NA LCS Week 1 Recap

Standings                                                               KDA Leaders                                                  Kills Leaders                

1. TSM 2-0 (4-0)                                                     1. LOD (NV) 15.7                                             1. Jensen (C9) 32

2. Apex 2-0 (4-1)                                                    2. Hauntzer (TSM) 11.0                                   2. Doublelift (TSM) 24

3. Immortals 2-0 (4-1)                                            3. Meteos (C9) 10.0                                         2. Huni (IMT) 24

4. Team Envy 2-0 (4-1)                                           4. BunnyFuFuu (C9) 7.8                                 2. Ray (APX) 24

5. Echo Fox 1-1 (3-2)                                              5. ShrimP (APX) 7.6                                       5. Sneaky (C9) 23

6. Cloud 9 1-1 (3-3)                                                 6. Doublelift (TSM) 7.1                                   6. WildTurtle (IMT) 22

7. CLG 0-2 (1-4)                                                       7. Bjergsen (TSM) 7.0                                    7. Apollo (APX) 20

8. NRG 0-2 (1-4)                                                       8. Adrian (IMT) 6.9                                         8. Huhi (CLG) 18

9. Phoenix1 0-2 (0-4)                                                8. Biofrost (TSM) 6.9                                     8. LOD (NV) 18

10. Team Liquid 0-2 (0-4)                                        10. Apollo (APX) 6.6                                       8. Meteos (C9) 18

The State of the Game

Patch 6.9 Marked the Introduction of the Four Elemental Drakes 

          Since the Mid-Season Invitational, Summoner's Rift has experienced a significant overhaul, most notably on the bottom side of the map. Replacing what was a static and often undervalued Dragon are the four Elemental Drakes, each of which rewards a unique and permanent buff of its own. While there was some skepticism about the randomness at which these jungle bosses spawn, none can argue that the Dragon was in need of some adjustments. With an early game that had become an arms race to knock down turrets and stray from combat, Riot admittedly aimed to put more premium on early game objectives. How much premium? Well, that's up to each team to gauge for themselves. Infernal has established itself as the most coveted drake, purely because of its scaling power and usefulness in any situation. The others, however, have also found relevance in deciding a team's course of action in any given situation. While we still see plenty of lane swapping and turret trading early on, the Elemental Drakes have brought diversity and excitement to the game, which seemed to be the primary mission of the changes. Factors to consider and rewards to weigh have grown exponentially as teams continue to feel out the best avenue to victory. Of course, with so many options, the avenue is not always clear, especially considering it changes based any given situation. That is why this change is so great, because it makes the the ways to destroy the enemy nexus bountiful and perpetually changing. There are so many different ways for teams to win a competitive game of League of Legends. After all, the ends justify the means, right?
          Of course, we can't forget about the love given to the Rift Herald. The buff granted, "Rift of the Void", now grants more base health, armor, attack damage, and magic resistance than previously. Most importantly, it now lasts a full 20 minutes as opposed to just two, and can only be acquired once. I repeat, 20 minutes. The Herald has gone from a nice little consolation prize to an objective that can completely alter the course of the game. Imagine a three-item Trundle snagging that buff and split-pushing for the duration of the game. That is a problem. On a team with one or two Mountain Drakes? A nightmare. With such variance on both sides of Summoner's Rift, decision-making is more paramount than ever before, and the quickest teams to adapt and innovate are most certainly to be the most successful. Here's a look at how each team fared in the first week of summer competition.

The Good

     TeamSoloMid

Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell is having a breakout split thus far for TSM

          Any discussion of who impressed in the first week of the NA LCS Summer Split has to begin with the region's most popular squad: TeamSoloMid. Following what was a tumultuous and rocky Spring Split, TSM came into the first weekend of play as an underdog to Counter Logic Gaming. They swiftly squashed that notion, however, making quick work of CLG, followed by Team Liquid, and escaping the opening weekend as the league's only undefeated team. TSM looked good doing so, outplaying CLG on every front and slowly accumulating leads at every position. Both Bjergsen in the mid-lane (3/0/7) and Svenskeren in the jungle (2/0/5) recorded perfect games in the first victory, but it was the performance of Doublelift that stood out the most. Playing inspired against his former team, Doublelift went 8/1/3 as Lucian, dealing nearly a third of TSM's total damage and some of the signature plays he is known for. Enabling Doublelift to perform so well was the team's new support, Vincent "Biofrost" Wang. A former challenger player, Biofrost's aggression and play-making abilities stood out in the opening weekend. As opposed to Yellowstar, who was a roaming and shot-calling support, Biofrost remained attached at the hip of Doublelift, allowing him to succeed at all costs. His cohesion with the team can only improve going forward. Bjergsen, meanwhile, appears to have returned to form after several lackluster splits. and is making an early case as NA's best player. In four games, he has played four different champions, each of which brings a different style to the mid-lane, and different elements to the team. The team's less anonymous solo laner, Hauntzer, has unquestionably been the league's strongest top laner. Hauntzer has been an absolute monster, recording a 11.0 KDA (2nd) and providing the front-line threat that Doublelift and Bjergsen need. Although teams will have trouble deciding worthy bans against TSM, it would be wise to keep Ekko away from Hauntzer. In two games on the champion, he has combined for a score of 15/1/13 (28 KDA), and has been the team's highest damage dealer in each match.

     Immortals

Will this Split end differently for Immortals?

          After a disappointing third-place finish in the Spring Split, I'd  imagine that no one was more eager to get back on the Rift this summer than Immortals. However, the same problems that reared their ugly head against TSM in the playoffs seemed to resurface for them in the opening weekend. Despite going 2-0 in series, it was anything but clean for Immortals. In his very first game, a low-mana, level 5 Huni decided to tower dive a fairly a healthy Meteos as Ekko. The ensuing play gave first blood to Cloud 9, and put Immortals behind the eight ball. Later on, Immortals made a hasty play for Baron that resulted in a quadra kill for Jensen's Azir and a put C9 in the driver's seat. In the end, Huni's full ability power Ekko, and the rest of Immortals, was able to make just enough plays to squeeze out a game win, and eventually a series win over C9. It was not a cleanly played series from either side, as Cloud 9 lost as much (if not more) than Immortals won. Huni's underwhelming Riven pick was overshadowed by Pobelter quietly carrying on Viktor. In the deciding third game, Pobelter dealt more than a third of his team's total damage (38.5 k), and caught Sneaky sleeping in the pivotal team fight. Even in their second series against Phoenix1, Immortals trailed in kills for much of the first game before their talent and experience ultimately won out. In the second game, we finally saw a vintage performance, as they crushed Phoenix1 in just over 26 minutes. What made Immortals so dominant last split was their full throttle, decisive play-making that forced other teams to play a reactionary style. At the same time, they experienced little to no adversity, and their  hubris often seems to be their ultimate weakness as well. Although they padded the statistics last split, they have just one player (Adrian) in even the top 20 in KDA after one weekend of play. If they hope for a better result this time around, they'll surely have to show a bit more variance than they did last season. They'll definitely be itching to show what they can do in this Sunday's rematch with TSM, the team that bounced them from the playoffs, 3-0, mere months ago.

The Bad

     NRG Esports

GBM will have to step up for NRG to rebound from a tough Week 1

          As a new NA LCS team, NRG Esports began last split by winning it's first three games. with mid-lane star GBM emerging as the Week 1 MVP. The former LCK player was one of the first to find great success on the new Zilean, leading his team to an absolute throttling of TSM in Week 3. The excitement surrounding NRG fizzled, however, as the team seemed to regress throughout the course of the season, eventually being swept by Team Liquid in the first round of the playoffs. In response to the defeat, the organization made several roster changes, bringing on Ohq, Quas, Santorin and KiWiKiD. The revamped roster did not take the league by storm in quite the fashion the former one did, as NRG lost both its first two series of the summer to rookie teams. Their struggles culminated in a 24-5 loss to Apex on Saturday, which completed the two game sweep. Quas struggled mightily in the loss, going just 0/6/2 on Vladimir, who is considered to be one of the game's strongest champions currently. In fact, Quas has had an abysmal start to his NRG career, recording a 1.3 KDA during the opening weekend, better than only Gate of Phoenix1 (1.0 KDA). He can't shoulder all of the blame, however, as no NRG member has a KDA higher than 2.7. GBM, the only remaining player from last split's lineup, posts just a 1.6 KDA, and has struggled to find picks that will work for him thus far. Widely regarded as the team's best player, GBM will have to perform better if the NRG hopes to recover from a rough first weekend. It won't get any easier, however, as Immortals awaits them on the schedule Friday night.

     Team Liquid

With the team struggling, Dardoch has been reinserted to the lineup

          Everything changed when Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett joined the Team Liquid lineup last spring, igniting the team to a strong finish that included wins in 5 of its final 6 matches. He was twice (Week 3, Week 9) the weekly NA MVP, and enabled star Korean players Piglet and Fenix to thrive in their respective positions. Prior to the 2016 Summer Split, however, Team Liquid suspended Dardoch indefinitely for insubordinate behavior, and even toyed with the possibility of moving him to another organization. That all changed when the team seemingly crumbled without him, swept by Team Envy and demolished in the first game against TSM. Apparently, TL had thought it's integral structure would be able to withstand such a loss, but was quickly proven wrong. As new acquisition Moon floundered in the jungle, the team struggled in turn, and was never really in control of any of it's first three games. Just like that, Dardoch was back on stage, and quickly had the team in position to hand TSM it's first loss. Though they inevitably fell, it cannot be overstated how much more confident the TL players looked with Dardoch patrolling the jungle. So while TL looked poor in a winless opening weekend, the team should be expected to make big strides with Dardoch back in the lineup. If they don't, they could be looking at a hole too large to climb themselves out of.

The Surprising

     Counter Logic Gaming

Who would've guessed CLG would go 0-2 in the opening weekend?

          Counter Logic Gaming put North America on the map last month, finishing second at the Mid-Season Invitational only to defending world champion SK Telecom. The organization was vindicated with the performance, proving ultimately that dropping Doublelift was the right decision. After all the top-level competition, CLG was come home and stomp the rest of lowly North America, right? Not so much. In the opening series,CLG was outmaneuvered by TSM repeatedly, and was simply slower on the uptake. The team was constantly on its back foot, forcing to play reactionary while TSM called the shots. Ironically, forcing the issue and putting team's on their heels is what made CLG so successful internationally. Stixxay seemed determined to prove he was an Ezreal player, picking the champion in each of the first two games and yielding rather underwhelming results. He would have been much better suited on his signature Caitlyn, or even a post-nerf Kalista, though it is unlikely that would have changed the outcome. Losing to TSM was one thing, but surely CLG couldn't fall to a brand new LCS team and move to 0-2. Well, they did, falling in a three-game series to Team Apex, and looking rather poor doing so. Stixxay struggled as Ezreal once again, going just 0/3/5 in the deciding loss. Huhi and Xmithie, meanwhile, have also performed poorly despite getting some of their more comfortable champions (Rek'Sai, Viktor). They have a 2.3 and 2.4 KDA respectively, both of which rank in the bottom 20 of the league. Needless to say, no one expected this sluggish start from the defending NA champions, and some have already attributed it to an MSI hangover. Personally, after that international performance, I'm going to give CLG the benefit of the doubt. I expect them to bounce back this week against both TL (Saturday) and Cloud 9 (Sunday) and be right in the thick of things come next week. 

     Apex Gaming and Team Envy

     

XSpecial is already making a big impact for Apex Gaming

          If Bjergsen is the MVP of the split thus far (and I think he is), then XSpecial is a close second. An LCS veteran, Xspecial has come bursting back onto the scene with Apex Gaming, winners of the 2016 Spring Challenger Series. This lineup is clearly not content just making it into the league, however, as they have made some noise with a 2-0 opening weekend. The team's strong start is due in large part to XSpecial, who has found his niche playing tanky, engage heavy, support champions for the team. In fact, he has only played Braum, Thresh, and Alistar thus far, something worth noting for opposing teams seeking to pinch his champion pool. To this point it's been effective, however, as his 88.4% kill participation is tops in the league among players with at least four games. With his help, the team's AD carry, Apollo, has found himself in the top ten in the league in kills (20) so far. Leading the team in kills, however, is the new top-laner, Ray, coming from Edward Gaming of the LPL. Ray has been the team's second (arguably first) best player, with his Fizz being an integral part of Apex's victory over CLG. In two games, his tankyFizz has gone 14/5/15, and was an absolute nightmare for CLG's back line. Apex has a huge test ahead this weekend, as they are set to play both TSM (Saturday) and Team Envy (Friday).

          The second undefeated newcomer to the LCS is Team Envy. On paper, the potential and experience was there for the lineup, especially in the in the solo lanes (Seraph and Ninja). However, it is the AD carry, LOD, who has been the team's standout performer to this point. LOD is no rookie, having bounced around on seven different teams since 2012, including Team Curse and Team Coast. When Ember disbanded in March, LOD was picked up by Envy, which never looked back. After one weekend of play, the AD carry leads the league with a KDA of 15.7, with the next closest sitting at just 11.0 (Hauntzer). He has found particular success on Caitlyn, a marksman who has shown a sudden resurgence to prominence. In two games on the champion, he has combined for a score of 11/1/8, and has been comfortable enough for other teams to take notice. While Envy did go 2-0 in opening weekend, they did so against the two winless teams in the LCS. This weekend, one of the undefeated newcomers will be no more, as Team Envy and Team Apex face off in a prime-time showdown this Friday night.