**1. Vulcanalia**
Much was made of the SwordArt versus CoreJJ narrative and rightfully so. These are two players who very obviously want to beat each other. CoreJJ: World Champion and the darling of North America especially after his effort and consideration in organizing in-houses this past offseason versus SwordArt: recent Worlds Finalist and loveable dark horse from teams prior (Flash Wolves in particular).
Flying under the radar compared to the burgeoning rivalry between these two supports has been Cloud9's Vulcan. Vulcan finished second in All-Pro voting for supports and is regularly acknowledged for his efforts. Yet, he has been oddly quiet when it has come to LCS narratives, despite [fun trash talk][1] that started before the season even began and a successful mid-split back-and-forth with TSM Reginald. Vulcan is not only a good player but a fun personality.
From a more analytical perspective, Vulcan has been overshadowed by players on his own team — a position with which he's not unfamiliar — especially with Perkz coming to town and Blaber's phenomenal performances. Even in trash-talk he's been outdone by rookie teammate Fudge. If everyone on your team is a standout, there's always going to be one person who stands out a little less. Yet, when it comes to teamfighting, Vulcan is a consistent contributor and, much like Blaber himself, he's grown exponentially in his position with another year of experience. This weekend, Vulcan will be relied upon to match CoreJJ in lane as well as his roams to the top side and even with the pantheon of superstars in the TL/C9 matchup, don't be surprised if Vulcan manages to steal the show.
[1]: https://twitter.com/VulcanLoL/status/1331977777818591232
**2. Due Recompense**
Single game head-to-head records in the regular season matter significantly less than best-of series when it comes to evaluating teams' overall strengths. Despite the stakes feeling higher at times, given that single games have a more dramatic effect on standings and bring on the same reactions as a best-of regular season series in the LPL or LCK, there's not the same level of adaptation in draft or play. This is the first season (in hopefully many) where the league system of single games was preceded by a tournament where they also bested C9 and became then-shoo-ins to win the split.
TL have a 2-0 record over C9 in the regular season, but what matters more is their 3-2 best-of-five victory in Lock In Tournament and the circumstances of that win.
Back in preseason, Perkz was still getting to know C9 and the rest of C9 were still getting to know Perkz. On top of integrating rookie top laner Fudge into the lineup, Perkz's communication with the rest of the team was off despite visibly improving throughout the event. C9 relied on Perkz to play global champions like Twisted Fate and Galio in order to have a greater effect on the map as communication improved. Even then, C9 took TL to all five games.
Both teams have improved since then, C9 in particular. In a previous column, I cited TL as the team with the most room to improve despite having the highest skill floor and I stand by that statement, but C9 is the team that actually has improved the most during this span of this past split. Under the team's care, Fudge has grown from a player who was making unforced errors that he hadn't made in his Academy days to a top-tier top laner. Perkz has gone from the team relying on him to have a global ultimate, to someone who locks in whatever he wants to skill-check his mid lane opponent and wins.
Meanwhile, TL have worked towards better playing around individual advantages that Alphari can garner top side and have pushed Jensen to pick things outside of his comfort zone in the best way possible. Both of these teams have grown since Lock In and even then it was a five-game series. I expect another tense best-of-five that hopefully goes the distance, regardless of who moves on to the Finals.
**3. Where do we go from here?**
It is a truth universally acknowledged that two teams, each in possession of top-tier acquisitions from this past offseason, must be the only two in competition for a title. These two teams — even with the high-profile SwordArt signing from TSM — are Team Liquid (Alphari) and Cloud9 (Perkz). The regular season was close at the top in terms of single-game records, but playoffs have revealed that there's a clear difference between the top two and the rest.
Due to their 2020 Worlds performance, it's difficult to recall that TSM are actually the current LCS reigning champions and that they won said title by coming up through the loser's bracket. TSM certainly didn't look like title contenders in their first series that summer when they were swept by Golden Guardians. TL and C9 are indubitably the two top teams in the LCS, so what do TSM need to do to get there?
While on the analyst desk I've praised TSM for their counter setups. They were oddly better when another team was setting up for an objective. Some of this was due to the fact that their opponents were making obvious mistakes in their neutral objective setups, and some of it seemed to be that TSM worked better with a narrower focus, even when they "shouldn't" have been the team to take an objective because typically the team that sets up first has a much greater advantage.
TSM's series against Evil Geniuses was hardly clean, and showcased a lot of things that TSM still need to work on including aforementioned objective setups but also continuing to shore up on their communication. As I've said previously, players like SwordArt and Huni are going to look individually better on a team with stronger synergy and against EG, we saw TSM make visible mistakes where their timing would be just slightly off, resulting in various members dying unnecessarily. Given that TSM lacks some of the flexibility that TL and C9 have, having better communication and a strong team identity are what they'll have to rely on if they want to successfully defend their title.
**4. Scene Stealers**
Having already talked about how Vulcan could potentially become this weekend's main character in his upcoming rematch against CoreJJ, here are a few others who could steal the show.
**Closer (100 Thieves):** Our leading man from last week, Closer has been alternatively praised or denigrated based on week, matchup, and champion pick. Although a lot of people will (rightfully) point to Dignitas' poor drafting in 100 Thieves' 3-0 sweep this past weekend, Closer's presence was also felt a lot earlier on the map (even while playing Hecarim for all three games). TSM aren't going to give 100 Thieves the same draft leeway that Dignitas did, but Closer should still look to get involved early and more often. If he does, and is able to track Spica well, it could lead to an aggressive showing from 100 Thieves that is more reminiscent of their praiseworthy Lock In and early season performances. In order to do this, he'll also need to have stronger coordination with his lanes, especially Ssumday on the top side of the map.
**Spica (TSM):** On the other side of the 100 Thieves-TSM jungle matchup, Spica hasn't been overwhelmingly praised, nor has he been overwhelmingly denigrated. He earned an acceptable "is doing well despite obvious team coordination issues" during the Lock In Tournament and has since become a reliable presence for TSM, working in tandem with PowerOfEvil to stabilize their early games. This weekend is a chance for Spica to make a statement if he goes for more proactive picks and tracks Closer early. With a favorable mid lane matchup and stronger team identity for TSM (who are already favored to win) the stage is set.
**5. A goodbye to Evil Geniuses**
Evil Geniuses were always a weird team on paper to me because they had the potential to be a strong team within a fairly narrow playstyle window. I previously compared them to Rubin's Vase because of this dichotomy — they weren't a spectacularly good or bad team, but they were heavily draft dependent with a narrow focus due to each players' champion pool specificities. There's nothing wrong with this, but to echo something I touched upon while talking about TSM this week and team identities last week, if you're going to have that kind of team you sometimes have to roll the dice on meta and how well you're going to be able to creatively draft for them. That being said, EG weren't blown out by TSM, it was a close 3-1 series. Going into summer I'm looking forward to seeing how this team hones their playstyle, especially with the resurgence of Impact as one of NA's strongest top laners.
**6. A goodbye to Dignitas**
Dignitas were the most fun narrative this past split. From Dardoch's unique champion streak that kicked off the season, to FakeGod and Soligo earning redemption and respect from the community in contrast to their initial forays into the LCS before, Dignitas were a weird team to watch but a fun one. There was something loveable about an oddball trio of near-rookies in FakeGod, Soligo, and Neo led by supposed washed-up veterans Dardoch and Aphromoo. Every week that it was Dignitas' time to be up, they somehow kept winning (even with gold deficits). All fun comes to an end eventually, and Dignitas were outdone by poor drafting and their tendency to lie back and wait until they could execute the perfect teamfight — factors that were apparent in the regular season but hadn't been as thoroughly punished as 100 Thieves did in their 3-0 win over Dignitas this past weekend.
I don't know what is in the future for this roster, but I'd be curious to see how or if they can expand on this spring's surprising regular season performance into something truly miraculous for summer.