcing the academy team is ready for the competition and has had a relatively good record for finishing first in the regular season.

“CLG Academy will be competing on stage tomorrow in the LCS. The team has had an amazing split finishing first in the regular season and we want to reward them with the opportunity to showcase their talent on the main stage. Give them your support tomorrow!” CLG’s tweet reads.

However, it did not take long for mixed reviews hit the organization, as many were criticizing CLG’s decision as unfair since there are other teams who were looking to up their standings position and qualify for the playoffs. Moreover, the NA community argued that other teams’ preparation is as good as nothing after preparing to face one specific roster “set” and having to encounter CLG’s roster consisting of academy players.

MonteCristo, on the other, thinks otherwise. The 35-year-old addressed these mixed views, claiming that the community was overreacting to CLG’s roster swap decision. He would then share his two cents about the matter and explained the organization’s decision. Simply put, in polite words, MonteCristo said to just “knock it off.”

“If CLG want to f**k around and run their full academy roster to give them stage time and to evaluate potential changes for the next split, that is their prerogative. So, shut the f**k up,” he said.

Moreover, responding to the community’s argument about other teams’ playoffs, MonteCristo argued that not making it into the playoffs does not have any correlation with CLG’s academic players. Instead, he “blame” other teams for not securing a spot in the playoffs early on, and ideally CLG is not to be blamed or even responsible for such conditions.

Duo co-hosts Daniel ‘DGon’ Gonzales and Christian ‘IWDominate’ Rivera agreed with MonteCristo’s decision. IWDominat explained and made a reference to a particular team that he thinks could potentially be defeated by CLG’s academy swap roster.

“I really don’t feel that bad about an 8-10 team not making playoffs”, IWDominate’ added. “When I look at the LCS overall and I think ‘what would be a really egregious use of an academy team’, I don’t think that this is the one where I’m pissed about it.”