Week 9 NA LCS Rankings

The final weekly ranking of the season, before playoffs start, teams fighting hard for seeding and avoiding promotion. Lets get going.

Top Lane:

1. TSM Hauntzer: At number one again, flexing his skills on the tank picks and helping TSM slam P1 and coming up huge for TSM against CLG. He's had mistakes plague his entire season but slowly made better on being able to fix them, adjust his style and be a top laner that is more oriented to the team and now TSM is on top as the number 1 seed in NA. He's always a danger in teamfights, seems to have a bigger voice now with his team and is making such clean engages and has become the best frontliner in North America. Being able to stifle Darshan's Fiora and pound CLG with endless CC with no care if he lived or died because he knew he had CLG dead to rights if he played right. His Gnar was able to dominate Darshan and set up some picks for a fed Bjerg to smash CLG in game one, slowly, game by game Hauntzer has been improving to his spot now, looking like the best top laner in NA again.

2. IMT Flame: Game 1 vs NV, he slaps Seraph around in a player who showed why i really dont like him. Seraph seems to just melt into a F tier top laner when splits end and Flame took complete and total advantage of it, similar to Impact's domination of Seraph last year. While hauntzer is the best tank in NA i feel like Flame is becoming the best option for a carry in NA. He's found his old groove of hard controlling top lane and starving enemy laners to draw ganks and open up for his team. Against FOX, he similarly destroyed Brandini on the Renekton pick which really makes me scratch my head because Flame has been unstoppable on Renekton and Jarvan, not to mention J4 is a huge flex pick for IMT. Giving this guy comfort picks is a giant mistake and Flame showed that both Brandini and Seraph were far too out of their league against one of the best top laners in NA.

3. C9 Impact: Speaking of Impact slapping around Seraph, it was nice to see Impact get things started and become the huge presence for C9 that he was before, and Seraph got to feel, probably, the frustration of Impact taking some bad criticism and being seen as someone on the verge of being dropped. On tank picks, he completely got the game going for C9 and did what he did best this year and drew pressure off of Jensen and Sneaky so they can scale, fight and win. Seraph had no answer for Impact in the NV vs C9 series. Against FOX, game 1 was far too fast for anyone but sneaky to show off their stuff but game 2 was again, Brandini getting beat around by a top tier Top laner. I like the Galio pick coming from Impact, it seems like he has a champion with enough of a global to go to mid and keep Jensen fighting and keep him safe. It speaks loudly that Impact is willing to be that type of player who lays it down for his team and slams.

4. DIG Ssumday: Praise him for at least trying to being out a pick like Nasus against CLG but i think he needed more practice on it to figure out what picks do and dont work for him. He still managed to be a decent threat until the rest of CLG got going in game 1. He fell down these rankings pretty hard for not stepping it up vs CLG which makes me think DIG hasnt yet got a hold on the best picks for this patch, or if theyre trying something new this late to save time for playoffs and dive right into practicing what they think are the best picks. All in all, Ssumday has a down week as taking on TL and Lourlo was an expected dominant showing from Ssumday that doesnt note anything special since Lourlo is playing League without fingers this season.

5. CLG Darshan: He did fairly well against DIG, being able to bring out the Shen pick into Nasus, and be decent in shutting Ssumday down in the series, against TSM he seriously fixed his split-pushing issue and for the most part, scared TSM all series. I still feel like he is best on aggressive divers and bruisers and seeing his Fiora still leaves me wanting more. I know he can be a great player but he's never been able to bring out his best performance from 2016 ever since, i think he may be getting burnt out.

Jungle:

1. IMT Xmithie: Leave it to this guy to make me feel stupid for saying LirA was the best jungler in NA. Xmithie completely shut down LirA, made pressure points in NV's jungle, had only 1 death in the series. People seem to forget this guy has more picks than just Gragas and Jarvan and he showed up so massively. I always look at junglers and watch for not only who can teamfight well or get his laners ahead but who can play the 1 v 1 jungle macro war against the enemy jungler. Xmithie has been the best this split at it, and its hard to deny he's come alive so much for IMT and showing why his signing was huge for them.

2. TSM Svenskeren: The mistakes are gone, the sloppy and dumb invades are gone, the indecisiveness is gone and the Svenskeren TSM needed to see is back and scary looking. He's smarter this split and his confidence is back. Its nice to see Sven dominate again and like the rest of TSM, his teamfighting has gotten so much better, really to me only being out done by Xmithie. Against CLG and against P1 Sven ate 2 good looking rookie junglers alive and reminded them that the jungle was his house. Im excited to see Sven play at this level more and more.

3. C9 Contractz: This split has been repetitive of "Dont give this guy or that guy Zac if you dont want to insta lose", C9 both had the Zac and smashed the Zac and that was all thanks to Contractz against NV. I dont want to say he is back in form since we havent really seen him on tanks but i am liking what im seeing from this kid, he's been having an up and down season and its nice to see him improve on picks that he hasnt been able to really show on when he won Rookie of the split and picks he didnt seem to look comfortable on or like playing. Contractz is on the way to being a great jungler in NA and he has the playoff experience already to get interested in what C9 does with him come playoffs time.

4. DIG Shrimp: He's looked a bit off his game this week, which is scary heading into the playoffs. He had a trading of "I can kill your team more than you can kill mine" contest with Dardoch, and against Omargod, he didnt get to really pop off since CLG has a style of making their jungle a tank who throws his stats or the ability to look good away to pump the team up. If Shrimp tried to establish vision or pressure, CLG would all collapse and waste Shrimp's time. He didnt get rolling this week and it drops him to 4.

5. TL Dardoch: TL needs to decide if they want to play hyper aggro or smart. If they want aggro, then great Dardoch proved why they made a good choice in going for him. If they dont, and want to improve into being a real team then they need to let go of Dardoch and put in, who is in my eyes is a better jungler, Reignover. He's been sloppy this entire season and i have him hovering around 5 almost every week. Not a good sign for "The best american jungler".

Mid Lane:

1. TSM Bjergsen: The dude is untouchable still after so long. Its hard to not have this guy not be in the grouping of people like Faker, Pawn, or Crown. Week after week and year after year he performs, sometimes out-shined but never ever beaten in what he does. He's helped keep TSM a huge name in Esports and a dominating force in NA. Whether he has to sit back and play a pick like Zilean or carry on a pick like Zed. He can do it all and has been doing it all year. I cant imagine where TSM will be once he decides to call it quits. He dominated CLG on Corki and Taliyah, and smashed Ryu ad P1 on Corki and Cassiopeia. He took on 3 mid laners this week and made them all look either terrible or not as good as they should be.

2. IMT Pobelter: Pobelter has been showing a side to himself as of late where he can step up and become a monster for IMT. He has become a force and being able to shut down a rising mid laner like Nisqy and beating Froggen in two separate ways. Both roaming on Froggen and beating him in lane. Froggen isnt as good as Jensen as dominating lane but Froggen is still a damn good mid laner to look impressive against.

3. C9 Jensen: This top 5 format leaves sour feelings when i dont put Jensen at 1 or 2 but as stacked as mid lane is for NA right now, its a good spot to put him. Jensen has been on a roll and this meta has served in making him stand out more as a complete monster. NV and FOX both had to see what a hungry, dominant, and clean Jensen looked like and going against a guy like Jensen who is fighting to C9 in worlds again, they got crushed.

4. CLG Huhi: Much like Jensen but to a lesser degree, Huhi has been stepping up so hard for CLG this year and against DIG he showed Keane that he was out-classed and against TSM he showed he was really the only one who was ahead enough on his team to be a threat. I dont downplay Huhi's potential at all for CLG, but when teams realize they have to start camping him, and CLG lets it happen to work the map, it hurts what he can do.

5. FLY Hai: Give him Corki enough times and he's bound to smash on it, i dont know why TL let him have it all 3 games, Hai is a weird one where most of the comfort picks that he is a complete god on, are usually not meta. He looks well practiced and capable still on picks like the Corki, Syndra and Ori but his days of being a mid laner who could give players like Bjergsen, Xpeke, Febiven, and Westdoor a matchup they could lose are over. Its nice too see him do well again but i think he didnt take this season seriously as he should have and he has fallen so hard.

ADC:

1. TSM DoubleLift: Something about the feeling of playoffs being so near makes the people youd expect to smash actually come out and smash. DoubleLift has gotten outshine a lot this split, not his fault when TSM as a whole are trying to be more team oriented and late game focused. That being said with the ADC role looking so much more skilled this season, Doublelift showed why he is still the guy most of these dudes look up to or hate because he's out-doing them. He beat out Stixxay and Aphromoo in lane and was dominating Arrow and Xpecial the entire series against P1. Its hard not to look at this guy right now and think he isnt the best ADC in the west.

2. IMT Cody Sun: The old god in Doublelift is at number one and the new god in Cody Sun is at 2. Cody just seemed to explode from a decent ADC who was very mistake prone to pretty much the best young ADC in NA. Its awesome to see a guy come in, shake off people calling for his release and dominate. He fought off another rising ADC in Apollo in IMT's win over NV and He just absolutley smashed NV as well. Against FOX, he looked clean, and going into playoffs you want your younger, less experienced players going as hard as Cody Sun did this week. All around he looks to have no weaknesses other than a bad draft.

3. C9 Sneaky: We saw Sneaky finally dominate as an ADC since the Spring Finals. He brought out a hyper carry but people can get skeptical since his score on champs like Trist or Kog usually end up something like 1/1/17. This week though, and especially against NV, and a great ADC like Apollo. He pretty much put NV and FOX in a coffin and won games for C9 on tristanna.

4. FLY WildTurtle: This dude is frustrating me, I know he can do good but he never really has been a great Jhin player. I dont like the Jhin, hell nobody does im sure. He's been week by week getting back to form in a sense where he just flashes in, opens up and get 3 kills before dying. Thats what Turtle was stereotyped as being and who he is now that he's on FlyQuest. It has been a good week for him though, having only really 2 lacking games this week and a good 2-0 vs an ADC i thought was better than him.

5. TL Piglet: TL has an ADC who think can still show up and be a monster and be a top guy but damned if TL doesnt try to convince him he needs to be a superhero and play like he is the only one wearing a TL jersey on the stage. The team hurts him and when he gets going TL wins, i wish he realized that and gave TL the boot for a team that can make him who he used to be. But this week he was decent but not amazing.

Support:

1. IMT Olleh: The guy keeps making it known how good of a support he is, teams know how dangerous he is on any pick, this week he just added another great support to his arsenal with Alistar in the series against both FOX and NV. Its nice to know and comforting for IMT fans to see Olleh being able to smash on pretty much and pick IMT wants him to play. NA always had a pool of supports who can easily be compared on the level of just about any other support internationally. Olleh is looking like he is going to be added to that stereotype as he's been just a god this week and pretty much all split.

2. TSM Biofrost: He showed off a bit of that Biodaddy play going against CLG and you know he had to in such a high stress game for TSM. Being able to outmatch Aphromoo play for play and provide great teamfighting, frontlining, and protection. I feel like TSM has the best frontliner in NA right now which is scary considering one of them is Biofrost.

3. C9 Smoothie: Can you ever look at this guy and say he's bad? I cant. Even when Sneaky has been playing like a boosted slug for the first half of the split, Smoothie and Jensen have been the graces of C9 and Smoothie looked like the Incredible Hulk during teamfights against NV and FOX, carrying the fight on his back, not letting anyone die.

4. FLY Lemonation: Holy Janna Lemon looked like a bald jesus with how much he saved FlyQuest with those great disengages. I always thought he was far too agressive as a support and that spoke to FLY's losses but seeing him on pretty much "peel 'em and heal 'em" duty against P1 was incredible. His ability to not look as bad as Mat when Turtle and Piglet were murdering eachother was a plus too.

5. DIG Adrian: He did not have a great week at all. It looks like DIG as an entire unit just dropped the ball and slumped into a sweaty mess from trying to salvage the later half of DIG's season before the new players came in. Adrian just looked a bit sloppy and uncomfortable this week, some great plays here and there but not enough to climb higher than 5.

Thats all for this season, thank you guys for taking the time to read these rankings, and giving your feedback. It was fun doing it all and was nice to see this community is so interested and insightful about Esports, moreso than i though. Let me know what you guys think and thank you again. See you next Spring.

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