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NA LCS Spring Split 2016: Week 8 recap


Photo credits go to: lolesports' flickr

Miss out on all the LCS fun this weekend? Don't worry, we've got all the news that's fit to print!

Week 8 of the North American League Champion Series has to be one of the craziest we’ve seen in a long time. There were upsets, farmfests, and just flat out bizarre games that coalesced into one trippy weekend for pretty much every team involved. Let’s not dawdle and jump right in:

NRG eSports: Lost and Found

When the NRG eSports roster was first revealed, it was a thrilling moment. Two very talented and beloved Korean players (ChangSeok “GBM” Lee and Eon-Yeong “Impact” Jeong) got together with some of the most promising talent from the Challenger Series (former Team Coast Jungler  Galen “Moon” Holgate and Support Kevin “KonKwon” Kwon) and former Team Gravity ADC Johnny “Altec” Ru to make what should have been, on paper, one of the strongest teams in the league. The results, however, have certainly not lived up to the hype, and they sit in 5th with a middling record of 8-8. Some have noted that Impact seems lost in the top lane, or that Moon has problems keeping up to snuff with other junglers in the league. Many have pointed out the Korean/English language barrier as causing problems for the team as well. These critiques seem valid when looking at the team’s losses, and yet ring hollow when you see some of their victories.

This weekend was very typical for NRG. It opened with a game against the dominant Immortals, which opened with Impact giving up first blood in an uncoordinated tier-two turret dive. Despite finding some decent pickoffs, the game went essentially as expected, with IMT winning slowly, slowly, then all at once. The next day was entirely different, pitting NRG against an ascendant, seemingly-unstoppable force in Team Liquid, who had smashed both Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming in their last two games. And yet, NRG seemed perfectly on point this game - GBM’s Zed was near-flawless, and Moon got a huge Baron steal that really helped roll the game in their favor. It was by no means a perfect game, but it shows mental fortitude on the part of a struggling team. Is it the indicator of an upwards trend? The team can only hope.

Renegades and the “Seraph Effect”

WooYeong “Seraph” Shin, like Yuri “KEITHMCBRIEF” Jew and Ben “LOD” deMunck before him, has been a mercenary substitute for a long time now. He helped Team Impulse during their mini-tear in the early weeks of the tournament, and was the top laner for Challenger darlings Team Dragon Knights for the regular season. It was just before the North American Challenger Series playoffs that he was traded away to the struggling LCS team Renegades, replacing their rotating toplane roster of Oleskii “RF Legendary” Kuziuta and Cuong “Flaresz” Ta. In addition, Renegades also swapped out mid laner Alexey “Alex_ich” Ichetovkin for another TDK player, Geon-woo “Ninja” Noh.

Being that they’re already locked in for the relegation tournament, these changes were made not to win games in the regular season, but to win the relegation tournament and regroup for the next split. The debut of this roster came in an exciting game versus the second place team, Cloud 9. It was bloody and back and forth, with the new squad nearly beating out one of the strongest teams in the league. Day 2 brought further surprises. Against the fourth-place-but-struggling TSM, Renegades was nothing short of dominant. It seems that no matter how hard TSM tried they couldn’t successfully execute a gank, teamfight, or even really a lane. Now, one could attribute that to the well-documented struggles of TSM, but given their performance this weekend, it really is hard to deny that Renegades could well be a strong contender in the upcoming relegation tournament - a worrying prospect for the top teams in the NACS.

Echo Fox and Dignitas, a Record-Smashing Game

No one expected much of a game between two lower board teams; while the result was somewhat up in the air, being that both Echo Fox and Team Dignitas had taken some solid victories in the past but still toil at the bottom of the bracket. 30 minutes into the game, there were only two kills (both for Dignitas), and they were slowly creeping up their advantage on the map. Henrik “Froggen” Hansen was farming as hard as he could on Gangplank, as was Keith on Kalista. 50 minutes in, it was 1-7 in favor of Dignitas. However, one glimmer of hope existed for Fox, in the form of Froggen, who, 56 minutes into the game, broke the record for most CS in a professional game of League of Legends previously held by Longzhu Gaming’s JinYeong “CoCo” Shin. 10 minutes later, Keith joined him , and all of a sudden what seemed like a simple, if long-winded, victory for Dignitas, was falling away from them, they were losing teamfights and bleeding turrets. After an hour of farming, Fox tightened the noose, stealing away Dignitas’ seemingly assured victory in a beautiful comeback. If you can appreciate farmfests, this is the game for you. If not, well, watch the last 10 minutes. It’s a thrilling end.

Standings

Eight weeks in, and I’m still saying the same thing: Immortals is utterly dominating the league. That pretty much goes without saying. CLG and C9 tie for second, two games above the fourth place team, TSM. As was said before, NRG and Liquid tie for fifth. Just behind them is Echo Fox, 6-10 after a 1-1 week that Froggen and Keith can still be very proud of. As it has been the past two weeks, TIP, Dignitas, and Renegades take the last three spots and are eliminated from the playoffs, even with Renegades’ insane upset against TSM.

We only have one week left in the regular season. That means not much can change in the standings. Immortals is guaranteed first place, even if they lose both games and CLG and C9 win both of theirs. The only real changes that can take place are in the middle of the table, where all the teams that are one game apart can shift their positions around pretty radically. TSM is in fourth right now, but they have an incredibly tough week ahead against NRG and Immortals, and after a particularly disappointing Week 8, they’re gonna have a lot to work on if they want to take games against those two. Anything can happen still, so be sure to tune in next week. Or don’t, it is my job to talk about the highlights if you miss it.

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