Phoenix 1, TL and Rift Rivals.
After some news i wanted to take time and talk about some things happening in the NA LCS. First off Phoenix 1, deciding to drop Inori was great for them, not because i think Inori is bad, his playstyle can impact a bottom team hard (ill get to him in a minute), but he didnt fit into what P1 needed obviously. Mike Yeung looks great, but Meteos isnt seeing play. With Mike, i dont want him to get 100% of the play time, i think learning and sharing time with Meteos would be better to start looking forward to next season. Mike looks great on carries and with Meteos teaching him, he could be a top jungler. That being said, P1 is also worrying me with their constant roster changes, i feel like maybe they are suffering the TL syndrome of wanting to appease their imports i.e. dumping Adrian even though he was the best support for Arrow, for a quick fix who he felt he had better synergy with. Arrow and Adrian was their best duo in bot lane and with time, they coudlve built great synergy. I just hope this isnt the case but falling from a solid #3 team to rock bottom is not good at all and their bot lane is part of the problem. Ive said before, talk about synergy all you can but constantly going 1/3/5 or something akin to those numbers, isnt worth the trade in of Adrian. Zig, i dont know what happened to Zig, maybe the Spring loss in the playoffs got to him, maybe the Korean top laners finally showing up made his time in top lane harder but whatever the problem, he needs fixing fast. That entire team has been crumbling around Ryu, who while being a great mid laner, has never been one to put the team on his back. From his days with KT and H2K, someone else was the carry monster for the team, like Smeb and Score, or Jankos and Forgiven. I'll get back to P1 when i talk about Rift Rivals but for now, Team Liquid. I like signing Inori, i really do. My hope is when they need a tank, they bring in Reignover, and when they need a play maker who is aggressive, they bring Inori in. Problem with that is planning. TL has shown that they arent really great at that. one player isnt going to fix their problems but bringing in new blood that isnt GoldenGlue will help in the long run. My one fear is they put too much expectations on Inori and he ends up without a team come october after Worlds. He has loads of potential, but he needs time.
Rift Rivals now. NA is screwed. TSM still has major problems that Fnatic, UoL and G2 can definitely expose, but i do expect TSM to at the very most, be game enough to surprise us. C9 is screwed harder, Contractz is playing really awful, Jensen might give Perkz, Exileh and Caps a hard time but it wont matter if Contractz isnt playing like he was in spring. Sneaky and Smoothie seem to be having a hard time too, but i give them a great chance against UoL's bot lane of Samux and Hyllisang. Zven/Mithy and Rekkles/Jesiz are going to stomp though. The only NA bot lane that might stand up to them is DoubleLift and Bio, but for that to happen, we need to see DL on carries, and Bio on more reliable playmakers. I am excited to see Bjerg vs Perkz though, and to see if Baby Faker aka Caps can hang with Bjerg. If he can, Caps completely deserves that nickname. EU just seems to have better everything almost. Contractz, Mike Yeung and Svenskeren vs Broxah, Xerxeh and Trick, i dont think thatll end well.
Impact, Hauntzer and Zig vs Vizicsacsi, sOAZ and Expect, i feel like Hauntzer might underestimate Soaz, but i do expect him to roll Vizicsacsi, Expect might trash him though. Impact has played vs Soaz before, correct me if im wrong, but itll be nice to see two veterans duke it out in the top lane. all in all i think the only NA top laner who might do poorly is Zig.
Bjergsen, Ryu and Jensen v Pekz, Exileh and Caps, man this alone has me hyped. This is the lane i think NA looks as strong as EU considering every one of these guys has played in the EU lcs. Sad but ill take it. Im just excited to see Caps on an semi-international setting and im hype to see Bjerg vs Perkz.
Bot lanes have me the most worried. Right off the bat, P1's lane with get smashed. Arrow has always had trouble vs Rekkles and Zven. Shady is not good, especially when you think of him against guys like Hyllisang, Jesiz or Mithy. DoubleLift and Sneaky can do well, Sneaky on someone like Varus, Ashe or a surprise Jhin pick could even the tides but idk. DoubleLift vs Zven or Rekkles, man this could go either way since TSM's bot lane has been really Jekyll and Hyde lately. On one hand they could smash every bot lane duo, they smashed Uzi and Mata, they smashed Deft and Meiko, they smashed Ruler and CoreJJ but on the other hand, they got smashed in return by Piglet and Matt, Cody Sun and Olleh, as well as LoD and Big this split. Its so frustrating to know these guys may or may not show up.
All in all prepare for 5 good looking teams and 1 team that doesnt know what theyre doing. Id like to get your guys' predictions and start wondering what could go down, all in all this is for fun in the long run but its always cool to get a glimpse at some good old NA vs EU. Id want to talk about LCK vs LPL but i dont think anyone wants to talk about China.
