Playoffs scenarios: How your favorite NA team can make Playoffs

Riot·Jul 24, 2015·0 votes·17,587 views

Europe isn't the only league with tiebreakers!

The NA LCS looks set to have some tiebreakers of its own with the race for Playoffs coming to a climactic conclusion this weekend. All six Playoff teams have been decided -- the fight this week is about seeding and avoiding relegation.

Find out what your favorite teams have to do to lock in their Playoff seeds and secure their NA LCS future!

NA LCS

Gravity (12-4)

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Opponents: Team Impulse (11-5) & Team Dragon Knights (1-15)

Unlike Europe's top seed Fnatic, Gravity has not locked in 1st place -- they can finish between 1st and 5th place. Even if they manage to defeat Team Impulse in their first game, they won't lock down a first round bye because of how many teams are at (11-5) -- they'd have to close the deal against TDK (but they probably will).

Assuming they lose to Team Impulse, Gravity can still get a first round bye if at least two of the following teams go 1-1: Impulse, Liquid, or Counter Logic Gaming. Assuming Gravity goes 1-1, at the worst, they will play a tiebreaker for seeding. It could be up to a five-way tie (whoa!) depending on how the weekend plays out.

The 11-5 Club

All of the 11-5 teams have a shot at 1st place in NA LCS, or could finish as low as 5th place. However to get 1st, all of them need some help from Gravity. The schedule difference between the three teams is likely what will determine which ones break through -- and maybe some epic performances.

Counter Logic Gaming (11-5)

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Opponents: Team Dignitas (9-7) & Team 8 (6-10)

Assuming Gravity loses to Team Impulse, CLG can go to 2-0 to force a tiebreaker with Gravity to earn a first-round bye. They would also tie for 1st place with any other 11-5's who go 2-0. But as CLG fans know, the team always has a few surprises in store.

Team Impulse (11-5)

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Opponents: Gravity (12-4) & Team Liquid (11-5)

Impulse's path to a first-round bye is extremely hard -- in Week 9, they play against two of the top teams in the region. Considering the suspension of Yu "XiaoWeiXiao" Xian, plus the addition of Austin "Gate" Yu, it doesn't look great for TIP's chances to earn a bye in the Playoffs.

Team Liquid (11-5)

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Opponents: Team 8 (6-10) & Team Impulse (11-5)

Oddly enough, Team Liquid looks like they could have the easiest week of any of the 11-5 teams and are in good position to claim a first-round bye. Team 8 is vulnerable and Team Impulse is without their starting mid laner. Even so, neither game is a freebee -- TiP is aware of their vulnerabilities and Team 8 are fighting to avoid Relegation. TL needs to keep their composure if they want 1st or 2nd place.

Playing catch up

Team SoloMid (10-6)

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Opponents: Enemy (4-12) & Cloud9 (5-11)

Despite TSM's struggles, they can still finish in 1st or 2nd place -- though they'll need a lot of help from teams in front of them to do so. The good news for TSM is that they have the easiest schedule of all the Playoff-bound teams. If TSM can finish 2-0 this week, they'll need either an 0-2 from Gravity, or 1-1 from ALL of the 11-5 teams to get a first-round bye -- but it is possible.

Unfortunately for TSM, even though they have an "easy" schedule, Cloud9 has looked massively improved in the past two weeks. A 1-1 from TSM would put them in danger of needing to play a tiebreaker just to avoid 6th place.

Team Dignitas (9-7)

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Opponents: Counter Logic Gaming (11-5) & Enemy (4-12)

Team Dignitas is the only team locked for the Playoffs that cannot get a first-round bye. It would require all of the 11-5 teams to go 0-2; but the problem is that Team Liquid and Team Impulse play against each other. DIG still has something to play for though, as they can improve their seeding and build back some of their mid-season momentum before the Playoffs.

The battle for 7th place

Team 8 (6-10)

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Opponents: Team Liquid (11-5) & Counter Logic Gaming (11-5)

While Team 8 cannot make the Playoffs, they do control their own destiny as far as avoiding Relegations. If they go 2-0, they are locked into 7th place. However, if they go 1-1 they open the door for Cloud9 to tie them for 7th. Losing the tiebreaker would then send them to Relegations.

Additionally, at 0-2 they'd open up the possibility of a three-way tie with Enemy to decide who goes to Relegations, and could possibly even lose 7th place outright if Cloud9 goes 2-0. This is an extremely important Week for Team 8 to secure their LCS future.

Cloud9 (5-11)

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Opponents: Team Dragon Knights (1-15) & Team SoloMid (10-6)

Cloud9 needs some help from Team 8 to get to 7th place. To force a tiebreaker, Cloud9 has to outperform Team 8 by one game. Cloud9 could win 7th place outright if they go 2-0 and Team 8 goes 0-2. Cloud9 has both more to gain and to lose in this race, not just because they avoid Relegations by beating out T8, but because they could possibly still go to Regionals and Worlds because of the high number of Championship Points they earned in the Spring Split.

Enemy (4-12)

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Opponents: Team SoloMid (10-6) & Team Dignitas (9-7)

Enemy has an outside chance at 7th place, but their schedule doesn't help them much. On top of having to go 2-0 this week, they need Team 8 to go 0-2, AND they need Cloud9 to go 1-1 or worse. It's possible, but it'll be tough.

Team Dragon Knights (1-15)

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Opponents: Cloud9 (5-11) & Gravity (10-4)

TDK's fate is sealed no matter what. They are headed for the Challenger Series.

RIP.

How do you think the final week will play out? Let us know on Twitter or in the comments below and make sure to tune into the NA LCS this Saturday at 12:00pm PT to find out!

Frank Fields is a Senior Editor for Riot Games' Esports Web Content team. Join him in the Glorious Evolution. Or follow him on Twitter.

54 Comments

EleshakaiJul 24, 201510 votes

It sucks 'cause I like TDK's playstyle, but they made their own decision to have so many unvisad foreign players. That was the risk they ran, especially with how competitive the LCS has become.

I want to see Gravity in 1st, CLG in 2nd, and C9 in 7th.

Here's hoping.

(Oh, and in the TDK section it lists Gravity as 10-4 not 12-4)

kafooeyJul 25, 20151 votes

I know man! I thought Alex Ich was one thing but then I see like a whole squad of players who have absolutely no synergy with each other and who did (What appeared to me) nothing to earn their lcs spot. That's a bit harsh actually but I just feel when you have so many subs and imports you have to rebuild synergy every time. http://lol.gamepedia.com/Team_Dragon_Knights Could be my presumptuous notions, but I always thought that synergy > skill, because the skill different between a rank 20 challenger player NA, vs rank 20 Korean, is actually not that big of a difference, you see them compete together all of the time when players stream Korean soloq. I just don't like seeing teams give so many spots to Korean players when the game is evolving in a direction that requires more team oriented strategy and way less solo plays. The coaches are a big part of why teams fail nowadays because of botched champ select, botched practice, and botched strategy. So many players are playing to earn challenger in NA but count how many korean/chinese players took their lcs spots. Again, they could be more skilled than the NA players, and I'm not hating on Korean or Chinese players. I just believe that you should work more to develop your close-to-home NA players rather than develop a squad of the max 3 koreans- per team. You make a great team by developing them together over many many plays. Bobby fischer read 1000 chess books before he was 10.

EleshakaiJul 27, 20151 votes

Fortunately the rules now prevent things like what happened with TIP when they first came out here from happening again... you need at least some local players.

I think player importing is important to mix up playstyles and ensure a good blending of regional talents(look at TSM, Dig, and FNatic - all teams who have benefited greatly from bringing in players to add a new playstyle)... but I'm glad it's limited now.

However, it's important to make sure you get your players over here BEFORE the season starts to avoid what happened to TDK. It's sad, but that's how it goes.

NarwhalsJul 25, 20153 votes

hoping that C9 can take 2-0 this week they are improving right now and then they'll still have a shot @ worlds

Cheryl ColeJul 25, 20152 votes

That is pretty bold statement if you consider, many ppl don't want to admin even Fnatic has a shot at worlds.

lkebukuroJul 25, 20153 votes

I wanna say he means has a shot at making worlds. No team from the West really has a shot at winning worlds except maybe, and that's a huge maybe, Fnatic.

Yxgl222HaXJul 25, 20152 votes

well if you consider their showing at msi fnatic did pretty well actually. Had they played the way they played this split instead of the way they won summer split they very well could have won it. I think that it all comes down to picks and how each player does. They have as good a chance as any team. I was thinking uol was the only ones in EU that could even have a chance of stopping fnatic due to the weird shit they do but they couldn't do it. That was the only real obstacle i saw due to h2k and origen being better as a team but more predictable. No one could have predicted that poppy pick, shame it diddnt work out. May as well have locked in that teemo they hovered woulda been fun to see huni get shroomed.

évyJul 25, 20152 votes

urm the way fnatic played this split although going 18-0 wasnt by anymeans... world class. in multiple games they find themselves down massive gold leads.. even to the likes of roccat. against a top team in the world if they go down that far...there is NO coming back.. and alot of the reasons why they find themself down in gold is because they dont play their teamcomp's conditions properly and then figure out how do do it later in the game... though it is good that they can adapt in game i dont think they will get a second chance vs a class teams and also the fact that they went 18-0 some people says it shows alot about them...but really and truly the region is mediocre or even weak compared to the chinese and korean regions where their top teams have strong competition which is healty to their improvement.... until we see more of them... i say fnatic has no chance of winning

JimmyNtheKudosJul 25, 20152 votes

FNC was amazing this split. The problem is that SKT and EDG look even better now than at MSI. In other words FNC managed to reach Super Saiyan, but SKT and EDG made it Super Saiyan 2.

Cheryl ColeJul 26, 20151 votes

repslice Im not sure what split did you watch, but they played incredibly great. And any significant gold difference in favor to opposing team was twice in whole split. So if you significantly lose early in 2 games out of total 18, you can very hardly pointing this out as a reason for no chance.

Cheryl ColeJul 25, 20152 votes

Ah sorry than. That makes sense.

Lord ClowexanderJul 25, 20151 votes

Every team that makes it to worlds has equal chance to win worlds.

SloreDemonJul 26, 20151 votes

Yes and all the children in the world have an equal shot at becoming president. You're telling me the wild card team has as good a chance as Fnatic, SKT, or EDG?

NA DannyJul 25, 20153 votes

Clg places 1st and gets the first-round bye, calling it! Then CLG goes on to win worlds. Cause Counter Logic, rite?

Cheryl ColeJul 25, 20154 votes

CLG should go to Korea to bootcamp. To be adequately prepared for playoffs.

DiamondSamuraiJul 25, 20156 votes

Casue that worked last time, right? :P (don't shoot me T^T)

Cheryl ColeJul 26, 20154 votes

Why is sarcasm so hard to get.

EleshakaiJul 27, 20151 votes

Because when you type something you can't include any of the normal ways we convey sarcasm, like vocal inflection or pacing ;)

TrollFan01Jul 24, 20152 votes

No matter where TSM land in placings since all know they have that "on switch" at playoffs. TSM will win playoffs and open the door for everyone else since they'll take their 90 CP with them along with the AQ.

TanayJul 25, 20151 votes

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say in this. Yes, TSM has an AQ from the Spring Split, but they don't really have a guaranteed "on switch". If they haven't been playing well recently, there is no way to ensure that they'll be playing well in the weeks to come. If what you're trying to say is "TSM will pull off a miracle and win the Summer Split", then saying just that might have gotten your point across cleaner.

TrollFan01Jul 25, 20151 votes

I'm saying TSM always does poorly in the Summer and turns it on come Summer. 2013, Won Spring and came in 3rd for the Summer split but ultimately came in 2nd at the playoffs.

Last year they came in 2nd both in Spring regular season and playoffs. In the Summer split they came in 3rd again but ended up winning the playoffs and coming in 1st.

Spring they just dumpstered almost everyone in the regular season and then did dumbster TIP and C9 in the playoffs. If you go back and watch these playoffs you'll notice that TSM beat every team (except C9) that did well against them in the regular season.

Basically whenever TSM goes into playoffs they just "click" and win or get to the finals at the very least.

Yxgl222HaXJul 25, 20152 votes

Not really, they play the same strat over and over and its really easy to catch on to it. Msi they got ripped a new one because everyone knows more or less exactly how to play against them. Their jungler is to predictable in camping bjerg and ignoring dyrus and bot lane for the most part. Dyrus gave up more first bloods in msi than anyone else. And if you know exactly where santoins going to be camping just ward those areas and boom good to go. One does not simply pull a magical win out their arse against koreans.

CrideS58Jul 25, 20152 votes

Have you watched summer split at all? Dyrus has drastically improved and plays alot safer then he used to. Santorin actually ignores bottom lane more now( which may be wildturtles problems this split) but i agree he mostly just farms and doesnt counter gank. Bjerg needs to play carries in order for them to win and not champs like ezreal which takes him 30 mins to be good.

Yxgl222HaXJul 27, 20151 votes

"drastically improved" while finishing the split in 5th place. And they where lucky to get 5th considering clg should have beaten them they way they have been looking espically in that loss to cloud 9. If going from first place in the previous split to 5th place in the following is drastic improvement ill take my chances with not improving at all.

Cheryl ColeJul 27, 20151 votes

CrideS58

Still it took Dyron 3 months to learn how not to die 3times on lane every single game. Maybe in a year he will be able to use a TP adequately. And turtle problems are not in Santorin. He is just unable to leave that F button be.

Cheryl ColeJul 25, 20156 votes

Well question is, if you realy want TSM to represent NA as first seed. Can be pretty ugly.

TrollFan01Jul 25, 20152 votes

Wasn't ugly last year. ALL looked awesome and then things went so very, very South. Looks aren't everything.

Yxgl222HaXJul 25, 20151 votes

well, could always import kabum and just send them and c9 this year. Lul

3AwesomeJul 25, 20151 votes

I feel like TSM has a strong chance, but it will rest on how C9 Hai does in the jungle against TSM, WildTurtles performance that has been lacking (especially last week) and of course how well Incarnation does against the Magician known as Soren. I believe that game will be a fantastic game to watch.

Axis the DragonJul 25, 20152 votes

Magician known as Bjergsen*, not Soren =P

RoasterJul 25, 20152 votes

Bjergsen's real name is Soren

Axis the DragonJul 25, 20151 votes

Lol I forgot he had a real name and I thought of CW's Soren by mistake

My bad

Holy fúk ADC sucJul 25, 20151 votes

Will also depend on how wildturtle performs, his positioning has gotten him killed before he could do any meaningful damage. Bjergsen gets focused and once he's down there usually isn't much left to clean up the party. Carries should be able to clean eahcother's mess up but wildturtle isn't providing that any longer and that kinda dissappoints me =/ cause wildturtle is an awesome adc!

Absoluti0n ZeroJul 25, 20151 votes

to be honest TSM says they are not a "mid oriented team" but they are, even if turtle got going and tried to take over the game if bjerg isnt doing anything they will 8/10 times lost the game.

now not ot take away from turtle but he is not exactly a position perfect player and asking him to be the sole carry for the game is pretty damn demanding. only think i think keith does better then turtle is he is like the old version of sneaky, consistent uptime dps bot that can function at all points, but even then turtle has his own personal play flaws that keep him from growing

Yxgl222HaXJul 25, 20151 votes

more like how dyrus does. all any team has to do is camp dyrus and get fed because santorin dosent know how to do anything but camp mid. All you have to do is look at msi- all these korean and chineese teams took one look at tsm and tore them appart. Dyrus had the most first bloods given of any player in msi and it wasnt even his fault he did well individually- tsm's "style" of leave dyrus to farm and camp bjerg then have dyrus just farm to tank for bjerg later and just have turtle spitting out the little bit extra damage to push things over the edge is just transparent. It shows that in their wins this split they have not looked anywhere near as solid as they used to. People paid attention to msi and took notes. Tsm needs to figure out something new like get dyrus on a rumble or an ekko mabye a fizz, get bjerg on something safer like an ahri mabye. Then they may do better. Even if they managed to make it back to the top of na does it even matter? its like climbing to bronze 1 with 100 points. Sure you may be the king of bronze in your own elo but then they throw you in a game with the plats (koreans/chineese in this case) and watch you feed feed feed. Exactally what happened at msi.

évyJul 25, 20151 votes

what people fail to realise is tsm only ever wins when bjergsen is allowed to carry and is facilitated in doing so. so want santorin to put his resources for friendship? or put it into bjergsen to win the game? idk about you but i think team ONLY mid should accept their faith and be carried because their other carry roles (top and adc) are not even top 4 in their region so dont have false faith

Yxgl222HaXJul 25, 20152 votes

which is exactly why tsm will never win on an international scale. Even if he was the best mid na ( i actually like phoenix more personally) that does not mean all that much. Get him fed all you like but he will still get rekt by the likes of faker, easyhoon ect. It's a team game and if you rely to much on one person you wont get far.

TXN MiasmaJul 25, 20151 votes

The bias is so real. They keep talking like if Gravity beats Impulse that it is going to be the upset of the century. With XWX out of mid, I'd put my money on Gravity to go 2-0. Someone is just salty that they lost money on alphadraft lol

EmperurJul 25, 20151 votes

Did you lose money?

TXN MiasmaJul 26, 20151 votes

Nah lol I actually won $1,000. Grabbed Emperor in the last rotation and he cinched me win. I only grabbed Hauntzer from Gravity who gave me decent points. Then Aphromoo racked up some points for me as well. So actually, kinda glad I didn't put money on Gravity lol

BlakGreenLanternJul 25, 20151 votes

Am i the only one cheering for Team 8 to win? Im really hoping Calitrolz goes out with a bang

Brit LitJul 25, 20153 votes

Its not that I'm not cheering for Team 8. Its that I am REALLY cheering for Cloud 9.

its HarrellJul 25, 20151 votes

auto relagations are straight booty the idea as whole was horrible one. Especially feel bad for TDK becuase of the visa issues, here is hoping those guys stick it out mesh well in challenger and try yo get back in. Sadly the fate of most relagated teams is a gutted roster that almost always 10x worse the the last one :/

Absoluti0n ZeroJul 25, 20152 votes

i think auto reg. is a great idea, if you come in last outta 10 teams it means that you were high and low the worst team and did not compete up to region level and this allows the cycle of fresh new blood into the league.

DeathscytheDuoJul 26, 20151 votes

What you are saying is simply not true. Even if all the teams were the same level, one team would still be 10th at the end of the split, making autorelegation a very bad idea. I mean, yeah TDK obviously wasnt lcs worthy until ninja and emperor finally joined, but they definitely improved as a team since then and seeing that progress it sucks that we won't know how they'd do next split. I think they would be very much fun to watch.

FurankiJul 26, 20152 votes

TDK is an example of an unfortunate situation; however, last split's auto-regulated team (Team Coast) deserved to be removed. Competition needs fresh competition and the team that fought hard in the CS deserves a chance on the LCS stage. If they do poorly, they'll pay for it at the end of the split; however, a poor performing LCS team should not be able to just squeak by by having a lucky set of matches in defending their spot if they were the bottom of the barrel.

That's the point of competition, you are fighting not only for the top but you're also fighting to not be the bottom. Poor performance should have consequences.

Absoluti0n ZeroJul 27, 20151 votes

Thank you this is what i am talking about.

Absoluti0n ZeroJul 27, 20151 votes

1: i did not say this is true or false it was my opinion on what i thought about auto reg rule. to say what my opinion stated is simply not true is a grave misunderstanding of what i posted.

2: and lets say that all the teams were even, when you play tie breakers and unfortunately come in last since you said if the teams were even that means they have either lost clutch games or lost the tie breaker making them the worse of said even teams. so by this i would rather see a new team and have the 10th place team qualify for a spot as in to earn their right to play in the pro scene again.

3: TDK had some good games but even if they had a full roster at the beginning it is now 100% they would of done any better, strong early start teams have the worse luck of keeping pace or doing well another split in. look at unicorns they were crushing spring split and lost only to the top tier teams and few other middle of the pack teams and now this summer split they had maybe 3-4 games they crushed in and the rest were hard fought or lucky throws by the enemy team. it does suck TDK is getting put back into the CS scene but its also a chance for a team who has earned the right into the league over the team that had the worse score line.

so! i stick to what i said i think this a great idea and it really helps cycle in new teams that could maybe stick it out and play in the pro scene, yes its unfortunate that TDK had its problems but it was their own fault for not taking care of these issues before hand so they dug their own grave. but besides them i think replacing teams who did the worst with teams in the B league that did the best is fair rule, i don't want to watch a team that had a lucky end of the season surge come back and just get wrecked and make it back to 10th(not saying that is what would of happen just an example) then a new team of promising players that MIGHT make it in the middle of the pack or hell make it to the top 4.