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Pre-Season NA new roster top 5 list.

Admiral Howe·12/9/2017, 11:42:41 PM·4 votes·1,686 views

I thought with the only real hype before the season being All Stars, itd be fun to take a look at individual players, then teams and try to predict where they will place. Most of these listings came down to "Just because youre at 5 doesnt mean youre bad, the position is just stacked". Because this year jungle for instance is stacked as hell. Lets get to it.

Top:

  1. TSM Hauntzer - This is his meta, Hauntzer really reminds me of Looper back in 2014. He hits this sweet spot where he looks like a god on health stacking top laners who want to fight all the time. His carry game is getting better but i dont expect to see TSM put him on something like Rumble or Kennen any time soon. With that in mind, i think we'll see Hauntzer look the best out of everyone in Spring.

  2. TL Impact - Impact now has a mid laner who doesnt really take much resources, a jungler who loves playing for the team and a bot lane that is good enough to hold its own. He can pop off if he gets attention from Xmithie, he can pop off if he doesnt, he isnt the exact best as a 1 v 1 top laner but he can and will hold the lane down and make great TP plays, in fact it isnt his laning that makes him great (he is a great laner) but it was his TP flanks, his timing, and his ability to make things happen. He may not be as mechanically good as the top 5 laners in this list, be he is sooooo much smarter.

  3. 100T Ssumday - To me, yes he's better than Huni, He is Impact junior, Probably the most reliable and smartest top laner next to Impact but again, like Impact, some team issues might hold him back unless his english is great. Meteos has said before that with Ray and Impact, he had a hard time understanding them and some ganks went bad. So i dont expect Meteos to come top a lot, which is nice since Dignitas didnt want to stop coming top last year. Still over time, just like last year, Ssumday is going to destroy.

  4. FOX Huni - Why Huni at 4? Huni can look amazing, he was the reason SKT even won some games at times. He also makes his team fall into this trap of "Let Huni play whatever, screw it, he's frikin Huni after all." SKT even did this with YASUO IN THE GRAND FINALS. I like to call it the Huni Trap. He's good, but he's going to wind up like Ssumday was in the 2017 spring split, too much attention on him and he cant get anything done. I just think NA has improved too much for him to be at 1 anymore.

  5. CLG Darshan - Darshan here might make people scratch their heads but having someone as carry focused as Darshan is, with the top lane fluctuating between bruisers and squishy carries, Darshan is the polar opposite of Hauntzer. He wants to be on the Kennen, Rumble and Fiora, he wants to go and fight everyone on Trundle, Renekton or Gangplank. He looked damn good with Xmithie backing him up and with a jungler like Reignover now with him, he could pop off.

Jungle:

  1. TL Xmithie - Xmithie was the best jungler last year, on carries and on tanks. This year he has a far better top laner and Doublelift over Cody Sun is just experience and experience in playing with Xmithie before, ADC wont be much of an upgrade as far as performances from last year goes but Xmithie has a prime chance to hold his number 1 spot from last year. Im excited to see what he can do.

  2. C9 Svenskeren - Svenskeren is a guy who loves to invade and beat ass in the enemy jungle, Reapered is a guy who loves those kind of junglers, C9 also has way better vision than most teams both domestically and internationally so i think Sven can fit right in for C9 and he can look good where Contractz had problems, minor problems but the only change will be just more experience and know how coming from Sven. A decent upgrade for C9 and Sven.

  3. CLG Reignover - How many fans of Reignover breathed a sigh of relief when he went to CLG? I did, he deserved better and now he has it. Reignover was never bad and he fits really well with what CLG likes to do as a unit, he makes great plays, his ability to invade without ever fighting due to really good pathing and vision is insane still and i think this year he will bounce back hard and seeing Sven, Xmithie and Reginover duke it out for top spot in NA is a nice thing to see again.

  4. 100T Meteos - Last year i thought, oh god Meteos might do horribly on P1, i was wrong, dead wrong. He's still dominant, he's still Meteos and people thinking he might be bad are crazy. He's a good linchpin jungler who can perform well on both carries or tanks and he has great shot calling, thats another good thing, he's a general in the jungle like Xmithie and with powerful solo laners like Ssumday and Ryu, he can even go beyond 4th this spring.

  5. TSM Mike Yeung - He's raw talent and i like it, behind coaches like Ssong and Lustboy, Mike can easily be placed a number 1 but this is going off last year and some of All Stars and there's more i want to see him improve on. Guaranteed he WILL improve but for now, he's a powder keg waiting to explode at 5.

Mid:

  1. C9 Jensen - There's no working around it, in lane, in teamfights, in ganks, Jensen has massively shown he can compete with anyone, he can win against anyone. He's still scary as hell and with pretty much the whole of C9 not changing what they like to do besides top lane, you can bet Jensen is going to keep being number 1.

  2. TSM Bjergsen - Unless Bjergsen was just in a funk last year, im not going to put him at 1. He's been beaten way too much in lane by a lot of guys, some of whom are in NA now. So its a shaky 2 for me with the potential to fall to 3 if he doesnt play like everyone knows he can this spring.

  3. CLG Huhi - The dude stepped up hard last year along with Darshan when CLG was falling off the side of the earth with bad play. He's proven to everyone who blamed him for being weak that his time is now and he's arguably the best player on CLG now. I can see him climbing to 2 if he does well this spring.

  4. TL Pobelter - Pobeltr is weird, one day he can show you he doesnt need resources, classic Pobelter, never getting love from Xmithie, feels bad not having blue. Then the next he gets everything funneled into him and he looks like Jesus. He's not as clutch as Huhi, Bjerg or Jensen, but he is still literally the only good NA mid laner, he is a unicorn in this region and he's earned it all.

  5. CG Febiven - Febi is curious because he was in the same boat as Bjergsen last year. Fans disappointed in his play, "This isnt Febiven at all". He's still a damn good mid laner, who now has a way better bot lane than Nuclear and Chei, there is no communication issues since Apollo and Hakuho both said LirA's english is good, Jankos and LirA are comparable, the only downgrade from H2K to CG is top. Solo might or might not be as good as Odoamne but none the less, i love Febiven's chances to shine here. Also, as a little nugget of nice facts, 3/5 of that sweet ass 2015 Fnatic team are in NA, Huni, Reignover and Febiven.

ADC:

  1. C9 Sneaky - He proved it before all of our faces that he was that damn good. He looked so well polished and had some incredibly clutch moments domestically and especially internationally. Its hard to find a better AD carry in NA than Snacky.

  2. TSM Zven - Yes i do think TSM is going to have a damn good bot lane, no i dont think Zven and Mithy are overrated. Theyre good, and unless Zven shits the bed, he's going to look like a god this spring.

  3. TL Doublelift - He loses lane more than he should and he fucks up a lot but he's still a monster in teamfights and id honestly take him in a heartbeat if Zven and Sneaky are unavailable. He's had far more downs than ups last year but i think he can bounce back.

  4. CG Apollo - Last year he came out of nowhere, he's a good AD Carry who's gotten better over the years. I think with a more stable team to back him up and great synergy with Hakuho, he can look even better.

  5. FOX Altec - 100 Thieves hasnt announced an ADC yet, whether its Cody Sun or the meme gods grace us with ImaQTpie, theyd be at 4 or 5 but since i dont know yet, here's Altec. Lane dominant, decent team fights and at least he isnt Keith.

Support:

  1. C9 Smoothie - i was convinced Smoothie was the best support in NA when he made me say "Damn thats a clean Janna" during worlds. She's so binary but Smoothie looked like a god on her. He does that a lot and he's willing to study his role so much that he's like Sneaky, usually setting the meta for other bot lanes.

  2. CLG Biofrost - He's a damn good support and has the same style as Aphromoo albeit with a different champ pool. He's got the potential to be the best support in NA if trusts and develops great synergy with Stixxay.

  3. TSM Mithy - He's a lot like Biofrost but on more tanky champions, really thats it. Zven is an improvement over Doublelift but Mithy isnt an upgrade over Biofrost.

  4. 100T Aphromoo - Doesnt matter who he has for an ADC, as long as it isnt Keith, he's going to look like a top support in NA. He's fallen off a bit, getting caught out but id take him as my Support any day. He's still one of the best shot callers in NA, one of the best supports in NA and mechanically one of the best. And ive said before, only Mata has had better playmaking than him.

  5. CG Hakuho - Hakuoho is a textbook reliable support. He's really mastered that over the years, not making gigantic plays, not ruining everything for the team, not a god, not a goof, he is what his team needs him to be and having such a role player in the support position is damn good.

Time to move on to the team rankings, this will be spicy. Im going to go from 1 to 10 on this one.

  1. TSM - More consistent bot lane, fresh jungler to mold and coaches that arent going to be just yes men to Regi. TSM has a chance to look like beasts this year.

  2. CLG - A serious upgrade in the jungle, and basically a lateral move from Aphro to Bio, no real change, CLG has the opportunity to pop off hard.

  3. C9 - I think Reapered will help foster Licorice into a good top laner, Svenskeren is bringing more experience into a role where C9 needed it and the rest of the roster staying the same, C9 can still be strong.

  4. TL - Coaching was a huge part of Immortals' success, Doublelift is going to have a big voice on this team and it might clash with Xmithie. They are going to be a top team but i dot see them doing well until playoffs start.

  5. 100T - This roster is stacked and if they get Aphro an ADC who is good, they can go deep into the season with 2 or 3 losses max. Thats if everything goes as good as it can go.

  6. CG - Stability in Mid from Febiven, better top laner than Seraph ever was in Solo, Core bot lane is still there, i see Clutch Gaming making playoffs.

  7. FOX - I think this team is going to go into Protect the Huni mode too often and like i said, its going to be a rough spring with a better summer. Plus Fenix is okay but nowhere near his competition.

  8. FLY - Its going to be a battle for 6th place with CG being the winners to be but FLY looks decent. Not playoff caliber but decent.

  9. OPG - PowerofEvil is going to be rendered irrelevant by his won team, much like Ryu and Mike Yeung were on P1. Akaadian is goo the jungle is too stacked this coming spring, Arrow goes through more supports than Batman goes through Robbins and Lemon is a good shotcaller but his skill is waning hard. Zig isnt going to carry any games but he can be decent so its all on PoE and i dont think he can do it alone.

  10. GG - Contractz, we loved you but LirA is going to be laughing at you from a distance saying "HAHA ITS YOUR TURN NOW". That roster is crap. Im sorry but it is.

Thats it, let me know how you'd rank it all. Cant wait until the season starts and im hoping we get some insane games. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

24 Comments

HotSjokzGG12/10/2017, 1:07:12 AM3 votes

Interesting! While these are arbitrary, there are some that I disagree with. I do love how you put TL as the 4th place team. For example"

  1. I think that Mithy is better over Biofrost. Part of the reason that Biofrost was replaced by Mithy is due to Bio's communication issues and lack of shot calling. From what I have heard, Biofrost checks out of games completely at times. Unlike Mithy, Biofrost also lacks the ability to shot call late game. For these two reasons, I think that Mithy is slightly better than Biofrost.

  2. I'm Surprised that Olleh didn't make it onto this list. Looked like he had a solid showing. Or is he not playing in the NALCS anymore?

  3. I'm surprised that Jensen is higher than Bjergsen. It's no doubt that these two mid laners are the top 2 in NA, but its difficult to pick one over the other. However, I still have to go with Bjergsen. And really, it boils down to the team's playstyle. I feel like in the most recent splits, Bjerg has mainly play more team oriented champs for utility, while Jensen plays more assassins. Moreover, I think Bjergsen is more consistent with his play. I feel like I have watched times where Jensen has made critical mistakes that cost his team games, where I haven't seen that from Bjerg much.

Ale non è male12/10/2017, 4:19:57 PM2 votes

I am not going to analize it in detail right now because it would take too long, but I want to point out only a thing, no way Apollo-Hakuho are better than Nuclear-Chei. Chei was a top 2-3 support in EU, only held back by Nuclear performances. Hakuho like you said is reliably good but unspectacular (and I rate Hakuho highly as well), and Chei is just a better version of the same kind of player Hakuho is at their point in their careers. Hakuho as margins of improvement, but if we are talking of "right now", Chei prevail, and there is no doubt about that Now, both Apollo and Nuclear are the weak link of the duos and were pretty much mediocre to average-ish in their respective performances, so I don't think that their performances are deal-breakers here, because they aren't considerably better nor considerably worse than their counterparts

Miror B12/11/2017, 12:40:57 AM2 votes

Top-lane wise, I kinda have to disagree if we're looking at situations presented to us. Assuming echo fox's roster is "as advertised" and there are no switches, Huni/ssumday should be swapped as Huni will be going into a team that benefits him quite massively (self-sufficient, hyper-aggressive, and the ability to potentially give him giant leads over his opponent) while ssumday is almost going to be forced to carry with ryu looking ridiculously bad in 2017 (benched for pirean). While 100T does have what might be the best botlane in NA, Ssumday's situation on this team is reminiscent of the one he had on dignitas, making me favor Huni more.

I also find it mildly amusing that you decided to rank TL so highly. Not going to criticize it at all (even though I could do a giant rant about how steve is literally doing the george steinbrenner yankees approach sans quality coaching/management), just amused.

III BAKURYU III 12/12/2017, 8:30:53 PM2 votes

This will be a very interesting split that's for sure! Nonofficial prediction/s 10. FlyQuesst 3-15 9. Golden Guardians 5-13 8. Optic Gaming 6-12 7. 100 Thieves 7-11 6. Cloud 9 9-9 5. Team Liquid 10-8 4. Clutch Gaming 11-7 3. Counter Logic Gaming 13-5 2. Echo Fox 14-4

  1. Team Solomid 15-3
ReySolomon12/13/2017, 7:24:38 AM2 votes

I'm excited about the new teams and different rosters and ESPECIALLY Huni being here in NA it's gonna be an awesome season for me.

Linthe12/14/2017, 5:23:51 PM2 votes

Interesting post... I applaud the detailed analysis.. Here are my nits:

  1. Sven. He was BAD on TSM. He got caught out ALL the time. As far as I could tell, he was only ever good on Lee Sin. No WAY is he the #2 Jungler in NA. There IS a reason TSM let him go.

  2. Slight nit on Bjerg. He is sill the best mid-laner NA. But really he and Jensen are 1a and 1b.. in some order.

  3. I dont see any way that Aphro should be that far down the list. He can play EVERY support.. tanks? Yep? Play makers? He is a MONSTER on Thresh or Morg. AND he is a shot caller. Bio is ok, but I still think it's a significant loss for CLG.

  4. Maybe it's just a lack of depth but... I see a BIIIIIG drop off after 3 on your ADC list. I think you probably could have just stopped the list after DLift.

III BAKURYU III 12/23/2017, 1:23:43 AM1 votes

Offical pre-season rankings/predictions(Likely to change before the start of the LCS)

1.TEAM SOLOMID 14-4 Hauntzer 51-48-124 MikeYeung 40-43-140 Bjergsen 96-46-105 Zven 75-36-118 Mithy 17-56-200

While TSM does have one of the better rosters in the NA LCS one has to think if this is really just a pipe-dream of sorts that won't really pay-off as they would like it to be. TSM last year was around that 35-36 mins per game and when Zven/Mithy were on G2, G2 was around the 34-35 mins per game in which I see the same happening here. Overall, TSM should have a good defense when it comes to protecting towers in my mind only losing around 5.6 towers per game while getting around 7.2 towers per game for themselves.
If I had to combine two teams to equal this team besides the teams/former teams(TSM/G2) to compare it would be LMQ of 2014 and TSM of 2015 Summer where Bjergsen gets most of the side-lane farm and MikeYeung potentially being the Noname that makes costly mistakes.

Bans Syndra Alistar Teams need to ban out these champions. I just don't get why teams don't ban out Syndra from Bjergsen since it's one of his biggest champions to play in all-in games and seems to pull her out when games are on the line.

2.COUNTER LOGIC GAMING 12-6 Darshan 70-55-110 Reignover 45-51-131 Huhi 76-67-127 Stixxay 94-50-105 Biofrost 11-53-189

It's no secret CLG has a better team than last year with Reignover being a huge upgrade over Omargod and BioFrost replacing an aging Aphromoo that was making mistake after mistake mainly in the lane-phase of CLG's games. This should be a fun team to watch mainly from the shotcalling point of view with Reignover most likely being the leader of the team in the voice-com department. Reignover also helped CLG when it came to the jungle side of things back in 2016 before Worlds and Xmithie had a great Worlds that year and so did CLG(going 3-3 with two #1 seeds in their group). Something that needs to be said is CLG's consistency in which Stixxay tends to get 0 kills in one game but 5-6 in the next, with 2018 being best-of-one's he and CLG need to find consistent play from its players.

Bans Illaoi RekSai

3.TEAM LIQUID 11-7 Impact 44-38-128 Xmithie 34-51-150 Pobelter 73-41-115 Doublelift 99-26-96 Olleh 12-49-185

CLG + IMT = TL This is a good team on paper the only problem is who will be the offensive player on the team? Impact has shown to be only ok on aggressive champions, Pobelter being meh when it comes to the aggression side of things and Doublelift being shaky in the lane phase himself for the past year. Olleh also tends to take a few of the kills himself in which in a more "damage" meta that 2018 will be he could starve out the carries on this team if he continues to take 1.07 kills per game.

Bans Morgana Lulu Lets face it TL has only 1 real carry and that's D-Lift so I expect POE to play more support like mages and Impact/Olleh being tank like players themselves. Ban those out and have D-Lift trying to survive and potentially being caught out numerous times.

4.CLUTCH GAMING 11-7 Solo 44-61-113 Lira 52-62-121 Febiven 74-37-101 Apollo 60-46-110 Hakuho 18-43-164

Dark horse here for me honestly that might bite me in the a$$ but I like this roster that Clutch has, the problem is that it's pretty much NV 2.0. We know Solo is aggressive but the other players aren't so much and that can lead to being a Misfits vs G2 in the EU Finals in which CG could leave him out to dry in fights. Another thing to think about is Febiven in which he's really been quiet after his great 2015 season with Fnatic, he's much slower on the draw and with a team that has a history of being dead last in kills but first when it comes to game length(37-38 mins per game with constant 40+ games) he with NV could be the same team but with 1-2 different players.

Bans Leblanc Azir Ban out Febiven's main go-to-champions and have another player like Apollo who can barely get 3 kills per game in his career to carry instead.

5.ECHO FOX 10-6 Huni 63-57-117 Dardoch 42-38-163 Fenix 75-39-106 Altec 82-35-98 Adrian 10-41-195

Toxic, aggressive, feed?
3 extremely aggressive players and 2 passive players on the bot-side in which could be a good even for a team but looking at how each of these players has kinda made their former teams stink is a big factor on why I have them 5TH but the saving grace is the talent on this team. Fenix and Altec are heavy CS players Fenix around 331.8 cs per game and Altec with 314.4 cs per game in their NA LCS careers but with Huni and Dardoch being and having a history of really fast 30 or pre 30 mins games it could stall Fenix's and Altec's cs game is causing this team to implode on their own sheer aggression.

Bans RekSai Rumble Both Dardoch's and Huni's champions that are their bread and butter in which mainly for Dardoch whenever he's not playing a heavy tank jungler tends to just feed and vice versa for Huni in which ever carry top is meta just ban it out and watch the pressure go to Altec who isn't a good teamfighter or carrry himself having to carry such team.

6.CLOUD 9 9-9 Licorice 27-59-136 Svenskeren 39-53-161 Jensen 97-44-87 Sneaky 90-37-109 Smoothie 23-54-176

C9 could hit gold with the surprise and unknown factor with Licorice and the skill that Svenskeren brings to the team but I doubt it will be that great for them. An upside for C9 is the great carry potential that Sneaky has shown for the past 2 months in the regional playoffs, Worlds etc and it will be interesting moving forward if he can stay hot with also Smoothie still by his side.
Will C9 let Svenskeren be Svenskeren or will they make him into a ward bot similar to what TSM did prior? My answer is no! I think C9 will honestly allow Svenskeren be similar to how Jankos plays in the EU LCS and that's counter jungling and aggressive plays that can either give C9 great leads or puts them in the dirt from such plays.

Bans Ryze Orianna Gotta hit where it hurts against C9 and that's Jensen, make him feel uncomfortable and watch the frustration rise.

7.100 THIEVES 7-11 Ssumday 48-47-116 Meteos 38-62-132 Ryu 66-40-98 Cody Sun 78-43-94 Aphromoo 14-52-156

Meme team 2.0?
While this team looks great on paper I have my doubts if they can actually put such talent to get them wins. NA LCS 2018 is stacked and for 100 Thieves to think they too can win from pure talent is interesting but unwise to think they can be #1 in the league with the same thought process as the other teams. Meteos and Ryu had a great tenure on P1 but other than that Ryu has fallen off each and every split since he came onto the Western scene and I see no difference here and the same can be said about Aphromoo who since 2016 Spring/MSI has taken a step backwards as far as producing to the level that is expected of him. This could be a visit to the Old Cloud 9 of the day with Meteos trying to get Balls(Ssumday) ahead early and have Ryu(Hai) helping the other lanes but if 100 does that it will be interesting because Ryu to me has to be one of the worst roaming mids I'v seen in sometime. He dies each time he even looks at the river it seems, so Cody/Aphromoo will need to do things themselves or wait till backup with TP from Ssdumday or ganks from Meteos.

Morgana Thresh Make the leader and shotcaller feel as useless as possible.

8.GOLDEN GUARDIANS 5-13 Lourlo 45-71-89 Contractz 42-70-97 Hai 66-51-88 Deftly 56-56-77 Matt 11-86-137

Ah! This roster looks good and bad at the same time and while every player on this team are good they're also bad at the same time. Lourlo tends to be more useless barely getting a kill per game and tends to not know how to actually tank or create leads and even keep leads when given to him. Hai has really turned into a more of a Master Roshi player and that's about it and Matt seems to be trying to become the next Kiwikid and die constantly. The only reason I have GG #8 and not #10 is because of Locodoco and Hai's ability to pull games out of their asses.

Bans Graves Zed People forget this but Hai is better in my opinion on aggressive AD mids than AP mids and banning his Zed in which was a pick he use to play back in the day and had great success is something teams need to think about during the pick ban phase, especailly since this team needs as much offense as they can get. Kinda Ironic Golden Guardians from the NBA's Warriors need as much offense as they can get.

9.OPTIC GAMING 5-13 Zig 49-65-149 Akaadian 46-52-149 PowerofEvil 69-52-124 Arrow 92-57-99 Lemonation 6-61-188

First off I could and most likely will be wrong placing Optic at #9 but this roster just looks forced or ham-fisted because they needed players to fill such roles and in my predictions, they will get such results because of it. Ok, Zig is honestly useless and is even comparable to Lourlo at how ineffective he seems at times. Both PowerofEvil and Arrow MVP and MVP caliber are great players but the roster around them just isn't honestly. Lemon seems to be dried up and while his pick ban knowledge is great that only counts for I'd say 40% of the importance and the rest is skill and mechanics and he just has lost a step or so with age.

Bans Kled Rengar Anything that can make plays from Zig and Akaadian so the carries on Optic will have to will be something to think about if you're the other teams.

10.FLYQUEST 4-14 Flame 50-57-93 Anda 41-56-115 Fly 63-59-88 Wildturtle 73-43-74 Stunt 8-57-123

Looking at this roster I have high hopes but all that I can think about is TDK from the past and how shit they were even with such roster with Ninja and Emperor. Fly could be the next Ninja in which he will die constantly because he will try to make plays for his team. Add in the whole visa issues from the past him with the other players(PowerofEvil, Febiven, Zven, Mithy etc) might not even play for such teams for a disclosed amount of time. Sorry but someone has to be #10.

Bans NONE