The 2017 season starts with quite a variety
I know I have put myself through a lot of League of Legends viewing over the entire week. From the very start of LCK Tuesday morning to the very end of NA LCS with a couple of vods in the middle, I feel like I have successfully no-life my week and probably need a bit of extra sleep for a few nights. But that's not the point of this post! What I am wanting to address is how much of a variety of competition is existing across the regions. Not just in champions, but entire regions as we have observed the first games of all the teams. Unfortunately, I didn't get the time to watch enough LMS aside a few games (one featuring Heimerdinger) so I'll leave them out of the overall post.
LCK No other way to really start it. For once since its change in format in 2015, the competition is absurdly stacked; probably even more than what most fans had expected. Prior to the split, I looked at numerous power rankings and predictions and most of the time they consisted of SKT, KT, SSG, AFS, and LZ in varying order. The remaining 5 may not be in the bright spotlight like the other teams listed, but to me, they really put up a better than expected fight against some of these teams. Jin Air and KDM looked like they had the bitter end of the week. KDM: somewhat unfortunate of a rocky start. Jin Air is still forced by their classic "Jin Air Games" but at least if it doesn't get there or if things go their way then maybe they won't wind up in relegation. But some teams have to and that's the sad part unless we want CJ Entus back.
LPL Remember how it felt in Europe last year when all of the star players just vanished and the story of the year was "rebuild and hope" and whatnot? The fact that it even showed in their macro and mechanical play across the board? This is what China felt like this week and I worry might feel like for a couple of weeks. One of the big things I drew from this week: RNG looked horrible without Mata specifically. It was one thing to lose to IMay the way they did but to nearly lose outright to OMG was the breaking point. Most games felt rather wild yet weaker in macro and game sense. But where there's difference, some things remained the same. EDG and IM are still really good. Snake is still that steady team. There's not much else to really point out just yet.
EU Probably the standard level of pro league following a first week. Nothing too extreme or overhyped and nothing too degrading and disappointing of the play and performance (except Splyce). Some teams actually looked like they could contend with the circuit, like Origen and Giants, whom both actually looked better than that of the apparently higher tiered Roccat. The summary of the week and looking ahead is almost as simple as saying "there's always room for improvement" for almost every team in the League (especially Splyce). If that's something to not look forward to if you choose to watch, I really don't know what is. Note: I was one who expected Splyce to outshine H2K. I am not a professional. I am also not a prophet. I might be disappointed though.
NA And we save the possibly best for last, where like LCK it looks stacked...minus one. Maybe two. The teams practically fell into three categories in my eyes: "As Expected" (C9, DIG, P1), "Looks Promising" (TL, FLY, IMT, NV), and ".....What the?" (CLG, TSM, FOX). Those that fell in the latter didn't impress me enough or just outright disappointed me for this week at least. Echo Fox in particular would have been the only one that fell in this tier alone if CLG and TSM looked better in their showings. These upcoming weeks are seriously looking exciting nonetheless and the thoughts and doubts racing through my mind may not even exist as soon as next week. That's how eager I am to see what comes next. But seriously: FOX. Late game. Fix!
Anyway, that's all I'm going to bother putting up under my opinion of each league. It was a fun week to troop through but I don't think I'll be doing that again. I'll probably just stick to the scoring game I am letting myself do for NA and call it at that. Thanks for reading if you did.