NA LCS Week 7 Power Rankings
Patch 7.14 hit the North American LCS like a large tree erupting from the ground and smashing into a line of stampeding long cats...if you know what I mean. Mass hysteria!
A new patch brings with it a new meta, raising questions in search of answers. Maokai is great, but is he a perma-ban or first pick? Is Cho’Gath best used in the top lane or jungle? Can we flex Kennen as a support? Is Ancient Coin broken enough to draft supports like Sona or Soraka, or purchase on champions that usually build Relic Shield? Are Twisted Fate and Poppy back in the meta? Are we ready for the return of Sivir deathball comps? Can anything beat a Taric/Tank initiation? And what the hell are we to make of Kayn?
Week 7 produced no conclusive answers, but it did solidify the playoff picture. With four games to go, Immortals, TSM, CLG, C9, Team Dignitas and Team EnVyUs seem locks for postseason play, but in what order? A spoiler among the bottom four teams seems unlikely, especially with the implosion of Phoenix 1, the apathy of Echo Fox and the reconstitution of Team Liquid. For these bottom-tier teams, it’s time to deepen that roster and pray for inclusion in 2018.
Strap on your Bramble Vest and zip up that feline onesie, it’s time for the NA LCS Week 7 Power Rankings.
Immortals' stellar regular season performance shouldn’t be a surprise. Their 33-3 record across 2016 has yet to be matched since the league expanded to 10 teams in 2015, but a miserable Spring Split this year placed the new-look Noah Whinstons firmly in the background. No longer.
With first place again on the line, Immortals got the better of Counter Logic Gaming to stand alone atop NA LCS. Xmithie bested both Dardoch and OmarGod over three games, finally settling the question of who won that trade. His initiations with Jarvan IV and Rek’Sai consistently put Stixxay and Huhi in peril, while simultaneously creating space for Cody Sun to fire away as Jhin. Cody was outstanding on the Virtuoso, accounting for 33.6% of his side’s damage and 81% kill participation for the series. The back-and-forth bloodbath of Game 3 hinged on Cody’s ability to out-duel Stixxay’s Caitlyn, and Jhin, with the aid of a 7.14 Duskblade, broke the CLG nexus with a scoreline of 10-2-10.
Although Immortals swept the week, their struggles against FlyQuest during a 2-1 series win did not go unnoticed. Games 1 was a slow-moving train wreck for Immortals as they threw away an 8.8k gold advantage as FlyQuest, led by Hai’s unusual Twisted Fate selection, began winning late game fights. Game 3 required frequent pickoffs of Balls as he split pushed to overcome a 5.5k deficit in the mid game.
With CLG and TSM still breathing down Immortals’ backs, Week 8 wins over Teams Liquid and Dignitas will go a long way to securing a bye into the Semifinals.
A unexpectedly subpar week from the reigning NA LCS champions drops them from a first place perch they had seemed settled in. Team Dignitas punished Team SoloMid’s lack of Maokai priority and Echo Fox did not go away quietly. I expect more from TSM, and this week they failed to deliver.
Credit Dignitas for a well-deserved sweep, but TSM did themselves no favors in the draft. Giving away Maokai for a first-pick Thresh in Game 2 was bad enough, but then we learn TSM’s pocket counter was Jax? A Xerath mid for Bjergsen in Game 1? Parth had the threads of an idea, and TSM have some leeway when it comes to playoff position, but to come on stage with an insufficient grasp of the meta is beneath the stature and experience of the team.
An inconsistent bot lane failed TSM against Dignitas and struggled to impact the Echo Fox series until Game 3. Doublelift and Biofrost have now lost to two different Dignitas bot duos this year, with the losses to Altec and Adrian coming at the expense of Doublelift’s perfect record on Tristana this summer. Against Echo Fox he switched to the more meta Jhin, a move that keyed wins in Games 1 and 3.
TSM will rebound and adjust, a week wiser in the mechanics of Draven Baron steals and 7.14 in general. New acquisition MrRalleZ deepens TSM's bench, but with the emphasis they put on Doublelift’s carry prowess in games, I doubt the newcomer will see much on-stage playing time (if any).
Week 8 seems straightforward for TSM with FlyQuest and Team EnVyUs marking up the schedule. If TSM had a good week of practice and a better grip on the meta, we shouldn’t be in for any surprises.
Counter Logic Gaming ended Week 7 losing to Immortals and will begin Week 8 having lost a jungler. Dardoch has left the team, and all indications point to unresolved character issues that did not mesh with the CLG culture. This shift had been long brewing, beginning as whisper among insiders, the promotion of OmarGod and finally to Dardoch’s dismissal this week. Ultimately, CLG’s culture was not strong enough to reform the famed tilter despite their best efforts.
Dardoch’s replacement is home-grown OmarGod, who looked decent on Gragas in CLG’s Game 2 win over Immortals. Still, there was hesitancy born of inexperience in Omar’s Game 3 early game, deaths on dives that allowed Immortals to manufacture a slim lead that, in a such a close game, proved to be decisive. While he lacks Dardoch’s edge, Omar has shown a willingness to champion tanks and sacrifice for the team, crucial in today’s tank-heavy metagame.
Sure, CLG could have turned Game 3 around if it executed its Shen/Olaf dive comp better, but the distance between Immortals and CLG is minuscule enough that come a five-game series, I don’t know which team is favored. Like Immortals and TSM, CLG have their sights set on a first-round bye, but won’t have tiebreakers with either squad. Week 8 games against Phoenix 1 and EnVyUs will be a great chance to further incorporate OmarGod into the starting five and pick up wins against overmatched opposition
Never underestimate the restorative powers of rest and relaxation. Cloud 9 finally looked themselves again after some much-needed recovery time and a new patch that threw convention out the door (at least for now). Wins again Phoenix 1 and a red-hot Team Dignitas solidified C9’s playoff status, and while they’re unlikely to earn a top 2 seed, this is a team no one will want to face in the quarterfinals.
Contractz seemed to have spent the past week spamming Kayn in soloqueue, and against an unprepared P1 the cheese worked. Watching him gank top at 2:30 while he was Level 3 and Zig just hit Level 2 was absolutely disgusting, displaying both the power of the blue side super-leash and Kayn’s unique pathing in one deadly rotation. P1 had not prepared to face Kayn so early in the patch, and his unpredictability played a large role in their 1-2 defeat.
The weekend got harder for C9 with Dignitas stopping by the Rift, and after Game 1 all signs pointed to a quick 2-0 Dignitas stomp. Shrimp’s Nunu stymied the pressure created by Kayn with his own invades and objective control, Dignitas won bot lane and snowballed through Baron from there. Instead of folding, C9 adapted, taking advantage of Zac’s availability in Game 2 and slowly closed the game with a terrifying Zac/Taric/Shen initiation. Taric featured heavily in Game 3, with C9 contesting every Nunu invade or objective take with pressure from Contractz’s Elise and a Jarvan IV/ Taric combination that quickly took out squishy back liners.
Job well done by Cloud 9, earning a boost of confidence and two much needed wins. unfortunately, everyone knows the Taric combo now, and he isn’t getting nerfed anytime soon. We’ll see how often C9 goes back to Johnny Bravado against Week 9 cupcakes Team Liquid and FlyQuest.
Team Dignitas completed their season sweep of Team SoloMid and was within a game of beating both Spring Split 2017 finalists in one week. While C9 did eventually come back for a reverse-sweep, Dignitas made their playoff case in technicolor and cemented Altec and Adrian as the best bot lane in NA LCS.
TSM didn’t fully understand how devastatingly good Maokai is right now, but after Ssumday took them to school with one of his favorite champions, you better believe TSM got the message. Ssumday was incredible on Maokai, less because of the scoreline and more the way he set up picks and turned team fights, angling his ultimate just so or picking exactly the right target to initiate on. Altec and Adrian outplayed the usually favored Doublelift/Biofrost duo, with Altec putting up absolutely obscene numbers on Sivir in Game 2. 31k damage to champions and 424 CS in a 35-minute game (12 CSM) isn’t something you normally see, and Sivir just keeps getting buffed.
(Sidebar: Shouts to Ssumday for being one of the few—if not only—players to forgo the nightmarish Meowkai skin in favor of the tamer Festive Maokai. Thanks for protecting my mental health.)
A small thing, but I liked Keane’s choice to build Abyssal Mask out of his Catalyst first on Cassiopeia to mitigate the massive damage from Bjergsen’s Xerath. With the new build path, expect to see more Abyssal Masks on mages who usually build Catalyst into the traditional Rod of Ages. AM has much more team utility and immediate impact than RoA, which takes time for charges to build up.
Dignitas ran into trouble with their respect for Maokai against C9, choosing to ban the Twisted Treant over Zac, a trade-off made in the hope that Zac had been nerfed back to earth. Spoiler: He hasn’t (well, maybe in 7.15), and Contractz showed off every reason why. The high tempo Nunu strategy didn’t work twice for Dig, which isn’t surprising when you consider C9’s experience with Nunu. Don’t bullshit a bullshitter.
Overall, Dig acquitted themselves well this week despite the loss to C9. They’re in form and should be a real playoff threat, but I’m not sure they have a shot at a bye. Week 8 includes dates with Immortals and Echo Fox.
A very lackluster week from Team EnVyUs, gifted a comparatively easy schedule and yet they drop a series to Team Liquid—who were last place at the time—and struggled to close out FlyQuest twice.
Against Team Liquid, Envy failed to secure Baron with Cho’Gath and Kalista, watching in horror as Reignover simply walked into the pit and stole it with Smite. The reason you draft those two champions is to completely control objectives like drake and Baron; the HP threshold for Rend into Smite/Feast is far too great for a steal to be contemplated, let alone successfully executed. Envy simply got greedy, burning a Smite early for damage and attempted to get a Feast stack on Lira’s Cho’Gath. Losing that Baron cost Envy a game they controlled from the first minute; they would eventually lose the series and in a larger sense their momentum from Week 6.
The loss of momentum was evident in their contest with FlyQuest, which wasn’t decided until Balls got caught out late in Game 3, starting a fight that would end an excruciating game. Lira did his best to create space for Apollo to operate all game long, but it was barely enough to avoid watching a 15k lead slip entirely away.
I want to see more decisive shot calling from Envy, as they often run into a trap of playing too carefully before realizing their early game advantage has been farmed away by the opposition. Envy have trouble isolating ADCs, allowing Piglet and Turtle free fire behind the front line. They need to set up fights better and learn to play with advantage. 7.14 is a patch where teams can win games pre-20 minutes, and for a side with Envy’s light’s out early game, they shouldn’t see this many 40-minute nail biters.
Having lost a step with an easy schedule, how will Envy respond to a difficult one? Week 8 sends TSM and CLG their way, two teams closely jockeying for a playoff bye.
The shakeup generated by 7.14 benefited no team more than Team Liquid, who earned their first 2-0 week since Week 5 of 2016 Summer Split. Back then, they beat Cloud 9 and Team EnVyUS with a lineup of Lourlo/Dardoch/FeniX/Fabbbyyy/Matt. Back in the present, Liquid displayed a steadiness and excellent team fighting cohesion that had been absent in previous weeks, clutching out a 2-1 win over Envy and sweeping Phoenix 1. Liquid showed faith in their original lineup of Lourlo/Reignover/Goldenglue/Piglet/Matt, and the team showed real signs of coming together.
So of course, Steve had to blow it all up.
The mid-week acquisition of Mickey, a volatile Korean import mid laner who until this week was starting for a slumping ROX Tigers in LCK, will force Liquid to bench either Reignover or Piglet as per NA LCS rules. With no substitute ADC, Reignover will get the boot in favor Inori…except not really. Dardoch, recently kicked to the curb by CLG due to attitude issues, rejoined his old team in a last-ditch attempt to stay in LCS. It appears he will now start in jungle, and Reignover will look for another team at split’s end. All this to say nothing of Goldenglue, who had a stellar week taking Pirean to school, only to find himself back on the bench once Mickey arrives stateside. Rest in Peace, Vault Boy.
No one knows how this new team will perform. Were these moves in any way an upgrade, or was Steve just throwing that Disney money around for fun? We’ll certainly find out when Liquid face Immortals and Cloud 9 in Week 8.
FlyQuest neither gained nor lost ground in my rankings after a week that was decidedly even. They showed real strength against Immortals with a Cho’Gath/Twisted Fate draft, coming all the way back from nearly 9k down to win Game 1, and were up nearly 6k in Game 3 before it all fell apart. Against Team EnVyUs, FlyQuest again earned a Game 1 victory only to suffer a second straight reverse sweep, nearly turning it around with a climactic fight around blue buff down 7k.
Winning and losing are team efforts, so its disingenuous to blame one player for the team’s successes or failures. That being said, it’s hard to ignore that in both Game 3s this week, Balls repeatedly found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was his deaths while splitting bot that gave Immortals enough gold to get back into the game, and his death late against Envy forced a fight FlyQuest didn’t want to take, and it cost them the series. Balls has had and will have better days, but the team needs to adjust their shot calling to keep him out of trouble.
FlyQuest is a team standing on the doorstep of contention, but stubs their toe on the threshold every time they try to pass through. After seven weeks of play it’s too late for improvement to make a difference in their playoff chances. What matters now is the future of this Hai/Balls/LemonNation core that has been present throughout much of NA LCS history. They have what it takes to compete, but for how much longer? Will the Edens family commit to franchising costs? Here’s hoping we see them all again after season’s end.
Week 8 will be a chance to go out in a blaze of glory, first against TSM, and then against Cloud 9 in a resumption of NA's Civil War.
Before Liquid’s spending spree and Dardoch’s ouster from CLG, Phoenix 1 made waves early last Friday by announcing that Ryu was temporarily leaving the team due to burnout. Pirean hastily rejoined his old team, but after one week of matches, it’s clear that whatever fire lit P1’s resurgence at Rift Rivals died with Ryu's departure. Apart from re-introducing the Sivir/Taric Deathball draft in a Game 2 win over Cloud 9, P1 haven’t offered much to get excited about.
MikeYeung has the goods to be a standout jungler in NA LCS, but he needs help. One lane can lose, maybe two, but all three? There’s only so much pressure a jungler can add, only so many deficiencies he can help alleviate. Arrow and Xpecial were already struggling, Zig looks poor if he can’t get ahead, and now without Ryu mid lane looks shaky at best. Pirean isn’t the carry Ryu is; part of the reason Team EnVyUs preferred Nisqy over Pirean is that Nisqy’s aggression in lane can win 1v1s and carry games, while Pirean has looked best on supportive champions like Taliyah. With Arrow struggling since the beginning on the split, P1 needed to replace a mid carry with a mid carry, and didn’t do so.
The loss of Ryu’s experience has visibly hurt P1’s macro game as well. Search no further than Game 3 of the C9 series, where Sneaky and Smoothie swapped across the map, taking turrets with zero defense from P1 until they had lost every external tower by 17 minutes. An improved performance from Pirean on Jayce in Game 2 versus Team Liquid was wasted by a mishandled Baron attempt. We saw P1 make that aggressive call throughout Rift Rivals and succeed. Now, the same calls result in throws.
Phoenix 1 are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, but can still play spoiler for teams jockeying for seeding. Their job now is to avoid a relegation finish, allowing them to keep their Championship Points from Spring and retain a shot at making Regional Qualifiers. Week 8 matches with Echo Fox and Counter Logic Gaming will help determine the odds, with any losses likely proving fatal.
Froggen’s back! And…it didn’t help. Echo Fox continue to search for a successful starting lineup other than the one they spent half the split winning with, losing to Counter Logic Gaming and Team SoloMid. Performances ranged from “Thanks for showing up,” to “Hey, this team could be half-decent!”
Mash’s Baron snipe with Draven’s ultimate during Game 2 was cute, and it did turn the series in Fox’s favor enough to test TSM, but ultimately it wasn’t nearly enough. TSM were their own worst enemy more than Echo Fox presented a real threat. CLG barely noticed Echo Fox had entered the Rift, ending both games at a canter before 30 minutes had elapsed.
Since ending Week 4 3-5, Echo Fox have experimented with subs in nearly every series, going 1-5 since and playing themselves out of playoff contention. Instead of working on their communication and macro, Rick Fox and Co. decided to throw compositions at the wall and see which could win. None have. Frontline/Backline is a sentimental idea, but what has it actually accomplished? I will never understand why it’s wise to throw away a legitimate shot at playoffs in favor of a deep team. Someone explain it to me.
Echo Fox play a slumping Phoenix 1 and a still hot-to-the-touch Team Dignitas in Week 8. Does it matter if they win or lose?