I personally don't play League anymore (Great Game) but after 2 years I just don't care about playing something that I know I won't be able to do anything with other than getting cursed at, flamed, raged by a bunch of 5 year old children, play or face the same 5 champions because Riot doesn't know how to balance champions or really play a 18-20 min stump fest of games. So I just stopped playing, my choice but like I said it's a great game but not for me anymore.
As for the LCS/NA
TEAM SOLOMID
I don't think TSM will win this split; I really don't! Last year D-Lift helped carry the load as far as carries go but now TSM is back with a similar roster as before with Hauntzer(Dyrus) Svenskeren(Amazing), Wildturtle and Biofrost as the new ( Turtle and Lustboy ). I think TSM will go back to the 4 wards and camp mid for Bjergsen style and while it has worked in the past- the past is the past and it's a joke strategy now, teams have gotten better over the years and know how to counter that strategy from TSM. Or maybe they haven't WTF do I know but we will just have to wait and see if TSM can win, matter of fact I'm going to predict they won't even make it to the NA Spring Split Finals, but instead get eliminated in the second round of the playoffs!
Hauntzer 3.8 2.4 9.3 231
Svenskeren 3.9 2.9 10.0 128
Bjergsen 3.9 2.0 7.8 341
WIldturtle 4.8 1.8 8.5 302
Biofrost 1.0 2.5 13.2 32
DIGNITAS
I liked Apollo and even had Dignitas much higher on my predicted rankings with Apollo than Lod but the team won't suffer to much from the switch with Ssumday and Chaser being on the team but just enough that I don't think Lod can help carry the team. We all have seen NA getting these foreign players to play in the past on teams and Visa issues stops those players from playing for 2-3 weeks before. Dignitas looks like a Super team but if a visa issue does happen(Ssumday and Chaser) won't be able to play for X amount of time and I'm sorry but Keane-Lod and Xpecail won't be able to do much not to mention who the team will get to replace them ? However let's say Visa isn't an issue, then Team Dignitas will be a dominate team.
SSumday 2.1 2.1 6.9 268
Chaser 1.4 1.1 9.1 137
Keane 5.9 2.3 4.3 337
Lod 3.5 2.6 5.4 351
Xpecail 0.7 2.7 9.2 31
CLOUD 9
I don't know much about Contractz but he looked decent in the NA CS scene but other than that IDK. The team has Impact and Ray for top which is smart considering if Impact plays bad(doubtful) the team has Ray to switch Impact out as they both have a very similar style all offense. Smoothie and Sneaky hopefully both improved in their lane phase but considering Sneaky hasn't really been that great in lane since he joined the LCS like 3+ years ago I doubt it. I don't think Smoothie is really that great of a support and I think he will get killed in lane much more than before.
Impact 3.2 2.5 8.7 234
Contractz 2.3 2.2 10.0 128
Jensen 4.8 2.2 5.2 341
Sneaky 5.0 1.2 6.9 331
Smoothie 0.6 2.5 11.8 28
COUNTER LOGIC GAMING
I predicting with all of the possible Visa issues causing teams to miss part of the teams rosters and having to make roster swaps, with teams getting rookie players, etc etc I will say I'm predicting CLG to be the best team in the NA LCS and be the #1 seed going into the Playoffs - Will they win it IDK but I would say ... No.
However communication - check! Team plays like a true team - Check! 1 TRUE leader and 4 listeners - Check!
Team improves each split - Check!
Yes we all know the Summer split wasn't CLG's best split but let's no all forget about MSI while other NA teams were practicing on the new patches CLG was too busy trying to EARN NA a #1 Seed( not that it did any good at the end of the day) but coming back to a new patch with only a few days to train while other teams had 2-3 weeks wasn't fair and hopefully Riot can fix these non-LCS tournament schedules that ACTUALLY makes sense.
Back to CLG- this team has made 0 changes with the roster, will it hurt them possibly but they don't have to worry about communication issues like Dig and P1 might have.
Aphromoo is the leader of the team he is the Chief and the other 4 are the Indians. When he talks they shut the fuck up and listen, but they are able to give their own perspectives on the table for Aphromoo to think about like a true team should be a respected leader does.
Overall I think CLG will be a team that other NA teams will need to practice for because out of the NA teams at Worlds this past year I was actually more surprised by CLG, yes C9 advanced and TSM was in the harder group but CLG wasn't in a bad group either also considering how much shitt they took for the NA#2 seed memes " IMT should be the #2 seed" and yet IMT couldn't win a single split! -Unlike CLG did.
Darshan 2.1 3.1 8.2 274
Xmithie 2.5 3.1 9.3 115
Huhi 5.4 2.2 5.7 276
Stixxay 4.7 1.7 6.1 384
Aphromoo 1.1 2.1 10.6 26
Nice post- thank you and Happy Holidays!
