With free agency officially opening for League of Legends esports, Counter Logic Gaming hit the delete button on their entire League of Legends Championship Series roster, including all five starting players. Not long after that, the first of many signings for the team’s 2022 roster was revealed. Juan Arturo “Contractz” Garcia will be coming over from Evil Geniuses to CLG as their starting jungler in 2022, Head of CLG Greg Kim confirmed on Dot Esports’ free agency show.
The move comes after sweeping changes that saw CLG bring in a new head of esports, a new GM and an announcement that the team would be going with a brand new starting roster. According to the new GM, Jonathon McDaniel, CLG will be favoring youth and development with its next roster.
Contractz isn’t one of those young developing players in a traditional sense. He was once a highly-touted prospect that got his start with Cloud9 in 2017. After a promising rookie campaign that saw him win rookie of the split, Contractz earned second-team all-pro honors in the 2017 LCS summer split. After that season, Contractz moved over to Golden Guardians, where he had trouble replicating the success he saw on Cloud9
Contratz spent two years on Golden Guardians before joining 100 Thieves in 2020. He spent most of his time on 100 as a member of the academy team. However, he got some playtime in the summer split on the main team. In 2021, he spent most of the year on Evil Geniuses in a similar role. When it came time for the 2021 LCS Playoffs, Contractz emerged as EG’s starting jungler over Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen. In the team’s first playoff series against Dignitas, Contractz played in all four games and EG won the series 3-1.
In EG’s second-round series against 100 Thieves, Contractz played in four of the five games, going 2-2 in the process. Svenskereren subbed in for Game 5 and the team went on to lose the series. Contractz returned as the starter in the team’s loser’s bracket matchup against Cloud9 but lost the two games he played in that series. In the 10 games Contratz played in the 2021 LCS Championship playoffs, he led all junglers in experience difference at 10 minutes with 188 and was second in gold per minute with 233, according to Oracle’s Elixir.
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