I was going to kick this week off by quoting "The Walrus and the Carpenter" and say that it's time to talk of many things, given how different LCS teams have remained stylistically from each other, but that would take too long.
Also I think I did that once last year.
Let's get it.
100 Thieves, 3-1
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With so many LCS teams trying out different strategies and adjusting from game-to-game, it was interesting to see 100 Thieves, and support Choi "Huhi" Jae-hyun in particular, return to his Sett after an admittedly lackluster performance from them in their first game of the week against Immortals Progressive. There, a late-game teamfight allowed space for Jason "Wildturtle" Tran's Jinx to pop off even with strong individual performances on 100 Thieves (jungler Can "Closer" Çelik in particular).
Although 100 Thieves have proved that they can play and execute fast-push bot lanes like the Caitlyn/Lux, the team seems much more comfortable with Huhi on an engage support — or some form of engage coming out of their bot lane FBI Lee Sin never forget — and playing around their bot lane with a more front-to-back teamfighting style. In their second game, 100 Thieves reminded us of this, and the fact that they're the best Senna team in the league, alongside a dominating performance from Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho's Tryndamere. In a single-game format with so many teams jostling for the top position, it's natural that 100 Thieves will drop games. What's more interesting is how they're adjusting and adapting after those losses.
Cloud9, 3-1
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The general consensus following Cloud9's first loss — a close game against Team Liquid — is that their performance instilled more confidence in their supporters, not less. I agree for a few reasons.
Firstly, I appreciated the different look from them, even if Robert "Blaber" Huang looked less comfortable on Karthus than he would on a Gwen or Olaf in teamfights. This is the time to experiment now, and it speaks well of C9's coordination and internal structure that they nearly won despite visible discomfort compared to some of their Week 1 strategies.
Secondly, they have 19 unique champions in 20 total picks (the one repeat being Aphelios for Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol). Their success with this many picks thus far shows a willingness across the board from all players to try new things, which bodes well for C9 moving forward.
Now, a fun pick prediction (that's actually very lukewarm considering context).
With how much C9 Academy jungler Sebastian "Malice" Edholm plays Hecarim, how much we've seen it in other leagues around the world, and how successful Blaber has been on it in the past, it's probably only a matter of time before that pick crops up in LCS as well.
Dignitas QNTMPAY, 3-1
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What is it about Dignitas QNTMPAY that makes them a good team? Are they a good team? Are we still waiting for them to somehow "become bad?"
(Regardless of how you feel about the above questions, they've certainly been entertaining.)
These are all thoughts floating around the community right now regarding Dignitas QNTMPAY still holding strong from a surprisingly good Lock In performance (people were ranking them last going into that tournament, even other LCS teams) after the arrival of jungler Kim "River" Dong-woo. His control of Dignitas QNTMPAY’s early game has been aided by good coordination with mid laner Ersin "Blue" Gören roaming bot side when able and strong laning from bot duo Toàn "Neo" Trần and Vincent "Biofrost" Wang. This team is bot-lane-focused and it's worked out well for them, even when Jarvan IV is taken away from River and he's put on something less interactive early, like Poppy.
It's time to stop talking about whether Dignitas QNTMPAY are good or bad and start talking about what have been the keys to their success: strong jungle-to-lane communication, especially bot side, that leads to an impressive early game.
FlyQuest, 3-1
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Of all LCS teams, FlyQuest was the team that remained undefeated the longest. Let that sink in, especially to those who placed them tenth going into the split after their shaky Lock In performance.
Are the standings lying to you about FlyQuest compared to teams like Cloud9, Team Liquid, and 100 Thieves? Perhaps. However, I'd be remiss not to mention that they've now won playing both the smite support top strategy — and they were the first to bring this to the LCS — and smashed TSM by playing standard lanes. Their one loss is to one of the best, if not the best, teams in the LCS in Team Liquid while noticeably playing standard, and even that loss had individual player standouts, especially from mid laner Loïc "toucouille" Dubois on Orianna.
This is all to say that even with somewhat shaky execution of smite support top, FlyQuest have not only shown a willingness to bring out oddball strategies with success, but have also won without it, making them a more interesting team than I had initially thought.
Team Liquid, 3-1
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According to a fun announcement from Team Liquid GM Kang "Dodo" Jun-hyeok featuring a Twisted Fate splash art with a green card, TL support Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in has received his green card!
Before celebrating the return of CoreJJ, another nod should go to TL support staff and TL Academy support Bill "Eyla" Nguyen for how well they were able to make up for the fact that they were missing their starting support. Eyla did a great job filling in for CoreJJ, helping the team win the Lock In tournament and leading them to a 3-1 starting record.
Now that CoreJJ is back on the team, I fully expect to see a strong 2v2 contest from him and his laning partner Steven "Hans Sama" Liv, much like we saw from their one game together in the Lock In group stage. Additionally, CoreJJ is one of the most-recognizable LCS faces in and out of the region, and someone around whom the LCS ecosystem has grown competitively. It's going to be great to see him back.
Evil Geniuses, 2-2
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Based on their Lock In undefeated streak until they were smacked down by Team Liquid in the finals, expectations were high for Evil Geniuses. Mid laner Joseph "Jojopyun" Joon Pyun had already proven his value, bot laner Kyle "Danny" Sakamaki was already having a strong sophomore outing with two pentakills in the books and an improved laning phase, Jeong "Impact" Eon-Young was quietly having one of the stronger top lane showings save TL's Bwipo, and Kacper "Inspired" Słoma and Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme were coordinating well to set their team up for success.
Since that disastrous finals and a 2-2 start to the season, the conversation around EG has changed as if EG are suddenly failing and I don't think that's quite a fair assessment.
Outside of Immortals Progressive (who have an identical schedule) EG have had the toughest run through the LCS in these first two weeks. There is a bit of an adjustment of expectations due to a surging C9, the strength of TL, and the unexpected arrival of Dignitas QNTMPAY, but EG are still a strong team and I think their record will more positively reflect that going forward.
Golden Guardians, 2-2
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I would do that cute thing where I'd ask something like, "Do you know who holds the largest average gold lead in the LCS at 15 minutes? The answer may surprise you!" And the answer would be Golden Guardians, but since each team is the header of each section, the answer is already spoiled. Golden Guardians have been good about getting early advantages. It's their mid-to-late game that needs work.
In the absolute banger (positive way or negative way, you decide!) of a match between TSM and Golden Guardians, what I enjoyed about Golden Guardians were the small hints that they had learned from facing and narrowly losing to FlyQuest's smite support top strategy and had brought a response to the table in swapping Lawrence "Lost" Hui's Aphelios to the top lane to catch all of that extra experience, essentially funneling the same player that the smite support top is supposed to do on the other side of the map. Yes, this came after a botched level one from Golden Guardians. And yes, it also happened after TSM threw away some of their advantages by needlessly pushing up when they knew where Golden Guardians' jungler Milo "Pridestalker" Wehnes was on the map. However, I like seeing adaptations in real time, even with execution errors, and I appreciated this from Golden Guardians in that match.
Immortals, 1-3
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Somewhere on an empty Analyst Desk setup where Joshua "Jatt" Leesman lives (remember that time in your life where you couldn't imagine your teachers having actual lives outside of school and maybe they lived at the school hanging from the ceiling like bats? Imagine this but it's Jatt and he lives in the studio.) he's calling out softly that Immortals are not the worst team in the LCS.
And I agree with him.
After their disappointing 0-6 start (including Lock In games) Immortals got their first win this past weekend against defending LCS champions 100 Thieves. It wasn't pretty — that's their Academy mid laner heyo — but it was a win and one that visibly lifted some pressure off of Immortals as a five-man unit.
It would also be unfair not to mention that Immortals, similarly to Evil Geniuses, have had one of the toughest schedules of any team entering the first two weeks of the split. Now that they did net their first win, it's time to see how the team adapts moving forward.
CLG, 0-4
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During the Lock In tournament, CLG had obvious flaws, but they also had a few impressive runs of play that showcased understanding how to win with the compositions they had, despite in game mistakes. (Their game with mid laner Cristian "Palafox" Palafox on Twisted Fate comes to mind immediately.)
Now in the LCS, CLG seem to have regressed to looking quite directionless as a five-man unit. Juan "Contractz" Garcia often looks like he's forcing plays, or feels like he has to force plays, when he doesn't. We know how good Contractz can be, and saw it last year during his split time on Evil Geniuses with Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen, and it's sad we haven't yet seen that similar direction from Contractz on CLG this split.
All that being said, this past week was the roughest for CLG because of how much they appeared to lack direction. Even in their losses in Week 1, we still saw bright spots in drafting a composition that seemed perfect for them, and a near-win against FlyQuest, even after struggling against the smite support top strategy in the early game. Here's to hoping that CLG can regroup going into this week.
TSM, 0-4
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This is the worst start in TSM's history as an organization.
When I began writing the sentence, I was going to talk about how a lot of the team's internal communication issues were visible. In particular, support Wei "Shenyi" Zi-Jie had strong engages but the rest of the team wouldn't follow up. They would get a strong lead off of Golden Guardians opting into a poor Level 1 setup, and then throw their advantages back off of pushing too far up in the bottom lane when they knew Pridestalker was in the area. They would set up dives onto full-health targets without the correct timing and knowing it was a large risk.
So I wrote that, and then TSM announced that Shenyi will be starting in Academy this week, and TSM Academy support Wang "Yursan" Sheng-Yu will be starting on the LCS lineup for development reasons. Putting aside that this early of a substitution isn't exactly giving time for Shenyi to develop with the rest of the roster, and reading between the lines of the TSM announcement and a few things Shenyi said on stream, it seems like TSM's internal coordination issues run deeper than even the visible issues on the Rift. Which is sad considering that the initial outlook on this team was one that would be aggressive and proactive, but would need time together to improve.
