With only two games left before Playoffs, CLG is reportedly benching their League Championship Series Mid Laner, Eugene "Pobelter" Park. Pobelter re-joined the team partway through Spring Split after original CLG Mid Lee "Crown" Min-ho had a rough start to the season. Upon Pobelter's arrival, the team saw immediate improvement, but they didn't find enough of a spike to climb out of tenth place. 

Coming into the Summer Split, CLG made no roster swaps, despite most LCS teams shifting players around. Earlier this season, CLG swapped in Academy Top Laner, Alexey "Deus" Zatorski, for one weekend, but immediately filled original Top Laner, Kim "Ruin" Hyeong-min back in the following week. 

The report of Pobelter's benching comes from League personality and former pro, Christian "IWillDominate" Rivera. Ovilee and Pobelter's girlfriend, Syanne, responded to the thread, unofficially confirming his report that Pobelter would not start.

CLG currently sits at 8th place, which qualifies the team for Playoffs in the losers' bracket. However, with Cloud9 and FlyQuest on the schedule for Week 9, they could easily fall to 9th or 10th place, removing them from the Playoffs and exhausting their chance to represent NA at Worlds. There is no information on what the plan would be for his replacement, but as we have passed the trading deadline, CLG can only replace Pobelter with a current player on their roster list. 

Jean-Sébastien "Tuesday" Thery is the only other Mid Laner on the roster, currently playing on their Academy Squad and is their likely replacement, however, Deus is a former Mid Laner himself, and has kept up playing the role despite playing Top Lane full time for CLG Academy.

Updated 8/5: Pobelter tweeted out confirmation, stating he will make his Academy debut this week.

Updated 8/5: CLG announced that both Pobelter and Raymond "Wiggily" Griffin would both be playing in their Academy games this week. 

This is a continuing story, and Inven Global will update upon further development.

For more LoL Esports news and content, head over to our dedicated League of Legends section!

Find full schedules, brackets, and more for your favorite esports on Juked.gg!