Week 7 NA LCS Rankings

Ties everywhere, 2 teams for first and last are the only ones not in a tie, teams faltering, teams improving, time to look at week 7 and see where everyone stands.

Top Lane:

1. IMT Flame: Pretty much a guy who came in and did his job this week, with the meta changes, not many top laners were able to wow and amaze, we will see a lot of boring but solid play from top laners the more this tank meta drags on. Bitching about the tank meta aside, Flame proved again this week he is still dominant on either a carry or a tank, Renekton is still viable, since he, Trundle and Darius love this meta, im wondering when Trundle and Nautilus will come in for Flame, itll be exciting to see, some hiccups on the Maokai and Cho'Gath but all in all, when he gets to play what he wants, he puts up good numbers and is starting to beat great top laners in NA like he used to beat great top laners in the LCK. Massive farm leads, great lane pressure, solo kills and the ability to make top lane an island. If IMT keeps playing like this, top lane will be Flame island until worlds.

2. DIG Ssumday: He slapped Hauntzer around pretty handily against TSM and fought his heart out against C9, the meta changes claims another team though as his Cho'Gath in game 2 vs C9 didnt look impressive at all, Cho can protect the back line sure but i feel like there are other top laners who can do what he does and not sacrifice as much as Cho does. Still, Ssumday continues to perform, while DIG doesnt need him to carry anymore, seeing his Maokai performance showed why Cho isnt a good fit for him, he wants to be all over a fight, locking everyone down and choking the life out of enemy teams by just staying on their carries until they die, his tank play and his front lining are really incredible but with DIG not quite the unit they want to be just yet, he falls to number 2 this week.

3. TSM Hauntzer: He's really improving as a man to step up and provide for the team, even when it seems TSM is reluctant to try new picks and sticking to things people expect and will counter, like the J4/Camille for Hauntzer and Trist for Doublelift, Hauntzer proves this isnt a hindrance to him. usually a J4 pick gets slapped around this meta if a team can pick a better tank but he makes it work. He uses the J4 better than anyone against both FOX and DIG he had chances to almost win the game for them in some fights. Still, this meta isnt going to provide any wow factors so for now, Hauntzer stays at 3 here.

4. C9 Impact: I like the fact that this meta suits Cloud 9, what i dont like is that it just encourages C9 to keep playing the run it down mid style with Jensen. Impact is far more used to being left alone top and is great on tanks. Shen and Jarvan seem to be really great go-to picks for Impact and his leadership and composure in both games vs DIG and P1 showed C9 has an extra helping voice to lead the way. He impressed and went toe to toe with 2 great laners in Ssumday and Zig but his teamfighting wasnt the reason for those wins, just being able to keep people top while the rest of C9's map was opened up was how he was used. He is being one of those on call top laners to just split until he is needed, which is nice but it gets him beat in some games, all in all its nice to see Impact back at top lane.

5. TL Lourlo: He looked back to his old ways on picks like Poppy, Gnar and Jarvan. It honestly surprised me how hard he stepped up in lane and in teamfights to help TL win. He played like he was playing for his job and sad to say that but it fels like it at this point. Not to knock him, he has so much potential but he is squandering it, and i really hope TL still continues to get the old Lourlo that showed up this week because he really did well. When he works with Reingover, he looks so damn good. I think that's what he was missing, with Dardoch, he has that top/jungle combo that was hard to deal with for other teams. It looks like Reignover and Lourlo finally are making that connection same with GoldenGlue when he roams with Reingover. This could be a recipe for success if TL follows through with it, going top for Lourlo so he can make TP plays bot and roaming with GG while Lourlo's tp is down to get kills. They look like theyre doing FlyQuest's game plan with better results. All in all it was nice to see Lourlo do well for once.

Jungle:

1. C9 Contractz: the boy made it ma', he finally played close to his spring potential against 2 damn good junglers and it always seems to be C9 who is willing to bust out the new champs. Seeing his Kayn was awesome, he looks like he already knows how to style on people with Kayn and he was able to out pressure Shrimp and out play Mike Yeung. I feel like when Contractz plays like he is hungry, we see a jungler who is at the top tier of NA junglers but when he gets lazy, he looks awful, typical signs of an inconsistent player but this week he was on fire. His Lee Sin, who isnt a bad pick but isnt as nearly as strong this meta as he was every meta until now, looked good, and for the love of god why would any team let any jungler have Zac? Its always someone in the LCS who gets to play insane picks even though we have 10 bans. Shame on DIG man. C9 needs Contractz to keep playing like this if they want to keep winning.

2. IMT Xmithie: Last week, he looked like he was in a funk as Pobelter carried the hell out of their games, this week, it looked like he woke up and decided it was go time. His Rek'Sai is looking better which is good to see since Rek'Sai still does a good job at creating opportunities, diving the back line and shredding tanks of armor to weaken enemy front lines. His Jarvan was sick, im going to say it right now, i thought it was going to be a weird and weak pick in J4 jungle but he showed it's become a powerful flex pick for IMT now that Gragas is over for them as a flex. I love seeing this, IMT evolving and Xmithie still being able to open up for IMT and making fantastic plays. This dude is making it known that his days of being "An under-rated jungler" are over and he is one of the best junglers if not the best in NA.

3. CLG Dardoch: Really only falls to 3 since we didnt see enough of him, one bad game and CLG decides to cut their own arm off and sub him out for an inexperienced jungler to go up against an NA jungle pool that is dangerously good (save for Grig and Inori). He brought back the Rengar against FOX and smashed, he smashed on Maokai, and when he gets a pretty wonky matchup against IMT in Rengar vs a double tank team where those tanks specialize in shutting down a champ like Rengar with interrupts from hell, they sub him out. If they wanted Dardoch enough to trade Xmithie away for him, why sub him out? CLG is going to lose their spot if they dont trust in Dardoch to bounce back, he can do so, he is smart but CLG thinks not i guess. Still, McLovin did well enough to land the 3 spot.

4. TSM Svenskeren: He got pounded like a cheap hooker against Shrimp and kind of played like he was in a lull against FOX, his Elise was nice but his Maokai and Gragas left me and im pretty sure some TSM fans wanting more from him. He's always on and off every week, and this week he was off until game 3 against FOX. Its frustrating to see this guy look like a god one week and a dud the next, he needs to step up or the OddOne curse of TSM not having a consistently good jungler will continue.

5. TL Reingover: Finally getting his team to get with the picture and use their jungler for what they need. For so long it felt like Liquid was just letting Reignover just exist until it was time to poke him with a stick and say "Hey win for us". But having GoldenGlue and Lourlo actually connect with him and start calling him down for ganks and roaming with him, he's starting to show why he is prized as a jungler. I dont expect this trend from Reignover or TL to continue but i hope it does.

Mid:

1. IMT Pobelter: He's seen carrying for IMT a lot more now, while he is still dangerous as that backfoot mid laner who foregoes leads to help his team, IMT is helping him show another side to him that allows him to just utterly dominate other mid laners like he never really used to. Jensen, Keane, Huhi, and Hai all got to experience this side of Pobelter since IMT chose to rely more on him. Its exciting to see a NA mid laner dominate so hard in a pool of Mid Laners who are imports.

2. TSM Bjergsen: In the loss against DIG, he showed off a Xerath that was as good as GBM's almost winning that game which says a lot since Xerath is not good at all this patch. Bjerg just showed his champ pool is huge, and he can perform on any champ. He did well with bad picks against DIG and smashed the hell out of Froggen in 3 games. Bjergerking is at 2 this week though because of the loss to DIG and the 2-0 by Pobelter. Thats pretty much it.

3. DIG Keane: This guy stepped up incredibly hard in back to back games C9 and TSM. Taking it to Bjerg and looking able to go one on one with the great one (Dwayne Johnson references are great), and was able to for the most part neutralize Jensen even when Jensen stepped up and roamed for C9, that was until the teamfights started and Jensen got to sit behind C9's better picks and fight it out. All in all though, Keane has been huge for DIG this split and this week as well.

4. C9 Jensen: Im going to get more Jensen fans thinking im insane for putting him so low again. Him not leaving lane doesnt provide for C9 and they almost lost to P1, and when he did get off the roams and help the team, Keane shat on him when C9 faced DIG. He isnt playing as good as he was in spring, he can win lane but he isnt getting his lead to open up the rest of the map, and when he does roam it feels like he's so not used to it that his roaming has gotten bad. Just sloppy leads a lot like Froggen and that has shown to be awful because he did this against FlashWolves, SKT and team WE last year and he looked bad in every game they played. Its a huge problem and im not going to go easy on him until he fixes it.

5. TL GoldenGlue: Yeah, GG makes it on here, Vaultboy finally looked good and it mustve been a huge relief for him. He gets so much shit, some of it deserved but most of it not. He's been slowly, at a turtle's pace, improving. Improving to a mid tier mid laner. The more he and TL play around using Reignover as a tool to get ahead, the more we will see him improve. for now though he is safe at 5.

ADC:

1. C9 Snacky: against Arrow and Xpecial and against Altec and Adrian, Sneaky really stepped up hard, and put on a rare performance when he actually dominated so damn hard on the Kog'Maw. He did the same against DIG when he had a wonderful showing on Trist. C9 is starting to really turn it on with their carries starting to come online just in time to finish this season off strong but still, same problems can lead to the same old same old, C9 looking strong and coming up short if they hit the finals.

2. IMT Cody Sun: He's been just lighting up other bot lanes and smashing as hard as he can with Olleh and being someone so young in his career and playing so smart, he looks like he is well on the way to being one of the best ADCs in NA.

3. DIG Altec: Dominating TSM's bot lane and being able to duke it out with Sneaky and Smoothie all game showed Altec has arrived finally in the NA LCS to the form he was supposed to show up when he first started his career.

4. TSM Doublelift: He kinda got blown out by Altec but really didnt impress when he smashed Mash. Who doesnt smash a bottom tier lane when youre supposed to be as good as Doublelift. Not much to say about DL but didnt screw up hard enough to fall off this list.

5. CLG Stixxay: CLG looked ugly as a whole and made some sloppy decisions but Stixxay and Aphromoo looked fine enough to not keep the sloppiness going on for long.

Support:

1. DIG Adrian: The dude was dominant since first popping back up on DIG. He's legit able to keep this hot streak going and being considered as the top support in NA. If he still is able to keep this play up, he's going to be huge, his play on Blitzcrank vs TSM was great too, he was really on top form this week.

2. IMT Olleh: Thresh this split has been so good for Olleh, even last split he was great with him, so why do teams keep letting him have Thresh? It seems teams dont take Olleh too seriously and give him great picks. I dont care if youre Aphromoo or if LemonNation "has a counter for it", LemonNation is ass this split and Aphromoo got too cocky. Thats all there really is to say, dont let a good support get his comfort pick for 3 out of the 6 games he plays in one week.

3. C9 Smoothie: He stepped up, showed what he was made of, and again, the first guy to bust out Taric in the NA LCS beings him out for another first appearance this split and smashed with him. I felt like C9 shouldve brought back the Bunny/Smoothie tandem this split but Smoothie is showing why he is being started over another phenom of a support in BunnyFufuu.

4. TSM Biofrost: TSM's bot lane looks like it is getting really predictable to teams. They have good picks but when everyone expects it, they will know how to throw a wrench in it. Things need to change fast. Biodaddy was nowhere to be seen and its hurting TSM.

5. CLG Aphromoo: He didnt look so good for the most part against IMT save for that one 22 assist Blitz game but all in all, he did look fantastic against FOX but who wouldnt at this point? A sloppy week from CLG and a not on top form from CLG's bot lane.

Team Rankings:

1. Immortals: They dumpstered C9, they beat CLG and have a 1 to 1 record on TSM. If you disagree with them being number 1, thats fine but they are number 2 at the lowest. They look better to me as a squad then the old Immortals did, they have a win condition in every role and they have a comfort strategy that is very hard to play against in their ability to stifle teams and counterplay engages for the turn around. Nobody is showing better macro and decision making in NA right now than Immortals and its going to stay that way until TSM has better shotcalling from Svenskeren and Biofrost, or C9 fixes their problems in the jungle, top and mid lane.

2. TSM: Despite the loss, they can still go, theyre still TSM, and theyre still ready to blow out teams and have the shot calling, decision making and skill to at least keep them as a top team. Very mistake heavy at time but able to fight back violently when you give them the opportunity.

3. CLG: Theyre so sloppy for how individually good they are, they feel like TSM last year where they had tons of solo skill but team skill was lacking. CLG also pisses me off greatly when they sub Dardoch for Omargod, Omar has only won 1 game as a sub. I have no idea what they are thinking but it just makes me think they are wasting time with Dardoch and should let him go if they want Omar so bad. Dardoch has tons of experience and skill for CLG to take advantage of but refuse to, pick a bad matchup for him and instead of fixing the problem and improving, the sub him out for an easy loss. This isnt like SKT when Blank was getting crap for losing a game or two every few weeks, this dude has only won 1 game. 1. He's not a good sub right now and CLG is frustrating to watch.

4. Dignitas: Theyve been steeping up as a legit dangerous playoff team and look to be the one to take CLG's spot if they keep with the dumb decisions. DIG is just amazing right now since theyve figured out what they want as starters and are starting to come together as a unit.

5. Cloud 9: C9 looks like this meta saved their asses. Impact alone on a tank in a lane that barely any team will want to send their jungler to waste time on, more mid lane focus as the carries are there more now, and a bot lane with lethality and a mix if hyper carries and utility carries being welcome in play. C9 might bounce back.

6. NV: Nisqy stepping in made a great improvement as a mid laner able to hold his own against mid laners like Jensen, Bjergsen and Ryu. Seraph being a decent team player and Lira and Apollo being gigantic carries. Not to mention Hakuho being a reliable support player is making NV look like a team ready to give teams a hard time in the playoffs.

Thats it for week 7, let me know what you think and if youd pick anyone different for your personal list.