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10 thoughts going into 2022 Summer Week 5
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Hello! Welcome back to another edition of 10 thoughts. Today we’re gonna do something a little different. Is anyone familiar with the term “Dog days of summer”? I remember first hearing it to describe what baseball teams go through towards the end of summer. They’ve been grinding since Spring training, they aren’t particularly close to playoffs, but they’ve also been hard at work for 6+ months. Naturally, fan energy dips a bit too. In Baseball they call it the dog days of summer. In LoL we apparently call it “LCS is dying.” Leave it to Reddit, I guess. Anyways… It’s not dying, it’s just the middle of Summer. Speaking of being halfway through Summer, I figured it’s time to look back at what we’ve seen so far.
**1. EG (8-1) Most Likely to Brighten Up Your Day**
This team is a joy. Every player has something positive you can point to.
Danny is leading the league in kills for the 3rd split in a row, while also dealing 898 DPM per game which would be a league record if he keeps it up.
Vulcan has been full of personality. He’s great in interviews, active on twitter, and is a great ambassador for NA talent and the LCS.
Jojo has learned by playing against Faker and Xiaohu at MSI and realized how selflessly they play. Jojo was already a good roamer/teamfighter before MSI, but his increased willingness to sacrifice his own wave/farm for a more positive play has only propelled EG further.
Inspired is back in his LEC MVP form. It’s hard to describe, but it just doesn’t seem like he’s ever in the wrong spot. It’s a combination of his laners having a strong idea of where Inspired/the enemy jungler is, and also because Inspired is often where he NEEDS to be. Add spicy Kayn picks on top of that and you have a great story.
Impact is not only the greatest LCS top laner of all time, he’s playing like the current best top laner in the league.
**2. 100T (6-3) Most Likely to Put Something Off Until Tomorrow**
I really think this team can be better. HOPEFULLY their loss to FlyQuest was the wake-up call they needed. In the FLY game, they watched haplessly as FLY stacked 4 dragons before 22 minutes and won the game off of soul. Against CLG they had perhaps their most aggressive games of the split. Abbedagge’s Sylas was everywhere and carried the game with a scoreline of 6/1/10. The doubt in the back of my head says that was more about CLG consistently forcing than it was about 100T finding creative ways to get kills.
Either way, this team has talent. I’m just frustrated by their lack of proactivity and consistency.
**3. TL (6-3) Most Likely to Not Change At All**
TL wants to play through bot lane. TL wants to smash early games. TL wants to play aggressive and snowball their leads. TL also wants to win. It was clear this week that TL wanted to come into Week 4 and make up for their lackluster 5-2 start that featured several slow games. They drafted Voli jungle and Lucian/Nami bot lane in both their GG and EG games. Unfortunately for TL, they lost soundly to EG.
TL spoke up early in the Summer Split and talked about how they didn’t want to play slow and they wanted to play through bot lane. But what does playing through bot lane mean? This past week it meant drafting lane dominant champions and trying to snowball quickly. But if you ask me – EG plays through Danny without playing through lane. EG picked Ezreal/Yuumi and Danny got so much gold that TL couldn’t handle it. I’m going to be very interested to see how TL continue to evolve their style and champion picks throughout the split.
**4. CLG (5-4) Most Accident-prone**
Did you know... CLG Academy top laner Jenkins got hit by a car and [just casually tweeted about it last week?][1]
[1]: https://twitter.com/BobjenkinsLoL/status/1547341808635559936?s=20&t=9um7-NtoDlMLK5dj7QZwLg
Dhokla had to fill in for Academy while Jenkins went to the doctor to make sure things were okay (they are). Aside from actual car accidents, they’ve also displayed some of the most consistently aggressive play in the LCS. Even when they were far behind versus 100T on Sunday, they consistently tried to go for plays and managed to pick up kills here and there. They are also 5-0 on the Red side, and 0-4 on the Blue side. There’s a joke here somewhere about traffic lights and stop signs being red and Jenkins getting hit by a car but I’m not quite sure how to fit it in.
**5. FLY (5-4) Most Likely to Get ID’d When They’re 30**
Aphromoo turns 30 in two months. Something about a pro League player getting ID’d because people don’t believe him. The ‘weird’ thing here is aphromoo hasn’t been excelling in the ways you’d expect the oldest player in the LCS to excel. FLY, as well as aphromoo, have excelled in the early game. Even though they sport just a 5-4 record they have the second best early game in the league.
I keep having the thought that FLY is so much better than they were in Spring, it’s just their record hasn’t shown it yet. This will be a big week for them as they face two teams who I think they *should* beat in GG and DIG.
**6. C9 (4-5) Most Changed**
Hmm, C9 lost to Immortals… I guess the Summer Split isn’t gonna be easy. Kicking the League MVP who led them to a 13-5 record is going to take some adjusting. Role-swapping Zven to support, bringing Jensen back from a missed split, and role-swapping Fudge back into top lane isn’t going to bring immediate success. Hmm, interesting.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve had some bad losses in Spring. I still think the roster will come together and contend for a title, it just requires time.
**7. GG (4-5) Most Opinionated**
The drafts that keep on giving. Last week I cast shade on GG for “going for big draft wins”. They dropped a game versus EG when they ended up with Zac jungle back in Week 3. They’ve also had amazing drafts against TSM and most recently Dignitas. First pick Seraphine… Sejuani support, Swain mid, Wukong Jungle, Irelia top, and it was GREAT. They continue to push the envelope on ambitious drafts and currently it’s working more than it’s not, so by all means, keep going for it.
**8. TSM (3-6) Biggest Drama King**
You can’t tell me you’re not excited to watch TSM play next week. Instinct got a pentakill in his first week of LCS. Soul charmed half of the broadcast crew by hanging out in the hallways and saying hi (also gave a great post-game interview and was a quality guest on Hotline League). Plus this week we will see Huni on stage as an assistant coach??
The most interesting part of all of this though was the win. Can the new players continue to perform? Will this let Spica get back to his MVP form? This week TSM plays 100T on Saturday and IMT on Sunday. “On paper” it would be another 1-1 week. Somehow this TSM team always manages to subvert expectations though… So I'm expecting a 2-0 or 0-2.
**9. DIG (2-7) Best Candidate for the CIA**
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been giving out high school yearbook-style awards to every team this week. This MIGHT have all been because I couldn’t think of something interesting to say about DIG.
It also got me thinking that Biofrost could make a great CIA agent. Think about it. He’s been on winning teams (works well with others). He’s been on terrible teams (knows how to bring down organizations/governments from within). He speaks multiple languages (English/Mandarin). Plus he excels in high pressure situations and doesn’t get emotional. If this League thing doesn’t work out… watch out, world.
**10. IMT (2-7) Best Smile**
“LOOK AT HIS FACE! HE IS SO DAMN HAPPY I LOVE THAT”
Those were the words of Captain Flowers after IMT pulled off a shocking upset versus C9 last week. I spoke with Flowers after the game and he told me he was just so damn happy to see PowerOfEvil happy. Every damn week, he had to watch them look sad and walk off stage after losses.
The win offers a very slight glimmer of hope. IMT coach interviews seemed positive after the break, and the fact remains they had 0 days of practice before the split started. I don’t expect them to contend for a title but they have a real chance of being “not the worst”.
