all the past well known teams are starting to fall behind and other teams are starting to dominate the rift... TSM SKT Cloud 9 CLG and more are starting to fall and this kind of worries me. Whats going to happen to the new worlds?
There's a saying that "No king rules forever." And depending on when you jumped onto the League Esports train, you're seeing that now. There's no need to worry; this is the fabric of competition and the reality that teams have to accept and retaliate with in order to get back to where they know their mark on the League really is.
Personally I find it too soon to say "Oh my god everything is falling apart" for just one split. The teams all had the tools for their success and even showed it. The problem was they were more or less not consistent enough with their performance. Each team had a burning hole to where they could be beaten: TSM's patience vs pressure game, SKT's top side and sometimes Faker, CLG's new shotcalling leading to LPL-esque narrow macro, and C9's questionable macro come Patch 8.4. I'd slide AHQ in the discussion as well but I haven't watched enough of their games but do understand they struggled from a loss of effective shotcalling like CLG.
Still not the worst of them though. I've seen Royal/RNG fall to the cusp of relegation a couple of times before getting the right tools to work. FNC had their downswing for the last 2 years at the rising dynasty of G2. OMG and their barely struggling to even keep middle of the pack. ROX Tigers by analysts were believed to eventually fall into the relegation line. Hasn't happened yet. Then there's Origen....bah I'll skip that one. But there are more stories.
As for Worlds, best I can say is "same shit, different teams" (I say this as I think about the LLN). Good enough to top your region, good enough to show up there. Example: Longzhu Gaming. They weren't the talk of much until this present Kingzone roster in the past Summer took everything by storm. And that's all people needed deep down (or it was just Korea).
Now the road for TSM, CLG, and C9 is potentially the hardest it's ever been as they now realistically have to make playoffs in the summer in order to even be in the discussion for a Worlds run (cause what's 10 points but a slight edge at best. SKT's fate still hangs in the balance on their game tomorrow.
One would also think that even tho the "old guards" are falling or having meh splits, their main prize or quest isn't so much about winning splits/Spring(Yes, winning spring etc are important in the overall goal) but more so to get better for the Summer for the potential to win Worlds. The older teams(SKT 5th, RNG 3rd/5th overall, CLG 7th, C9 5th, TSM 3rd/5th overall) all know it takes time when having A+ or even 1-2 of the best players on such rosters for everyone to gel. I like to think of the recent collapses from some of these teams as an example of the NBA with the Miami Heat where they had a stacked roster with talent(LBJ, DW, CB) but it took them a while to actually get things going.
TSM has always patted themselves on the back for making it to every NA Finals but in the long run it never really seemed to matter on the International stage because they had "talent" to sweep their way to the finals every single split. It's not until you realize you can learn more from defeat by trying something new that you can actually improve, oppose to doing the same thing that wins you games off easier opponents. Take C9 for example, they aren't in every NA Finals and yet even in harder Groups, they tend to do better than TSM at every Worlds.
Spring splits aren't necessarily the end all be all - YES, Spring split is still important but it's more so as a training ground for teams when also considering that this past offseason was the largest shake-up in League history with player movements onto new regions, teams and orgs.
