A wild Week 3 of the North Americal League Championship Series brought us standings shake-ups, unconventional picks, and some great League of Legends action. We lay out the NALCS landscape in this week's power rankings.
The 2016 NALCS Spring Split has shattered walls of perception, taken everything we knew to be true, thrown it out the window, and instalocked Zilean mid.
Ranking such a volatile landscape is harder than ever. After three weeks, we've seen countless upsets, excellent storylines, resurgences and regressions, and tons of riveting League of Legends. Let's try to make sense of it all...
Follow me on Twitter (@GG_Jankeroo) for more live LCS updates and eSports insight.
S Tier
Immortals (6-0)
(courtesy of newsoflegends.com)
Crown them.
Nobody can keep up with Immortals. Their domination is on par with the Cloud 9 of old. Neither of this week’s foes were particularly challenging opponents, but you must beat who is in front of you on any given day. Immortals embarrassed both of them. A 29 minute drubbing of Renegades Saturday was followed up by a near perfect 19 minute win over Echo Fox.
On a team with five MVP threats, Adrian “Adrian” Ma, Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin, and Jason “Wildturtle” Tran stand out as the three best performers in the NA LCS, and perhaps in the LCS on the whole. Adrian, Reignover, and Wildturtle hold the top three KDAs in North America at 22.7, 21.3, and 14.8 respectively through six games.
There is not a single team on this list that is on the same plane as Immortals. I don’t see this changing for a long while.
A Tier
NRG eSports (4-2)
(courtesy of polsatsport.pl)
Some say the sign of one’s character is in how they respond to adversity. NRG eSports heard this mantra loud and clear.
After being ransacked by suddenly-strong Team Liquid, NRG proceeded to knock Team SoloMid on their collective rear-ends and beat them within an inch of their lives. The shutout performance was highlighted by Lee “GBM” Chang-suk’s cheesy Zilean pick. His stellar 5/0/9 statline still doesn’t do justice to the mark he left on this game (and Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg’s forehead).
If GBM and the NRG eSports crew continue to innovate the meta and show resilience, Immortals may start to feel a sudden bite at their heels.
B Tier
Counter Logic Gaming (4-2)
(courtesy of clgaming.net)
Stumbles against Cloud 9 and Dignitas don’t worry me too much. Losses happen. When your macro game is as strong as Counter Logic Gaming’s is, however, you are set up for success.
CLG and Immortals took turns walloping on the cellar dwellers of the LCS this weekend. Saturday’s tilt against Echo Fox was a surprisingly peaceful affair, with only nine kills being handed out between the two teams (7-2 in favor of CLG). The contest was won with an aforementioned knack for strong objective control and rotational skill. The Renegades weren’t so lucky. Though they held a gold lead at 20 minutes, their composition began to fall off before they could capitalize on their early game strength, and CLG began to systematically pick their opponent apart at the seams.
CLG is tied for second right now, but have a synergy to rival that of IMT. Look out for this gang late in the season.
Team SoloMid (3-3)
(courtesy of lolesports.com)
Walk it off.
In a Saturday matchup that could have gone either way, Team SoloMid barely toppled rival Cloud 9. Sunday’s match against NRG, however, was one of the most brutal games we’ve seen all split. One may not have noticed, but TSM held a gold lead at 20 minutes despite a four kill deficit, most likely due to CS leads in the mid and top lane. Once again, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Bora “Yellowstar” Kim looked entirely futile, posting 0/5/0 and 0/6/0 statlines respectively.
Look, TSM had a bad game against a good team. But they beat another one. The talking heads will question TSM’s synergy. I suggest they look at NRG’s record.
Cloud 9 (3-3)
(courtesy of lolesports.com)
Neutral week with more of the same issues for Cloud 9.
Coach Daerek “LemonNation” Hart continues to pick questionable compositions for his team. During their Saturday loss against TSM, the team lacked any sort of engage outside of Braum ult. Their Sunday contest against Dignitas brought us perhaps Cloud 9’s riskiest composition to date. The Lissandra, Nidalee, Gangplank, Corki, and Morgana grouping brought together strong picks in and of themselves, but provided no frontline whatsoever, only one defensive item on the whole team (Locket on Hai “Hai” Lam’s Morgana), subpar disengage, far too much AP damage, and a mediocre-at-best team fight.
Thankfully, Cloud 9 is a massively more skilled team, never surrendering their gold lead during their 30 minute tango with Dignitas.
This team is still walking a razor thin edge between the B and C tiers, but for now they stay.
C Tier
Team Impulse (3-3)
(courtesy of lolesports.com)
Team Impulse were a few unfortunate mistakes away from leaving week three with a record of 4-2.
Shin “Seraph” Woo-yeong currently holds the fourth highest KDA in the NALCS at 7.8. Though the sample size is small (3 games), Seraph has had an indescribable impact in his time with TIP. This squad continues to surprise, to the point where we weren’t even shocked to see them performing well. Since sitting the two weakest links on the roster (top laner Wang Xiao “Feng” Feng and subsitute support Kenneth “Ken” Tang), TIP has looked beyond competent, especially with Seraph.
Though Seraph is just a sub, TIP also looked strong with Austin “Gate” Yu in the top lane. This is a team that could very possibly find themselves fighting for a playoff spot if they can find consistency with their roster.
Team Liquid (3-3)
(courtesy of lolesports.com)
We’ve just discussed a team looking for roster consistency. Let’s talk about a team that has found it.
Sam “Lourlo” Jackson and Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett have built a synergy that very few top-jungle combos have found in this league. They put on a clinic with their Poppy-Rek’sai combo against NRG eSports, and led Team Liquid to a convincing 20-7 win over a legitimate A tier team. Following this encouraging performance was a surprisingly close contest with suddenly-hot Team Impulse, who stuck it to TL for 20 minutes before throwing their advantages. This Liquid team faced a certain loss once again, but never rolled over and found a path to victory.
The emotional issues in the Liquid house seem to be fixed. Diego “Quas” Ruiz, Christian “IWDominate” Rivera, and Alex “Xpecial” Chu might all have tilted and given up in the face of adversity. This squad, however, has a stunning mental fortitude that has resulted in two wild comebacks on the split.
D Tier
Team Dignitas (2-4)
(courtesy of dailydot.com)
Macro failures continue to plague Dignitas.
This team just can’t control objectives. An strong inhibitor push against Team Impulse on Saturday backfired when Dignitas overstayed and were forced to run for their to-be-shortened lives as TIP’s Seraph ransacked the base. Cloud 9 spent their Sunday walking all over Dignitas’ arguably superior composition with decisive macro play and solid team fighting.
Danny “Shiphtur” Le has quietly had an excellent split, but the indecision of his teammates on nearly all fronts is costing them games they shouldn’t be losing.
F Tier
Echo Fox (1-5)
(courtesy of dailydot.com)
I just have a feeling that this all isn’t fair.
On paper, the Echo Fox roster announced shortly after Rick Fox’s purchase of the team was solid. Yuri “Keith” Jew has found success everywhere he has been. Henrik “Froggen” Hansen is a European icon. Anthony “Hard” Barkhovtsev was a promising Cloud 9 prospect before finding an expanded role in Fox’s newest project. This team was supposed to show decently, and generate some hype in this overhauled NALCS landscape.
Instead, Riot bureaucracy has three of FOX’s five starters sitting at home watching their team play. Since their win over now-impressive Team Impulse, Echo Fox has gotten stomped, had their hearts broken, and looked entirely futile, with or without subs.
I do hope this team can pull it together.
Renegades (1-5)
(courtesy of lolesports.com)
With or without Aleš "Freeze" Kn?žínek, Renegades just can’t hold up.
War-torn vets Alberto “Crumbz” Rengifo and Alexey “Alex Ich” Ichetovkin have given this team a motivating presence, but not much else. Crumbz, Alex Ich, Oleksii “RF Legendary” Kuziuta, and now-former support Maria “Remi” Creveling hold the four lowest KDAs of players participating in all six games in the NALCS at 1.8, 1.9, 1.5, and 2.3 respectively. This is unacceptable on all fronts.
Renegades was supposed to come into the LCS to revive two careers, play spoiler for NA mainstays, and reclaim the Challenger squad legacy. Instead, they’re getting embarrassed every week. Renegades is staring down the barrel of the relegation tournament.
Thanks for reading, all! Send me some love (or hate) on Twitter, and go at it in the comments!
