The NALCS landscape is just as wild as ever nearing the midway point of the split. The playoff race is wide open. We take a deeper look in this week's power rankings.?
Another week, another great set of matches in the NALCS. This week brought us Cloud 9's first Saturday win, a sloppy set of matches for Team SoloMid, and inevitably more Zilean. Who doesn't love more Zilean?
Join us as we turret dive into this week's power rankings.
Don't worry, we're playing Pantheon.
All photos courtesy of Riot eSports on Flickr.
Follow me on Twitter (@GG_Jankeroo) for more live LCS updates and eSports insight.
S Tier
Immortals (8-0)
I don’t know what to write about this team anymore.
They’re incredible. They have the intangibles seen in every world champion from every season so far.
Watching Immortals play League of Legends is like listening to a perfectly synchronized orchestra, like watching a harmonious moonlit dance, like closely analyzing a Rembrandt painting.
Look out, Las Vegas.
B Tier
Cloud 9 (5-3)
None of these teams are quite ready to be bumped up to A tier after Week 4. Next to Immortals, however, Cloud 9 had the weekend’s best showing.
C9 spent their Super Bowl weekend casually thumping LA Renegades and second place NRG eSports with ridiculously aggressive compositions, amassing a 27-4 kill ratio on the weekend and never surrendering a gold deficit past 3 minutes in either game. Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen wrote a textbook on how to play Orianna this weekend (24.0 weekend KDA), and Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi (25.0 weekend KDA) led damage to champion charts in both contests. Curiously, though, An “Balls” Le dealt 500 damage to champions in the tilt against REN. 500. This is not a typo.
Balls needs to get back on track, but Cloud 9’s convincing victory over NRG boosts them to the verge of A tier. Matches against Team Liquid and Immortals in week 5 will be massively important indicators of where C9 stands.
NRG eSports (5-3)
Ugly week for the bowtie crew.
NRG won a tense matchup against a Team Impulse that looks much more like their Week 1 iteration with Wang “Feng” Xiao-Feng back in the top lane. Until the thirty minute mark, TIP appeared to be controlling a 50/50 outcome until a solid fight from NRG secured the win. Against Cloud 9, however, NRG’s admittedly strong composition had no answer for Jensen’s Orianna, falling victim to more than one multiple-champion Shockwaves.
Bad week. It happens. NRG needs to beat some more quality opponents before moving any further up in these rankings, however.
Team SoloMid (5-3)
Don’t scare us like that, Team SoloMid.
A gimme week with contests against Echo Fox and Renegades turned out to be a gut check for TSM. They built up a 5.2k gold deficit against REN and couldn’t find any early advantages against Echo Fox. Talent prevailed, however, and TSM slogged their way out of Week 4 with two 38 minute victories.
Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng had a solid recovery this week after a poor Week 3 showing, but more than just the bot lane needs to be on point. Had they played like this against two higher tier teams, TSM might be 3-5 right now.
Counter Logic Gaming (5-3)
Loss to Immortals. Shocking.
This week went just about as expected for Counter Logic Gaming. Loss against a steadfast Immortals, win against a slipping Team Impulse. Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes is a highlight from this roster, but Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaha hasn’t emerged as the day in day out monster he had the potential to be. Darshan's split pushing ability is still very present, and before his two Ryze games this weekend, he had only played Jax, Fiora, and Gangplank. In wins, he is everywhere. In losses, he is a complete non-factor (evidenced by his 60.4% kill participation, second to last among players participating in all 8 games).
Week 5 brings CLG a similar challenge to Week 4, facing NRG and Echo Fox. CLG could start to tickle the A tier with two victories, and entering the midseason at 7-3 would leave CLG in excellent position to challenge for a high seed in the playoffs.
C Tier
Team Liquid (4-4)
Progress is progress.
Nobody expected Team Liquid to beat Immortals. They didn’t. It wasn’t a massacre, but it wasn’t close. I suppose not getting massacred by IMT is a win at this point?
What TL did to Team Dignitas on Saturday, though, was brutal. Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett ran up a 10/0/6 scoreline on Nidalee, proving himself to be not only one of the best rookies in the scene, but one of the best players overall.
TL looks to exact revenge on Regional Qualifier rivals Cloud 9 on Saturday as a precursor to a much more favorable Sunday matchup against Renegades. I wouldn’t quite call it a “defining” week, but it will certainly be an important one.
D Tier
Team Impulse (3-5)
Anyone care to place a bet on how many times I will use the word “enigma” by the end of the split?
That’s exactly what Team Impulse is. From “0-18 the dream“ to playoff contenders and back to mediocrity, Team Impulse seems to be the most hot and cold team in the LCS. Losing Shin “Seraph” Wu-yeong was a clear blow to this team. Feng is a noticeably inferior top laner who has flashes of both brilliance and sheer incompetence.
Last week, I said that they need to find consistency with their roster. They have found it. I’m just not sure Feng is the answer.
Dignitas (3-5)
Team Dignitas' games are just plain ugly.
Don’t let their win over Echo Fox fool you. The game was unnecessarily close, and Dignitas found a lucky late brawl in the mid lane with their base cracked open. The game should not have been this close. Echo Fox secured two barons and could do nothing with them. This win was handed to Dignitas.
I won’t even discuss the “match” against Team Liquid. The 18-1 kill total and nearly 20k gold advantage at 30 minutes says it all.
This team has to find consistency, especially in the top lane. Billy “Billyboss” Yu is underperforming almost weekly.
F Tier
Echo Fox (1-7)
Still waiting to get their roster back. Nothing new for Echo Fox.
To be fair, Echo Fox has so far found ways to contend in matches they have no business contending in, but the rotating door keeps turning, Echo Fox keeps tilting, and the LCS newcomers continue throwing. Yuri "Keith" Jew took an unexpected backseat to Ben "LOD" deMunck, who spent much of Sunday grey-screened, but pumped out a respectable amount of damage against Team Dignitas in a loss.
I really do hope that the roster issues are resolved expediently, because this team had the potential to be so much better.
Plus, nobody likes loss-of-ban champion selects.
EDIT: Echo Fox will have their original roster intact this weekend.
Renegades (1-7)
With the abrupt stepping-down of Maria “Remi” Creveling, Renegades hoped Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent could breathe some life into a team desperate for momentum. Instead, they got a severe downgrade.
Perhaps the first-game nerves got to him, but Hakuho made bronze-level mistakes against Cloud 9 that set them back from the beginning. Though the team macro game against TSM was strong, the Renegades’ lack of map awareness and individual and team fight skill outside of the marksman position resulted in yet another loss. The benching of Oleksii "RF Legendary" Kuziuta seemed to work well for the squad, however, as Cuong "Flaresz" Ta had a passable first showing resulting in the much closer Sunday contest.
Their best chance to secure a win anytime in the near future comes against F tier neighbor Echo Fox, who should still be working with the sub squad. I predict that a loss here would spell relegation for the banditos.
