This Week in League Week 5 Spring 2020

This week marks the all important halfway point in the split where teams can reflect on their progress and either experiment with new stuff if ahead or kick it into gear if behind.

100T vs TSM: After getting bitch slapped back to reality TSM look for a weak target to pick on in the Thieves. Bjergsen was put on his legendary Syndra again and like I’ve speculated before, Bjergsen on his comfort picks looks like a completely different player. Dardoch appears to have entered the next phase of synergy with the team as he was present during most fights giving TSM the early lead. When the third dragon spawned all 10 players were there, whoever won the fight would get a stranglehold of the map. Ryoma popped Broken Blade and it gave them the advantage as TSM lost their engage. Both teams constantly threw themselves at each other but a pick onto Meteos was the green light for baron. Dardoch was able to get the smite off and all of TSM got away with the buff. Despite having the drake advantage, the Thieves never got to capitalize on it as TSM ended the game before the next dragon could spawn.

C9 vs CLG: Congrats CLG your big splash signing in Crown has absolutely blown up in your face and you had to bring Pobelter out of stasis. At this point most professional midlaners would be an upgrade over Crown right now. It was clear that C9 wanted a quick win as their comp revolved around mid game fights. It was your typical C9 early game, with early and efficient ganks by Blabber who is making his case as the Apex Predator of the jungle. During fights it was as if C9 was experimenting with how much they could get away with without being punished. Nisqy’s Rumble was strange, he had decent heat management and knew how to lane against a ranged champ with the only major weakness being his Equalizer placements which seems to be a recurring trend among mid lane Rumbles. It cost C9 a fight at CLG’s bot inhib and almost cost them a fight at mid. After C9 got the Cloud Soul Pobelter tried to be the hero and go for a hail mary shuffle only to get rooted and deleted. Not much else was needed to secure the win for C9 other than brute force and have guaranteed themselves a .500 record.

DIG vs IMT: This match is crucial for both teams as Dignitas has a chance to claw back into the race for 2nd while Immortals want to create separation from the pack. With the comp Immortals chose, they put Dignitas on a timer to win or get outscaled. Unlike what TL did, Dignitas wasted no time in shutting down Xmithie. A weird fight broke out around DIG’s raptors which allowed IMT to even up the kill count. After 2 drakes were exchanged the teams focused on creating picks with guerilla warfare. To break the stalemate Dignitas were able to use their superior cc to put IMT through the blender. Huni went for an interesting build with Nashor’s Tooth. The rest of the match was Dignitas favored and Immortals didn’t have the firepower to combat the onslaught. With that win both teams now have the same record.

FLY vs GGS: This is almost the exact same situation as the Dignitas Immortals game. The comps mirrored each other with Flyquest being more scaling oriented and the Guardians looking to skirmish. To push the tempo the Guardians tower dove the bot lane only to lose 2 members while they only killed WildTurtle. Then objectives were traded non stop with Flyquest controlling the tempo. They seem to be returning to their week 2 prominence with the Golden Guardians just being caught in their rampage. Every player has the potential to carry including IgNar with his playmaking while also being able to anchor down when camped. Meanwhile the Guardians are back to a losing record mediocrity welcomes you back home.

Day 2

EG vs TL: One team has been consistently underachieving the other has been the definition of inconsistency. Based on the draft Team Liquid put themselves on a timer or else EG’s tanks would become too beefy. Liquid was unable to get anything going in the early game capped off with a Cloud drake stolen from them. That dragon fight was this game in a nutshell anything Liquid did was futile. Then Doublelift’s Ashe disappeared literally; after getting devoured during the Sejuani ult his character model vanished. Little would everyone know that his performance was as visible as his character model. The back breaker was that EG got mountain soul for a team with 3 tanks with resistance multipliers. Despite some impressive kiting by Liquid, EG were too tanky to punch through and as soon as Doublelift died near the elder it was game.

IMT vs C9: Immortals are trying to climb their way back up the standings you say. Good news for you Immortals step right up to the C9 death nimbus where your hopes and dreams are zapped and grinded into nothing. Hell they even have a new product to sell to the League; you feel like Senna just isn’t what she was before patch 10.3 that she ? Then C9 has the solution for you. Behold the farm sharing Senna Soul Cannon now with more souls! That’s right, more souls in even less time last hitting cannon minions is a thing of the past! Just look at Zven be a god amongst peasants; ally teammate liabilities be damned. Licorice botched his engage; no worries with the Senna Soul Cannon a triple is guaranteed. No Immortals were harmed in this demonstration as they can’t be killed since they are immortal.

GGS vs 100T: A win for either team can help get their split back on track while a loss puts them back to square 1. The early game was defined by the Thieve’s aggression getting them an early lead and backfiring on them at the same time. Hey Hauntzer do you want to play league of legends? Too bad because Ssumday is oppressing you out of existence. The advantages that the rest of the team built up meant nothing as Ssumday defies the laws of League of Legends carrying the Earth and Heavens to pull his team out of the abyss. His efforts paid off as his team was able to build a lead off of his advantage and get a much needed win.

FLY vs CLG: Unless CLG has something tricky up their sleeves this should be a free ticket to second place for the Tree Nation. Well not quite. The early game was defined by bloodshed as for every kill one team got the other would answer with one of their own. Unfortunately for CLG the kills were not going to the carries whereas Flyquest got their kills funneled into PowerOFEvil as his helicopter turned into a death star bursting squishies and tanks alike. Getting 4 ocean dragons also means that the game is on easy mode as it’s near impossible to kill yourself with how much sustain the soul gives. With the win Flyquest have a chance to truly separate from the LCS soup.

MONDAY NIGHT LEAGUE!!!

TL vs DIG: In a rematch of one of the more entertaining games of the split we got… something lackluster in comparison. The early game was looking to be an even scrapfest until Dignitas decided to try to dive top only to reawaken the Brick Wall Impact who not only got away scot free but got a kill out of it as well. They also forgot to address Doublelift pushing the wave. We finally got to see why Liquid signed Broxah as he made his Insecs look easy and effortless to catch out the carries. By the time Liquid broke the base the game was already over. I need to see more games like that TL, the main asterisk of this win is that Liquid mainly got their lead off of some questionable decisions Dignitas made.

TSM vs EG: Hey EG you’ve seen Bjergsen carry on his Syndra twice this season it would probably be a good idea to ban him, so you’re just going to ban adc’s then well at least Jizuke is on his LeBlanc which means all of the action is centering around the midlane. While the early game was fairly quiet BrokenBlade punished Kumo for not respecting his level 6 combo which can kill any champ from half health. During the fight for 2nd drake, the poke and the blocked Ornn ult was enough to deter TSM from the dragon. TSM went around the map as they would ram down turrets and brute force their way to objectives. EG tried to stop the bleeding with picks and splitpushing but Tristana destroys towers too fast to not group up. After a 3 for nothing fight at baron, TSM could just plow down the bot lane to a landslide victory.

We are 5 weeks in and the soup of mediocrity is still simmering into crustation.

C9: With 10 wins they are free to experiment with whatever strategies they want. The LCS is so weak that they’ve had to handicap themselves with comps that are harder to execute.

2,316 Trees: The Tree Nations have a chance to climb out of the soup of mediocrity and establish themselves as the best team not named C9.

TSM: While they got a 2-0 week I need to see another week like it to be truly convinced that this squad has found consistency. Dardoch seems to be finally meshing with the squad and TSM is doing a decent job at letting him do his thing. C9 needs a rival to push them and TSM is probably the only squad that could be up to the task. The key here is that they need to stick to a consistent plan after getting a lead.

DIG: While Dignitas still remain at a .500 record, teams are either imploding around them or just suck. They will probably be first or second round fodder at this point unless some drastic chang happens. A possible solution is to swap around some of your academy roster with the main roster, sure academy team had an 0-2 week but I’m sure they will regroup. They need a spark and need it soon.

IMT: What goes up must come down and the Immortals unfortunately ran into C9 to be flung back into the soup. Next week will be an important indicator as to how sustainable their initial success was. I see this team becoming the litmus line. If a team beats them they are seen as legit, but when they lose to them their weaknesses are usually exposed.

100T: Somehow despite a 4-6 record they are in 6th place with 4 other teams. Ryoma’s development is critical to their success. I’m afraid that they will siphon the life out of Ssumday.

EG: I can never tell which EG squad will show up on any given game. Most of the time it’s an incoherent quilt of mismatch stitching defined by poor coordination and botching routine mechanical maneuvers. When this team comes together they can look like a top 3 team. Svenskaren and Jizuke need to build synergy fast if they want to have a successful spring.

GGS: In a week I was expecting you guys to make progress you completely shit the bed. The isolated deaths have been the bane of this squad costing them many a game. Again they’re probably just biding their time for summer.

TL: Broxah looks like he’s gotten acclimated to the NA sleep schedule and it showed in his mechanics. They’re sharper, more precise, and his maneuvers flow more smoothly. I’m still not convinced that they’re back as a squad though. The win on Dignitas was mainly because they threw themselves into the Brick Wall Impact rather than creating their own lead. The clock is ticking Liquid.

CLG: I don’t know what to say anymore. Yes the switch to Pobelter is an upgrade over the dusty relic that is Crown. For the excuse that they are biding their time for the Summer, my response is this. With how badly you punted the Spring Split you better back up those words in the Summer or else that was just an excuse to get people off of their backs.

Hopefully FLY and/or TSM can actually separate from the soup of mediocrity.