1 - Afreeca Freecs
Afreeca finished the summer split in somewhat disappointing fashion. Despite a late season surge that saw them look a very promising side for playoffs, a seemingly effortless stomp at the hands of MVP in the wildcard Bo3 put their title dreams to rest. This split began with a somewhat paradoxical week for the Freecs as despite looking lost, and disjointed, AF scrapped a 2-1 win over the newly promoted EEW. Conversely, after cleaning up their act during the week, Afreeca put on a commanding performance to perfect game KT before ultimately losing the set 2-1 on the back of a Scoretm Baron Steal. If anything, the break has shown that for Afreeca, the lows reach ever lower whilst the highs are truly high indeed. Individually, Kramer and Marin have had some phenomenal performances but Spirit really needs to start showing some consistency or perhaps it’s time for the coaches to give Mogli a run.
2 - BBQ Olivers
The BBQ Olivers will be looking to improve on their mid table berth last split and claim a playoff spot for their own. As such it was a tough week for the BBQ Olivers. A 2-1 defeat to an invigorated Longzhu was followed by a 2-1 man handling by a merciless SKT. BBQ looked promising at times, displaying a lot of the old synergy that a familiar roster would have however, they continue to suffer from the same problems that dogged them the previous split; they’re just slightly getting out classed by the all-stars of the LCK.
3 - Ever Eight Winners
The only newly promoted side this split, EEW were the only team to make it out of the challenger series as they take the place of KDM to join Korea’s finest. However, although many have already slated them as the default tenth placed team, Ever 8 have rallied behind their ‘bus driver’, mid laner Cepted. Despite being only two games into his top flight career, Cepted has been doing an incredibly impressive impression of Faker in his debut season. Outplaying ganks 2 V 1, turning team fights with game changing ultimates and racking up a KDA that would be the envy of the league, Cepted will be a man to watch. Couple with clean macro decision making skills and a strong bond of trust between team mates, EEW was a former world champion top laner short of taking down AF and were better than MVP in every department as the first week sees them close out with a 1-1 match score.
4 - Jin Air Greenwings
Having survived the terrors of the promotion tournament, the JAG will be looking to avoid last split’s scare and perhaps challenge for a playoff spot. Bearing this in mind, a 2-1 defeat to MVP followed by a 2-0 mauling of the ROX Tigers, could be classified as a good week for the Greenwings. Furthermore, the JAG looked better as a whole. It might be premature to end the jokes on the infamous JAG 60 minute games, but with a number of 30 minute victories, it’s quite clear that the time and effort has been put in over the break to polish this team up.
JAG took on Kongdoo in the LCK Summer Promotion Winners Finals
5 - KT Rolster
The saga of the Korean team continues in the Summer split. A team full of legends, brought back to Korea for the sole purpose of dethroning SKT and winning worlds. For them, the sky’s the limit. Unfortunately, KT fans may have to settle for hovering slightly above the ground. Although a second place finish in the Spring split is something to boast about, for KT, getting destroyed 3-0 by SKT in the finals will be an evening to forget. Starting the split 1-1, KT can count themselves lucky that Afreeca’s mid game shot calling continue to plague them, or it could just as easily have been a 0-2 start to the split. Kt have so much potential, it breaks this writer’s heart to see them struggle so. For Kt, anything less than a worlds spot would be absolutely unacceptable. Toning down the reckless aggression would truly help, and would putting Smeb on a tank from time to time truly hurt? If anything, it’ll give the opposition something to chew on.
6 - LongZhu Gaming
Relative to their roster, Longzhu had the most disappointing split of the spring season. Boasting the likes of fly, Gorilla and Pray, not even making the playoffs is a bitter pill to swallow. The off season proved no less kind as news emerged of player’s payments being delayed as the roster saw 3 changes in the Jungle and solo lanes as LZ welcomes relative rookies Cuzz, Khan and Bdd to the line-up. As fans prepared for another horrifying season, LZ had other plans. LZ man handled KT and the BBQ Olivers to begin their split 2-0. And they looked good doing it too. Whilst we are only one week deep into the season, LZ have made their intentions clear. We want to go to worlds, and we’d like to see you try and stop us.
7 - MVP
MVP had a fairly promising showing in the spring split. Falling in the first round of playoffs 3-0 to KT, MVP will be looking to build on their Spring successes to challenge for a ticket to the 2017 World Championships. However, a narrow 2-1 win over JAG followed by a 0-2 mauling by the newly promoted EEW was not how most MVP fans imagined the start of their split. MVP seem to rely a little too strongly on Max’s support shenanigans as, much like solo queue, the Blitzcrank pick seems to be a highly polarising hit or miss. When Max plays well, MVP play well. However, when Max’s engages don’t work out as well as planned…
8 - ROX Tigers
ROX tigers finished the spring split within touching distance of the playoffs, missing out by one place. However, it would seem that the magic, has somewhat vanished. Whilst not wholly uncoordinated, it’s clear that ROX players have clearly not been on the same page this past week. Micky seemed to be having one of his less than stellar runs of form, but it is early days yet and ROX have time aplenty to recover.
9 - Samsung Galaxy
The second best team last split. Whilst no small achievement, SSG won’t be satisfied with anything less than the title this split. And a 2-0 start to the season is a great way to start. And not just any old 2-0, a 2-1 win over a reinvigorated Longzhu as well as a 2-0 annihilation of rivals SKT. If that’s not a statement of intent, then I’m not sure what is. Nothing but praises for Samsung, they have the best understanding of the meta, their rift herald use is beyond anybody else’s in the league and the players tick like clock work. I’d also like to congratulate veteran Ambition on his recent marriage and wish him all the best.
10 - SK Telecom
Whilst never last and certainly not least, SKT remain the last team to talk about. Whilst they sit at 1-1 on the week and may look slightly disjointed, they had only returned a week ago from their MSI victories and as such, judgement on the team will be held off until next week where their mettle will be tested against the likes of Longzhu and EEW.
Based on the purely knee jerk reaction to first week performances, there is an argument to be made for a great many of these teams to be challenging for worlds. Amongst them, SKT (never bet against SKT), KT, LZ and SSG. Truly a season to get excited for.
