The LCSÂ Spring Split is almost halfway done and it’s starting to become clear which LCS teams are on top and which are underperforming. And a lot of the standings come as a surprise if we go by the preseason roster changes and predictions.
Despite losing veteran Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi during a controversial preseason, Cloud9 look to be unstoppable in 2020. Yet to drop a game this season, it appears that their aggressive style is the key to dominating their North American opponents. Jesper “Sven” Svenningsen also told WIN.gg that the meta is currently in the team’s favor.
Right now, Cloud9’s motivation is making it to the Mid-Season Invitational, where they will have the chance to see how their play style fairs against League of Legend’s most dominant regions and teams.
Top: Eric “Licorice” Ritchie
Jungle: Robert “Blaber” Huang
Mid: Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer.
ADC: Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen
Support: Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme
Jake “Xmithie” Puchero proved himself a better jungler than Team Liquid’s Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen in their recent match, making TL’s fans question trading Xmithie to Immortals in the preseason. Especially when they won in just over 30 minutes.
Immortals sitting in second is not something any analysts, fans, or other teams were expecting going into the Spring Split. Their roster after returning to the LCS wasn’t too exciting apart from Xmithie’s return, but it seems like people were underestimating them. At least for now.
Top: Paul “sOAZ” Boyer
Jungle: Jake “Xmithie” Puchero
Mid: Jeremy “Eika” Valdenaire
ADC: Dong Hyeon “Arrow” Noh
Support: Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent
Just as Team Liquid support Yong-In “CoreJJ” Jo predicted, FlyQuest are sitting in third place. With a new training facility, new CEO, and a new style, it looks like FlyQuest’s success may not be down to luck after all. The team started off the season looking surprisingly strong, then suffered a few tragic losses. With a recent win over Team SoloMid, it looks like FlyQuest are out to prove they are worthy of their third place spot.
Top: Omran “V1per” Shoura
Jungle: Lucas “Santorin” Larsen
Mid: Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage
ADC: Jason “WildTurtle” Tran
Support: Donggeun “IgNar” Lee
A solid 4-4 record has TSM in fourth place. This isn’t really where a team like TSM wants to be, but two losses in Week 4 haven’t impressed LCS viewers too much. But it’s no surprise to TSM’s fans who saw most of their favorite players leave the team in the preseason aside from Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg. Still, it seems that Joshua “Dardoch” Harnett has proven himself a strong player despite his having attitude issues in the past.
Team SoloMid spent much of 2019 in third place, so they’re not too far off from where they once were. All they need are wins against 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses this upcoming weekend to regain their spot in the top three.
Top: Sergen “Broken Blade” Celik
Jungle: Joshua “Dardoch” Harnett
Mid: Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg
ADC: Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup
Support: Vincent “Biofrost” Wang
Currently tied for fourth place with Team SoloMid, Golden Guardians shocked viewers when they took down Team Liquid last weekend. This is a placement nobody would have expected in the preseason, when Golden Guardians signed Yuri “Keith” Jew and Grayson “Goldenglue” Gilmer from their Academy team. When Keith swapped roles a few weeks before the Spring Split, all hope for GG was dashed for many viewers.
Despite those low expectations, it looks like GG have some potential after all. Can “Closer” Çelik told WIN.gg that he knew viewers were putting them as a 10th-place team, but was looking forward to “proving them wrong” this split.
Top: Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell
Jungle: Can “Closer” Çelik.
Mid: Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer.
ADC: Victor “FBI” Huang.
Support: Yuri “Keith” Jew
Despite putting together a team full of veterans, fans were not convinced that Dignitas would impress in the Spring Split. Fans became worried when a multi-million dollar contract with Seong-Hoon “Huni” Heo seemed to be preventing the team from signing anyone else as the Spring Split approached.
Now tied for fourth, it seems that their roster isn’t as “washed up” as many fans first believed. Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black told WIN.gg that people were unsure their play styles and personalities would blend well together at first. But “they all understand what it takes to strive for victory.”
Dignitas even took a win from Team Liquid near the start of the Spring Split, keeping up their 3-0 record in Week 2. Even though they’ve slipped to fourth place, Dignitas has proven their sometimes risky style is the key to victory when done right.
Top: Seung-hoon “Huni” Heo
Jungle: Jonathan “Grig” Armao
Mid: Henrik “Froggen” Hansen
ADC: Johnson “Johnsun” Nguyen
Support: Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black
Evil Geniuses are currently sitting in fifth place, but the team has a lot of room for improvement. Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam told WIN.gg that many of their losses were preventable if they hadn’t made small mistakes in critical moments, and they might be able to claw their way up the ranks if they could improve their mid-game phase.
Having three former Cloud9 players on their roster has given EG fans hope, since their talent and familiarity with playing together are two major positives. But so far, EG’s return to the LCS after purchasing Echo Fox’s slot has been a bit underwhelming.
Top: Colin “Kumo” Zhao
Jungler: Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen
Mid: Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro
ADC: Bae “Bang” Jun-sik
Support: Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam
Tied for fifth, 100 Thieves haven’t made too much of an impression on LCS viewers. They beat Team Liquid last weekend, but it seems like almost every team has been able to do that this season. Even after beating last year’s LCS champions, 100 Thieves’ Chan-ho “Ssumday” Kim told WIN.gg that they still weren’t as good as TL.
The team’s assertive play has proven the key to their wins. When jungler William “Meteos” Hartman is at the top of his game, 100 Thieves applies enough pressure to stay on top of their opponents.
Top: Chanho “Ssumday” Kim
Jungle: William “Meteos” Hartman
Mid: Tommy “Ryoma” Le.
ADC: Liyu “Cody Sun” Sun.
Support: William “Stunt” Chen
Going into the Spring Split, nobody would have expected Team Liquid to be sitting at ninth place. Their roster had basically remained the same as it was in 2019, when they had completely dominated each season. But the LCS champions seem to have lost their touch in 2020. It could be due to Broxah’s visa issues heading into the split, or maybe even Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s insistance on playing Senna week after week.
Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen told WIN.gg that the entire team was to blame, but it’s not yet clear what their plan is going forward. It’s possible that once they adapt to playing with Broxah in a few weeks they will improve immensely, but it’s also possible that Team Liquid won’t be able to catch up to Cloud9, or even to FlyQuest, going into the second half of the Spring Split.
Top: Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong
Jungle: Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen
Mid: Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen
ADC: Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng
Support: Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in
Despite a promising roster, CLG are in 10th place in the standings. They even fell quite hard to Team Liquid, not standing a chance against the struggling team. That’s unfortunately been the pattern with Counter Logic Gaming thus far, getting stomped on by all the teams they’ve lost to. This has left fans quite certain that there’s no coming back for CLG in the second half of the Spring Split.
“We kind of handicapped ourselves […]. Not to excuse our losses, but we were playing extremely hard-to-execute comps that have to snowball early game. Our early game plans fell through,” Andy “Smoothie” Ta told WIN.gg when asked why they were coming up short.
Top: Kim “Ruin” Hyeong-min
Jungle: Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin
Mid: Lee “Crown” Min-ho
ADC: Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes
Support: Andy “Smoothie” Ta
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