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NA LCS - How teams have changed since last split

OHminus·1/12/2017, 12:01:31 PM·2 votes·2,022 views
  1. TSM - Doublelift steps down, Wildturtle takes his place. This is a minor downgrade because while turtle doesn't require as much gold as DL does, he also cannot win lane as consistently. Thus, TSM looks a bit worse than last split.
  2. C9 - Meteos moved to sub, Contractz to starting jg position, Ray signed as sub for Impact. I believe that this is a slight upgrade imo at the jg position. Meteos, while a solid jungler, is not good with the champions in the meta currently. I have yet to see anything of Contractz' Lee Sin, but his Hecarim, Rek'sai, and Elise are all very solid, and he seems a lot more gank-focused than Meteos was. Ray being Impact's sub may hint at Impact wanting to leave the organization, but if that's not the case, Impact will continue to dominate the top lane for C9 (which means Ray will hardly ever be used).
  3. IMT - Huni, Reignover, Wildturtle, Adrian leave, replaced by Flame, Dardoch, Cody Sun, Olleh respectively. This, overall, is a huge downgrade for IMT. They lost the best jg in NA, a solid AD in Wildturtle, and the mechanical presence that was Huni (sure, he was inconsistent, but when he won lane, which was quite often, he dominated). Olleh may be an upgrade over Adrian simply because of the wider champion pool he brings (Adrian only really excelled on healing/shielding supports like Soraka, Janna, and Karma). Flame is a downgrade from Huni - he hasn't been considered "top tier" since season 3, and he's been constantly benched in favor for Acorn on LGD and Expression on Longzhu. Dardoch, while a good jungler, isn't as good as Reignover, and also brings the possibility of just imploding the team like he did last split on TL. Cody Sun and Olleh looked mediocre at best at IEM, and will probably be in the bottom tier of bot lanes in NA. Overall, IMT isn't the top tier team they were last split.
  4. CLG - No changes. Expect to see similar things unless they suddenly shift gears and learn how to play like they did during the middle of s6.
  5. TL - Reignover becomes the starting jg, FeniX replaced by Goldenglue, Link signed as sub, Piglet moved back to starting AD. Expect TL to be better this split just because they hopefully no longer have to face the internal problems they had last split. Reignover is a huge get at jg, and Piglet is a good AD when funneled the correct resources. Goldenglue is a ... meh midlaner, but so was FeniX last split. Overall, TL has improved.
  6. NV - Procxin leaves (potentially retiring) replaced by LirA, Apollo replaces LOD. Procxin was a surprisingly good jungler for NV last split, but LirA was also a good jungler for Afreeca last split. LirA plays slightly more aggressively than Procxin, but I expect that to have good results. Apollo is a slight downgrade from LOD, as both were funneled similar amounts of gold but LOD had better outcomes.
  7. DIG (formerly APEX) - Ray, ShrimP replaced by Ssumday, Chaser respectively. LOD replaces Apollo. Ssumday and Chaser may look like massive upgrades to Ray and ShrimP, but let's take a step back. Both Ssumday and Chaser got funneled a lot of gold during their time in Korea, and required resources in order to be effective. Mechanically, they're both upgrades, but I don't know if they'll mesh well with the rest of the team. At worst, this is going to be another s6 Longzhu, where everyone needs a lot of gold and playstyles don't mesh, and Ssumday's wrist gives out, thus causing the team to fall to the bottom of the middle of the pack (6th/7th/8th). At best, Ssumday and Chaser will elevate the team to the next level of play. Oh, and like I said before, LOD is a slight upgrade to Apollo.
  8. P1 - Pirean moved to sub, Ryu signed as starting mid, Arrow signed as starting AD, Adrian signed as starting support. These are all massive upgrades imo. While there's always the problem of the language barrier, zig, Inori, and Adrian all have experience playing with Koreans. P1 were honestly exciting to watch near the tail end of the split. Inori is an exciting jungler to watch. Meanwhile, Ryu (while losing hard against Crown at worlds) still remains a solid midlaner, while Arrow is a great AD. Adrian is a good support provided he gets Karma or other defensive supports.
  9. FOX - Looper signs as top laner, Akaadian signed as jungler, Gate replaces BIG at support. Looper is obviously a very big signing, and massively improves the top lane for FOX. However, it's historically proven that Looper cannot do it alone. He's a great top laner when he has players around him that can take pressure off of him, such as s4 Samsung, or even RNG in s6. FOX have no such players except for maybe Froggen. Akaadian is ... meh. Gate replacing BIG is a slight upgrade considering how terrible BIG was.
  10. Flyquest - Contractz to C9, Moon replaces him. Obvious downgrade. Moon was never really a good jungler and was one of the worst when it came to putting pressure on the map. He's fairly good late game but Flyquest's lanes don't look they're going to win by themselves, which makes this signing even worse.

tl:dr - TSM slight downgrade, C9 slight upgrade, IMT massive downgrade, CLG hasn't changed, TL upgraded, NV slight upgrade, DIG has a 50/50 shot of being an upgrade, P1 upgraded, FOX slight upgrade, Flyquest downgrade.

2 Comments

Miror B1/12/2017, 1:47:34 PM2 votes

Yeah, I actually disagree on the whole idea of "lod being better than apollo". Looking at them as a whole, it's kinda splitting hairs (as their playstyles were drastically different, and apollo had ray/keane "soaking up" stats preventing him from really doing much). Lira joining them will be rather interesting though, as him/Mickey were kinda like the bonnie/clyde of korea with the two being "partners in crime" who at times drove themselves off cliffs never to be seen/heard from again. The fact he's joining a team that already has a "buddy system" in the form of seraph/ninja could either make it better or make it way worse, with my idea being the latter will happen.

After watching a thorin video on the whole "Link debacle", I'm under the impression that he could very well just start 90% of TL's games this year while also being banished from the team come 2018. While goldenglue has improved massively (to the point in which I'd say he's better than like half of the current NA mids), if Link is anything like his former self with all the preparation/scouting/"mentality" then he should be way better and probably the scariest player this year. It's also a year in which Piglet has to prove himself, as now that the "dardoch excuse" is gone he won't really have anyone else to blame should things go as they did all the previous years.

Was going to do a long-ish post about how P1 is a high-quality on paper team with potential issues, but too tired after yesterday. If we're looking at the team as a whole, Ryu really needs to "shine" on it for them to live up to everyone's expectations. On each of the H2k-worlds teams he's been on, he hasn't really had to do much (2015 iteration had top-quality top laner in odo, sorta-good jg in loulex, and a top-quality botlane in hjarnan/kasing, 2016 had 2nd-best toplaner odo/best jg in EU jankos/best eu botlane forgiven/vander). Now that those pieces are gone (zig/arrow/adrian being lesser quality and inori still being "green" ), having ryu put up a career year could launch the team into a potential semi-finals at worlds scenario. Him failing though could put them into an NV from last year scenario though.

Im a Brush1/12/2017, 1:34:22 PM1 votes

Procxin went into army service