Riot Games announced their on-air talent team for the upcoming season ahead of the League of Legends Championship Series 2022 Lock In tournament on Friday. Many returning faces will give spectators play-by-play and analysis, but the return of Joshua “Jatt” Leesman stands out in particular.
Say hello to the on-air talent team that will be bringing you the #LCS in 2022!@AzaelOfficial @CaptainFlowers @JamesDash @leagueofemily @Hai @esportsjatt @esports_kobe @LeTigress @TheeMarkZ @Pastrytime @RiotPhreak
@RazLCS pic.twitter.com/axuoydhlf9— LCS (@LCSOfficial) January 14, 2022
Where has Jatt been
Jatt spent the last full year of his career as the head coach for Team Liquid, which he joined at the end of the LCS 2020 spring split. After taking over, Team Liquid finished the regular season in first place with a 15-3 record going into playoffs. After a 3-0 sweep over Golden Guardians in the second round of the LCS 2020 Summer Playoffs, Jatt and TL clinched a spot at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship. However, TL finished the summer playoffs in third place after falling to FlyQuest and TSM before failing to reach the knockout stage at Worlds.
In an effort to improve on their performance, TL signed of Barney “Alphari” Morris and Lucas “Santorin” Larsen in the offseason but only finished third in the LCS 2021 spring regular season. They also lost to Cloud9 in the LCS 2021 Mid-Season Showdown and faced internal turmoil that saw both Alphari and Santorin benched at different times due to numerous reasons throughout the season. Jatt resigned as head coach in June of last year
Jatt will now start 2022 as a member of the LCS broadcast team, a position he has held at Riot Games for eight of the past 10 years. Jatt said on Twitter he is a freelancer this time around, so he won’t be on the broadcast every day.
The rest of the returning cast
Joining Jatt on the broadcast team is a slew of popular personalities. James “Dash” Patterson is back in the host role while David “Phreak” Turley, Clayton “CaptainFlowers” Raines, Sam “Kobe” Hartman-Kenzler and Julian “Pastrytime” Carr are among the casters back this season. Hai “Hai” Du Lam, Emily Rand and Mark “MarkZ” Zimmerman are back on the analyst desk. For a full list of talent, fans can check out Riot’s official announcement.
