NA LCS Week 8 Power Rankings

Week 8 of NA LCS filled all six postseason positions, with only the order left to determine. Team SoloMid, Immortals, Counter Logic Gaming, Cloud 9, Team Dignitas and Team EnVyUs will see playoff action. Phoenix 1, Echo Fox, Team Liquid and FlyQuest will not.

It’s worth pointing out that of the six teams that qualified for playoffs, only Dignitas replaced more than one player from the lineup it started the split with. Before they settled on Ssumday/Shrimp/Keane/Altec/Adrian in Week 6, Dignitas were 5-5, 15-14 and had lost four straight series, jeopardizing their playoff chances. Since then, Dignitas are 5-1, 11-5 and have an outside shot at a playoff bye.

Team SoloMid, Immortals and Cloud 9 have not changed their starting five all year. Counter Logic Gaming recently released Dardoch in favor of OmarGod, and Envy started Pirean out of necessity until Nisqy’s visa issues cleared up, but otherwise these teams are essentially unchanged since Week 1.

The same cannot be said of the four eliminated squads. Team Liquid, Phoenix 1 and—most notably—Echo Fox have all spent most of the split swapping out players like puzzle pieces, never forming a clear picture. It was as if these teams chose to host tryouts and/or brand-building acquisitions to better their 2018 franchising chances under the guise of “deepening the bench” in lieu of competing in 2017. The exception is FlyQuest, a team that refused to change their personnel (more on that later) but ultimately weren’t good enough to advance.

Which came first, the losing or the changes? Did organizations tinker with their rosters because the losses piled up, or did haphazard lineup changes precipitate losses? It’s a discussion best held in a space larger than the introduction to a Power Rankings list, but this at least is true: The lineups of most playoff teams went virtually unchanged since Week 1, while the lineups of most eliminated teams changed series to series. Take from that what you will.

Time to first back for these Week 8 NA LCS Power Rankings. Don’t forget to upgrade Ancient Coin before leaving spawn…and could you snag a Control Ward too? Thanks!

I’ve been struggling to write about Team SoloMid recently because there isn’t much to say. Are they the best team in North America? Probably. Have they played like it since 7.14? No. Did they still manage to squeak out a 2-0 week despite some dodgy drafts? Yep. Will they pull it together come playoffs? Look at the banners hanging at LCS and tell me they won’t. I’ll wait.

Since Immortals and Counter Logic Gaming both dropped series they shouldn’t have, TSM inch into first place despite an unimpressive weekend. FlyQuest essentially conceded the series once they gave TSM Zac/Caitlyn/Syndra in Game 2, and Team EnVyUs couldn’t snowball hard enough in the mid game to overcome Doublelift’s Tristana. TSM won the way they’ve won all split: Wait until Doublelift comes online, have Hauntzer split push bot lane, win a team fight, take Baron and pressure the base. Rinse and repeat until the enemy nexus falls. It’s like clockwork; steady, inevitable, clinical clockwork.

Critics have taken issue with Parth’s drafting lately (surprise!), noting his lack of Maokai/Cho’Gath priority while bizarrely selecting Varus and Nami. But while Maokai and Cho’Gath might be strong, do either of them suit TSM’s 4-1 playstyle? Hauntzer wants to draw pressure with champions like Shen, Renekton, Jarvan IV or even Camille, excellent split-pushing picks that need to be handled by two or more players, thus opening the map for TSM to take objectives at advantage. Can he do that on Maokai or Cho’Gath? Can Svenskeren, a jungler who’s at his most influential on bruisers like Lee Sin or Kha’Zix, still be successful on those tanks? Does TSM need him to be?

If TSM can manufacture early leads for Doublelift—or at the very least stall out games until he gets his items—within a scaling composition, they’ll continue to find success in a league they’ve dominated since its inception. TSM will close out the regular season against Phoenix 1 and CLG, with the winner of the latter series all but guaranteed a first-round bye. As if the rivalry needed more spice.

Immortals lose sole possession of first place with a loss to Team Dignitas almost entirely of their own making. Credit Dignitas for a well-played series, but with the kind of compositions Immortals handed them, it was hard not to win.

There was no reason for Immortals to ban out Nunu in the first phase of all three games. None. Yes, Shrimp is unusually good on the champion, but was I the only one who watched Cloud 9 crap all over his Nunu in Week 7? Aggressively bully Nunu in the early game and contest his objective takes with vision. It’s not rocket science.

Plus, once a team drafts Nunu, they’re committed to a strategy centered around his unique abilities. Immortals' first phase Nunu bans signaled a belief that Dignitas would draft him inside the first three picks. If that was true, Immortals could have drafted to counter the early Nunu pick instead of burning an OP ban. If Dignitas didn’t draft Nunu before the second round of bans, Immortals could have banned him out then if needed.

The Nunu bans allowed Dignitas to draft an early Maokai in each of the three games, one of the strongest draft strategies on 7.14 due to Maokai’s excellence as a flex jungle or top. The uncertainty created by Maokai’s flex hindered the Immortals draft, as they were unable to confidently throw phase two bans at Shrimp or Ssumday. Dignitas never drafted Maokai with their first pick, preferring to lock in their ADC before anything else, resulting in Immortals’ Game 1 Nunu ban surrendering both Maokai and Caitlyn.

All this reflects an overall lack of Maokai priority from Immortals, a team confident in their comfort but unable to read the writing on the wall. Maokai’s back, and he isn’t going anywhere. Flame hasn’t played the champion since March (a 65-minute loss to Dignitas) and Xmithie has only one game of Maokai on stage. If Immortals can’t (or won’t) play Maokai, it’s time to add him to the perma-ban list.

Immortals will likely need at least one win over Team EnVyUs or Echo Fox this weekend to secure an all-important first-round playoff bye. Envy swept Immortals in Week 2, but luckily for Immortals, they don’t play Maokai either.

Counter Logic Gaming imperiled their chances at a playoff bye with a 1-1 week, easily dismantling Team EnVyUs before losing focus against Phoenix 1. Bad luck that P1 re-discovered their Rift Rivals form just in time for a reverse-sweep, but that was a series CLG had to have and didn’t get.

Central to the new-look CLG is OmarGod, taking on the mantle of starting jungler for the first time this weekend. OmarGod's workmanlike shift against Envy helped CLG stifle Lira all series long, disrupting his early game pathing and preventing the influential jungler from exerting any lane pressure, while simultaneously providing their rookie room to breathe. I liked Omar’s patient cask usage during ganks, waiting until the target had burned their dashes before unleashing his ultimate rather than leading with it. I would have liked to see Omar continue to build confidence on Gragas during the P1 series instead of flailing around on the unfamiliar Maokai, but the kid has to learn sometime I suppose. 

CLG turned in one of their best performances of the split against Envy, heavily punishing any mistake with quick rotations and clean macro. A Seraph pick in the river turned into three turrets; a Nisqy death on a roam triggered a successful Baron take within seconds. This ability to convert kills not just into experience and gold but objectives makes CLG one of the best teams in the world, which is why it was so confusing to see them struggle to reproduce that mentality against Phoenix 1.

Much like their failure against Team Dignitas in Week 6, CLG faltered when Phoenix 1 applied high pressure in the early game and fought relentlessly onward. Darshan was invisible in Games 2 and 3, Aphromoo was put on the passive Janna instead of his preferred playmaking supports, and Stixxay couldn’t keep pace with Arrow’s outstanding Kalista.

Now CLG faces an uphill battle for a playoff bye. A game behind Immortals and TSM, CLG will need to beat both Team Dignitas and TSM themselves this weekend to have a shot.

Team Dignitas continue to burnish their contender credentials, avenging an earlier loss to Immortals with a 2-1 win and holding off a feisty Echo Fox to close out the weekend. While a playoff bye remains a long shot, Dignitas has been playing like they’re worthy of one with wins over Immortals, TSM, and CLG in the past few weeks.

Much of Dignitas’ resurgence has been credited (rightfully) to Altec and Adrian, but lost in the shuffle has been the stellar play of mid laner Keane. Sure, the Karthus pick in Game 2 versus Immortals was a heat check, but otherwise Keane has turned in impressive performances against some of the best mids in the West, notching recent victories over Bjergsen, Pobleter, Froggen, Huhi, and Jensen (even though Cloud 9 won that Week 7 series).  

Keane’s found a home on Cassiopeia and Syndra, two control mages with incredible burst, and enough early lane control to keep other explosive mid laners in check. Syndra is Bjergsen territory, but so far no one has equaled Keane’s outings on Cassiopeia, boasting a league-best 7-3 record. Against Echo Fox, Keane finished 8-0-10 with 95% kill participation while championing Cassiopeia. In a meta where so many of the OP bans are used on jungle, support and ADC roles, mids have their pick of the litter, a trend that has benefited players like Keane with smaller champion pools.

With all five players peaking and playoffs around the corner, Dignitas have emerged as a true postseason threat. A pair of wins over CLG and Team Liquid this weekend could potentially lock in the third seed and a favorable quarterfinal matchup against Team EnVyUs.

Look, I’m a fan of close games. Nail-biters that are decided by a single late team fight mistake, throws around Baron, epic comebacks and unheard-of upsets; I’m here for that. Sometimes only the adrenaline rush of a contest decided by razor-thin margins will satisfy.

But you know what? Sometimes I just want to watch one guy cut loose and dunk all over the other team.

Watching Jensen single-handedly terrorize FlyQuest and Team Liquid this weekend was an absolute treat, a guilty pleasure that, with the parity of NA LCS, I don’t get to indulge in often. After trolling Liquid with a Game 1 Twisted Fate selection that was partly responsible for his team’s loss, Jensen quit screwing around. He died only twice more over the remaining four games of Week 8, including two deathless games to complete the reverse sweep of Liquid. The numbers are gaudy, as you’d expect: 17-0-6 in Games 2 and 3 of the Liquid series (88% KP), 25-2-10 in the sweep of FlyQuest (78% KP). I’m sure Jensen took no pleasure in absolutely burying his old C9 teammates with LeBlanc, dancing under turrets and disintegrating Hai before he could even react.

Jensen gets the accolades, but credit Smoothie and Contractz for helping snowball mid. Smoothie’s roams have drawn favorable comparison to Olleh’s work on Immortals, but not even NA’s #1 Challenger can play Taric this well. Contractz hasn’t fully adjusted to the tank meta, still favoring aggressive bruisers like Elise, Kha’Zix, or even Kayn, but his willingness to pilot the flex Jarvan IV in order for Impact to get a better matchup has helped resuscitate the C9 top lane.

Cloud 9 lose a spot in these rankings not because they played poorly, but because they faced weaker competition than Team Dignitas. Series against Team EnVyUs and Echo Fox will provide a stiffer challenge, but not by much. I expect the Jensen show to continue, culminating in a shootout with Danish compatriot Froggen to end the regular season.

Team EnVyUs backed into playoffs once every team below them lost a Week 8 series. Faced with a murder’s row of TSM, CLG, Immortals and Cloud 9 to end the regular season, I’m sure Envy will take all the help they can get. 

While CLG systematically took them apart by disrupting Lira’s early game, Envy got more traction against the much less aggressive TSM, taking the defending champs to three games in a series that lasted the better part of three hours. A side that plays the laning stage better than anyone in NA LCS, Envy prefer teams like TSM who aim to win late with scaling comps. The trick is to end the game before the clock strikes midnight and your early game advantage turns into a pumpkin. Unfortunately for Envy—who held significant gold leads through the mid games of Games 1 and 3—once 35 minutes ticked by, they could no longer outfight a fed Doublelift. Defeat followed soon after. 

Still, there were plenty of positives to be had in a series they were unlikely to win from the start. Lira continues to show his quality when he isn’t being ganked Level 1 by the entire enemy team, but it’s Nisqy who impressed, especially in Envy’s Game 2 win over TSM. His Lucian flourished against Bjergsen’s legendary Syndra, finishing 11-2-6 with 77% KP and a late Quadra that sealed the victory. He died only three times over the entire series and matched Bjergsen’s CSM at 9.1. Envy need another carry to create space for Apollo and compensate for Seraph’s head-scratching play. Two weeks into his tenure as a permanent starting mid, Nisqy has done the job.

Still, writing about Envy’s postseason chances seems fruitless. They face Immortals and Cloud 9 this weekend, two series they will probably lose and therefore lock in the sixth seed, ensuring a rematch against a team they won’t be favored to beat (likely CLG). With no Championship Points from Spring, Envy have almost no shot to qualify for Regionals even with an unlikely semifinals birth. Enjoy Envy’s resurgence this split, and hope to see them in 2018.

Few things gave me more joy last weekend than listening to the Phoenix 1 comms audio during their unlikely reverse sweep of Counter Logic Gaming. P1 were eliminated from playoffs in Week 7, yet here were Arrow and Ryu going nuts selecting targets, screaming out expended summoners and generally playing like there’s no tomorrow, all while MikeYeung’s 17-year-old monotone acted as a steadying presence. Go listen to it and try not to smile.

For a team that dazzled with decisive macro play a day prior, CLG looked lost once Phoenix 1 offered a modicum of early game resistance. Rotations that looked routine as recent as Game 1 failed to deter a P1 side out for blood, and with MikeYeung on Nidalee in Game 2, they were poised to draw some. Arrow shut down Stixxay and a passive Aphromoo, finishing 16-1-9 in the final two games, neither of which lasted longer than 28 minutes. Once the snowball started for P1 in Game 3, Zig made sure it never stopped with a 0-0-10 Kled who led the charge at every possible moment. Somehow, Xpecial got the better of CLG again.

Phoenix 1 failed to live up to the Rift Rivals hype and were unable to right their roller-coaster of a season, mysteriously losing Ryu to burnout only to see him back on the Rift after one week away. MikeYeung is my Rookie of the Split, but he’s underperformed outside his game-breaking Nidalee. The same can be said for Arrow, who commands one of the best Kalistas in NA but cannot seem to carry on anything else. Zig has been playing so poorly that Allorim made his NA LCS debut in Game 1 against CLG.

Had these five players grown together from Week 1, we’d likely be seeing Phoenix 1 as a fifth or sixth seed. That P1 failed to make playoffs—and will likely face relegation—after finishing third in Spring with the MVP is an indictment of their organization only slightly lessened by the signing of MikeYeung. Avoiding relegation, and thus retaining their 50 CP from Spring, is the goal now for a chance at Regionals. Beating TSM and FLyQuest in Week 9 is all but necessary to achieve that goal.   

The ever-spinning wheel that is Echo Fox's starting lineup has begun to lose speed, but indecision has cost them playoffs. The 2-1 loss to Team Dignitas was the final stake in their postseason hopes, and Echo Fox are left to rue the many series they threw by randomly subbing Frontline for Backline (whatever the hell that means).

Brandini has emerged as the favored top laner over an inconsistent Looper. It was his stellar Shen play that helped overcome an 11k deficit against Phoenix 1, a win accomplished by taking the minimum number of turrets needed to break the nexus (5). Brandini's split pushing on Camille in Game 2 essentially negated Zig’s contribution to the game, pinning Cho’Gath against his bottom turrets and winning every trade. His Poppy play against Team Dignitas came out of left field, but it did contribute to one of the few victories over a Zac in Summer Split.

The problem for Echo Fox all along has been teamwork, exhibited best by this desperate shuffling of the deck week after week. Team synergy is built up over time; without sustained play together, a group of five cannot grow. It is not an accident that Froggen and Gate, the two constants in a summer of shifting lineups, rank dead last in average assists among players in their role. Instead of building chemistry with his bot lane partner or his jungler, Gate has been allowed to do neither. Froggen can put up all the impressive CS numbers he wants, but he has never reliably turned that individual lane advantage into a team advantage this split. Echo Fox have all the parts required for a good team, but never got around to building one.

The split comes to an end for Echo Fox with difficult Week 9 series against Immortals and Cloud 9.

The Team Liquid revival was short lived. Superior opposition in the forms of Immortals and Cloud 9 brought Liquid back to Earth, only winning a game because C9 trolled with Trundle and Twisted Fate.

After all the pre-season claims of improvement, followed by inevitable mid-split transfers that failed to move the needle, Liquid find themselves in yet another relegation battle. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things; Steve’s got Disney money, a loyal fan base and a long enough endemic track record to all but ensure a franchise slot. All that’s left is to form a team to fill it, and Liquid haven’t done so. Yet. 

Dardoch returned to an organization he has little respect for and didn’t do much to justify his acquisition, failing to register a single kill in three starts. Immortals and Xmithie had his number for the third series this split, and he spent most of the Cloud 9 series benched in favor of Reignover. Mickey’s arrival in Week 9 will give Dardoch his starting job back due to NA LCS import rules, but I’m not entirely sure either of them are Liquid’s best option going forward.

Piglet continues to be the focal point of Liquid’s success, favoring hyper carries that can single-handedly win games late if able to stay alive in team fights. The problem is that teams know this and look to isolate and pressure Piglet at every possible opportunity. If Liquid can keep him alive, they have a decent shot at winning the late game. If they can’t—and they usually can’t—well, it’s relegation time.

Liquid face Flyquest and Team Dignitas to close out their year, with the series against FlyQuest holding critical relegation implications.

FlyQuest had the toughest schedule out of any NA LCS team in Week 8 and got predictably swept by Team SoloMid and Cloud 9. But it wasn’t the just the losses that dropped them two spots in these rankings, it was the way they lost, slitting their own throats in draft after draft.

I’m not sure what LemonNation has written inside his iconic draft notebook, but after this week it might need some revision. Letting TSM select Shen/Zac/Syndra/Caitlyn/Braum—probably the champions TSM would draft in every game if they could—was a massive failure. Under no circumstances should TSM be given any three of those five champions, but FlyQuest were convinced it would be fine into Cho’Gath/Rengar/Orianna/Jhin/Thresh. They were punished accordingly.

Against Cloud 9, FlyQuest banned Galio in the first phase of both games against a team that doesn’t place any emphasis on that champion, while failing to ban out any mid laners. In doing so, FlyQuest allowed C9 to pick Caitlyn twice—getting Maokai as well in Game 1—and supplying Jensen whatever mid he wanted. Sneaky’s Caitlyn finished a respectable 6-4-18 with 9.6 CSM, but it was Jensen’s Syndra and LeBlanc that truly killed FlyQuest. How do you not limit Jensen’s champion pool, or at the very least draft a favorable matchup into his pick?

All this draft mismanagement resulted in both series being more one-sided than they should have been, considering the smaller talent gap between FlyQuest and the top teams relative to the other bottom feeders. FlyQuest displayed good coordination in the early game against TSM with successful ganks by Moon, but chose the incorrect lane to pressure. Moon wanted to generate a lead for Balls’ Cho’Gath, but failed to realize that top lane doesn’t really matter to TSM; all Hauntzer does after laning is split push, making up whatever farm he lost in laning as he does so. The ganks needed to be mid or bot, extending the clock on Doublelift or getting Hai’s snowball started. The Cloud 9 series didn’t have much macro play to speak of, just an order to go out guns blazing.

If it wasn’t clear by now, FlyQuest are set in their ways, drafting and banning regardless of what conventional wisdom might suggest. The Balls/Hai/LemonNation core has been through the wars and has earned the right to make their own calls on drafts and personnel, maintaining the same starting five even as the split went sideways. Their path together traces the spine of the modern NA LCS, and far be it for me to question their choices. But for this split at least, it wasn’t nearly good enough.

FlyQuest end the year with relegation-impacting series against Team Liquid and Phoenix 1. A sweep of the week would avoid the relegation zone.