Oh god the dumb fucking circle jerk this has caused. "RIP NA Talent Pool." I'm sure this also means RIP KR Talent Pool as well. Also, that guy Altec didn't happen. Gravity is full of, excuse me for saying this, a bunch of players that were considered 'no names' being carried by Saint, Cop and occasionally other players from being snowballed by Saint.
It was like a concept album, but for a team. "Bunny's a one trick pony," now he looks like a fine support. Hauntzer? People didn't even think he was a top 3 Challenger Series top laner when he was trying to get into the LCS with Curse Academy. People said he would be the downfall of the team due to not being LCS level. Altec? People actually said Qtpie was a better ADC than him in Season 3 and he also got the Pobelter treatment. "And how did Team Winterfox do with Altec?" Now he's top 2 ADC in NA. And Keane... Well he's Keane. He has had perhaps the biggest world wide meta impact in the world, definitely in the west. Urgot and Hecarim he has been playing for over two years and he has always said he was going to make it happen one day, and it did.
We also forget C9 has been a LCS team for TWO YEARS. They're a young team that just so happened to become legendary. Not five years in LCS, six in competition like TSM, Fnatic, Gambit, CLG, Curse/Liquid, Dignitas, etc. They're not an old team. They are from the NA talent pool. Two years ago, they were NA solo queue players trying to get into the LCS via challenger scene. We tend to forget and not respect this fact due to the fact they have been such a great team.
Keith, Stixxay are also highly respected players who just need a real shot. No not a week or two, a split with full scrim time, coaching time and no fear of losing their job week to week. Azingy, while it seems this would have been a troll statement a year ago, started to look very good on Dignitas with his limited, limited LCS experience. What if Azingy had an entire off season with Dignitas or a LCS team to refine his play? There's also good LCS players who are simply on shit teams, like Altec once was. I think Innox and otter have looked really good, TDK is just so bad and tilted. Kind of like how I know Svenskeren is an incredible jungler, as is Jankos (still get quarter chub watching his Lee Sin/Elise from Season 3) their teams simply suck complete ass. It doesn't make them bad players.
Calitrolz has also carried many a LCS game, beating many LCS top laners despite limited experience. Slooshi also had absurd fucking carries on LeBlanc, Orianna and Syndra throughout last split and I remember him outlaning, outplaying and outcarrying Bjergsen when TSM lost to T8 (not saying he's better overall).
Oh and Misfits has a ton of NA players who have shown up to be quite talented. I thought RF was a huge mistake but in the recent two months he has played great, so has Crumbz, Remilia and even Maplestreet now on a better theme (see how that works).