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.?
Zack “Jankeroo” Jankelson, your normal writer for NA LCS Power Rankings, cannot complete the list for this week. In collaboration with him, I took over to give you readers the breakdown of the teams.
All photos courtesy of Riot eSports on Flickr.
S Tier
Immortals (10-0)
Immortals is literally NA’s super team. They can play slow and slowly starve their opponents out, or they can clown fiesta like in the Sunday bloodbath versus Cloud 9 and still come out on top.
If this team doesn’t finish the split first, it will go down as the greatest disappointment in League of Legends history.
A Tier
Cloud 9 (6-4)
With Hai "Hai" Lam looking like the permanent starter and Michael "Bunny FuFuu" Kurylo looking like the permanent benchwarmer, Cloud 9 actually looks like a solid contender after nearly taking down Immortals. They played against them on Sunday and, although they still lost, gave the best fight of any team so far this year. On Saturday, Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen BibleThump’d Team Liquid into the ground, yet again proving themselves ahead of the pack.
Team SoloMid (7-3)
Finally, this team came together. After another 2-0 week (this time, not the bottom two teams), Team SoloMid seems to have finally gotten over the issues that plagued them in previous weeks. The entire team seemed to work together instead of playing soloQ-mentality League of Legends, and drafted far better than their opponents this week.
Can TSM keep this new look for the rest of split into playoffs? Or will they crumble and need to rebuild? Only time can tell.
B Tier
Counter Logic Gaming (6-4)
I feel somewhat bad for placing Counter Logic Gaming so high on the list, but at the same time, by process of elimination, there's nobody else that belongs above them. In their game on Saturday versus NRG eSports, CLG had complete control early game, and stayed in control of objectives with Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaha splitting on Fiora. A near baron throw almost made them lose control of the game.
On Sunday, CLG looked like a completely different team. They drafted terribly by first picking Ryze and allowing TSM to pick one of their strongest bot duos of Kalista and Alistar. On CLG’s second pick, they didn’t take the Graves from Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, allowing him to grab it and Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell on Fiora. In the game itself, they laid down and let TSM walk all over them. Very disappointing.
C Tier
NRG eSports (5-5)
This team’s drop is inversely proportional to FOX’s rise, after a disappointing loss versus CLG and an almost pathetic loss versus FOX themselves. Rumours have it that Galen "Moon" Holgate might be stepping down from the main roster, leaving the team in shambles.
The one positive thing I can say about NRG eSports is that Eon-Yeong "Impact" Jeong is an absolute beast. Even from behind, he was able to make plays on Malphite versus CLG. If the team is able to find any more future success, it'll probably be mostly from this star top laner.
Team Liquid (5-5)
Not much to say about this team this week. Team Liquid played against yet another top team, putting up a good fight, but an eventual loss. The next day, they played a vastly inferior opponent and left them in ruins, as expected.
Much like Impact for NRG, it appears the way TL will find success is through their rookie jungler Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett. He has proven himself to be one of the best. Let’s hope he can continue.
Echo Fox (3-7)
This team took a complete 180 from last week. Echo Fox were looking like the worst team in LCS next to LA Renegades, holding only one win the entire split and almost never having a full roster.
But it is an even season.
Both Henrik "Froggen" Hansen and Jeong-hun "kfo" Park came back to the team this weekend, allowing them to completely dumpster REN and NRG in two back-to-back victories. I could be a bit bold in saying this, but I firmly believe that the FOX roster, if they continue playing like they did this week, will break into A Tier by Summer.
D Tier
Team Impulse (4-6)
Team Impulse was swept by NA frontrunner Team SoloMid, but gave a good showing versus Team Dignitas. This team appears to have the potential to break into C Tier; the only thing they’re missing is a singular strong player like NRG and TL. They have a consistent roster now, so perhaps synergy will allow them to come together and make playoffs.
Team Dignitas (3-7)
Every week this team looks weaker and weaker. Without a consistant carry in either mid laner Danny "Shiphtur" Le and marksman Apollo "Apollo" Prince, gold earned in game is funneled into players who can't seem to use it. Lack of vision from LCS veteran Alan "KiWiKiD" Nguyen does the team no favors as well.
Team Dignitas is slipping down like they do every split. With another 0-2 week, this team is starting to lose hope. The best they can do now is hope to not end last and do well in relegations.
F Tier
LA Renegades (1-9)
The benching of Oleskii "RF Legendary" Kuziuta for Cuong "Flaresz" Ta did not help the team recover this week. LA Renegades look lost. They have no team play and continually make mechanical and shot calling errors. Without RF Legendary and Maria "Remi" Creveling, they seemed scared to even walk past river.
The only wildcard is Aleš "Freeze" Kn?žínek. He is still preforming decently as a marksman for having no team around him. If the team can somehow allow him to hit his peak skill level, they may have a chance to not be relegated.
Although nearly the entire team is underperforming, Alberto "Crumbzz" Rengifo seems to be the weakest link. Throughout every stage of the game, it appears he doesn’t know what to do. This tweet from the parody account @c9meteosego sums it up best.
