A Quick Look - Summer 2016 Preseason Predictions

With a new split comes new teams and new expectations; we also love to dig deep about which teams will perform well or crumble under the pressure. So, let's chomp away at all the meat we have here.

OFF-SEASON WINNERS G2 Esports Fnatic Elements/FC Schalke 04 Esports Apex Gaming Counter Logic Gaming Immortals Cloud 9 ("Tempest") Challenger

OFF-SEASON LOSERS Unicorns of Love Team Liquid Team Solo Mid

I'm fairly certain that this is a straight-forward explanation for all of these teams.

Firstly, let's start with G2. G2 Esports is looking massive; they've completely upgraded their bot lane. From the explosive but reckless Emperor we've gone to EU's finest rising star since Rekkles: Zven. To boot, they managed to grab his support, as well, in a full-package deal: Mithy. This is practically highway robbery, but I'm well aware that xPeke wouldn't just give away his players for no reason; plus, he did manage to pick up the ever-strong Forg1ven in Zven's stead. While G2 definitely did win in this deal, it's not as is OG lost. However, a lot of people are wondering why anyone would ever let a prize such as Zven go; it could be along similar lines to SK Gaming giving up Forgv1en. Or, maybe Ocelote was able to offer a more lucrative contract (the appeal of being on the winning team alone is a draw).

Next, let's look at Yellowstar. This is very much similar to the Rekkles return, and we should expect great things from the Fnatic roster. I'm not saying we're going to see a 54-point season from the boys in black and gold, but this is definitely a team that has filled in a huge liability from the previous season: nobody can replace Yellowstar on Fnatic. On the reverse side of the coin, Team Solo Mid has been struggling to find a way to glue their star-studded roster together. Big names and high expectations were drowned in growing pains and lack of synergy. Yes, TSM brought it together for the playoffs, but with the layout of the current NA LCS looking so strong and TSM still looking uncertain, it's doubtful that this roster is going to find itself whole. We may see TSM changing supports once or twice before the season is over. Regi is not going to be a happy camper this season.

Next on the itenerary is an interesting case; FC Schalke 04 Esports owns the old Elements roster with an upgrade from Eika to Fox. Let's state the obvious upfront: Fox was fantastic on UOL in the Spring. He was lackluster previously on SK Gaming, but in his 2016 form, Fox will better for the team in the long-run. So, why is this such a huge win? It actually has very little to do with the individual upgrade as it does with the owner of the team. Elements was a mess and looking to sell for a while; as an organization "Froggen and Friends" just didn't mesh well ever since Worlds 2014. In comes a name, and this isn't just some investor. Here's a little bit of trivia about the name "Schalke 04"; the "04" is the founding year: 1904. This soccer-centered organization has been around for over 100 years; that speaks for itself. This organization knows how to handle players of all sorts of sports, too, and train them appropriately. Sure, E-Sports isn't a traditional sport and needs to be handled uniquely, but the general attitudes toward and treatment of professional players is there and grounded. That is an advantage that no other team has. The players may not be what we would call "stars", but they have all had stints as professional players before, the only real greenhorn being Sprottel. This team will perform well early and may set a trend in organizational skills.

Apex has announced a 10-man roster. We've seen this before with Team Liquid, and that did not exactly come to fruition. We'll likely see a thinner roster, at most a rotating 7-man roster with two flex options. Keane will definitely be a weapon since he's fantastic in single-game scenarios due to his odd champ pool and counter-oriented picks while Shiphtur bears the brunt of the current meta picks. Since his residency is now NA, this frees up the two slots for the other roles. Both junglers are imports, leaving the ADC and Top variable based on each other. If Roar plays, then Cris must play; if Ray plays, then Apollo must play. We'll likely see this evolve over the course of the split, and I'm looking forward to what they decide to settle on. A jungler and support will be determined by the early-middle season and locked in, but we will definitely see Apex utilizing their current mid situation to the fullest.

Counter Logic Gaming won big in the off-season due to the silencing of critics at the Mid Season Invitational. It was wonderful seeing the underdog story of NA come alive and propel them to the Finals. Stixxay stepped up; Xmithie made clutch plays; Aphromoo practically defined the meta; Darshan looked super comfortable on tanks. The only real "liability" was Huhi in the mid lane, but he still was able to keep himself in the game against the best in the world. Could the NA success be a result of the tabboo term sand-bagging and throws? Of course this could be a possibility considering G2's attitude going into MSI, but against SKT, FW, and RNG, I really doubt that there was an attitude problem going into the event. The only teams we may point to having issues at MSI would be G2's "vacation" meme mentality and SKT's initial struggles. Teams can compete with the "EVER"-strong Korean scene, but it's going to take a lot to fell the giants. CLG showed that NA can compete, though, and this is a huge mark on the organization moving forward with the confidence in their players.

Why would I say that Immortals won in the off-season? Well, they didn't change their roster, of course. They went 17-1 (everyone's driven this into the ground), and only stumbled against TSM in the Semi-Finals. If they can refocus and play with meta shifts in mind, then they will be a top team once again.

Cloud 9 is an interesting case. They brought in Impact, and they returned Bunny and Meteos to the roster. The main roster isn't the big winner, though. The LCS roster that C9 has announced is going to have some growing pains, as are most other squads who are bringing in/back players. Impact is an upgrade to Balls, and we'll see if Meteos and Bunny can breathe fresh life to the team compared to Rush and Hai. This experiment didn't go so well in the past, but we'll see if it'll work out this time. However, the biggest winner will be the Challenger team. Just think about it for a second: Balls, Rush, Hai, Altec, and Lemon. That's their CHALLENGER team. That could easily pass as a mid-tier NA LCS team. They may go undefeated in the NACS, and then C9 will have more resources since they will just sell their 2nd NALCS slot to someone else. This is a boon for C9, even if we don't necessarily see them at Worlds this year. Their organization is growing, and they have the dedicated players to make it happen.

Finally, let's talk about mythical creatures. The Unicorns of Love lost the off-season fairly convincingly. They lost Steelbach, who many times just hard-carried the team in Spring; they lost Fox, who was a stable mid laner to fall back on and be a threat. They are even changing junglers /again/ (despite it being an upgrade from Loulex). On paper, it seems fine. They're upgrading to the former Gravity Korean jungle star Move, but they're bringing in Exileh and Veritas. Both of these are big question marks on performance, and that's a scary thing. Sure, UOL still has the pillars of Vizicsacsi and Hylissang, but this roster is going to need longer than other teams to gel together and develop their talent in their carry roles.

Now that the off-season changes have been looked at, we can take a better look at how the Leagues could shape up.

NA LCS Spring 2016 Season IMT, CLG, C9, TL, NRG, TSM, FOX, REN (NVY), DIG (APX), TIP (PH1) Current League Points CLG: 90; TSM: 70; IMT: 50; TL: 30; C9: 10; NRG: 10.

NA LCS Summer 2016 Season Predictions CLG, IMT, TSM, C9, NVY, TL, FOX, APX, NRG, PH1 NA LCS Summer 2016 Playoff Predictions CLG, IMT, C9, TSM, TL, NVY

NA LCS Gauntlet Predicted Seedings TSM, C9, TL, NVY NA LCS Gauntlet Predictions C9, TSM, NVY, TL

NA Worlds Representatives CLG, IMT, C9

CLG Keys: Maintain a high-class ability both to play the map as they've shown in Spring and team fight as they've shown at MSI. They need to continue to define the meta and not be afraid to continue bringing out new champions and strategies. IMT Keys: Keep an eye on the meta, especially the things that CLG brings out. IMT will need to continue to bring their team together as a unit moreso than before. Knowing their limits should be priority in the mentality of the IMT camp. C9 Keys: Breed the Meteos-Bunny combo to be as efficient at leading the team together at least partially as good as Hai did. Meteos needs to perform to keep C9 in contention. NVY Keys: Seraph and Ninja. Procxin will need to perform huge or be threatened with the bench. TL Keys: Moon needs to control the game better than Dardoch ever did, and Lourlo needs to step up moreso as a solid player. Fenix has been declining, as well, so he will need to be brought back up. FOX Keys: Froggen-7th memes aside, to make playoffs, the new "Froggen and Friends" needs to come together behind their jungler and play to their strengths. KFO and Hard need to be the early game stars to enable Froggen and Keith. That's the secret sauce to the success of this team. APX Keys: They need to decide on a roster quickly and come together behind the fantastic abilities of Diamondprox. The leadership of Xpecial and the shenanigans of a potential mid lane swap will make the middle of the table a close race. NRG Keys: This feels like a piece-mealed team of "rejects". For this team to do anything beyond going back to relegation, OHQ is going to have to put this team on his back. GBM has been effective, but the mid lane competition is growing, and Santorin is going to feel squeezed in the jungle by just about every team but TL, NVY, and PH1. PH1 Keys: Gate's team is here, and there's little hope with competent players on other teams. PH1 will likely be a dead last ala TDK Summer 2015 and destined for relegation by about the 7th week. I don't see much promise with this line-up, but in order for them to perform well in the season, they will need to focus on getting Mash ahead and falling in line behind him, Pirean being a facilitating mid laner instead of a hard carry. That...or they need to play hyper aggressive and overcome their weaknesses with overwhelming play.

EU LCS Spring 2016 Season G2, H2K, VIT, OG, UOL, FNC, EL, SPY, ROC, GIA Current League Points G2: 90; OG: 70; FNC: 50; H2K: 30; VIT: 10; UOL: 10.

EU LCS Summer 2016 Season Predictions G2, H2K, FNC, OG, S04, VIT, UOL, ROC, SPY, GIA EU LCS Summer 2016 Playoff Predictions FNC, G2, OG, H2K, S04, VIT

EU LCS Gauntlet Predicted Seedings OG, H2K, VIT, S04 EU LCS Gauntlet Predictions H2K, OG, VIT, S04

EU Worlds Representatives FNC, G2, H2K

G2 Keys: Rely on the new bot lane to carry hard. Kikis is a rock in the top lane; Trick and Perkz are monsters. This is a straight-forward case, and they just need to stop Fnatic's potential late-season run. H2K Keys: Freeze is a fantastic player and can ALMOST be considered an upgrade. Now that he has a strong team behind him, he can shine potentially brighter than Forg1ven. Ryu needs to play strong and confident, but Odo needs to lead the team late in the season to prevent another 4th place finish. OG Keys: Veteran player abound, this team has a lot of strength, and they need to give Forg1ven and Soaz chances to carry games. Yes, POE is a great player, but Amazing needs to enable Soaz to carry moreso than our beloved former Unicorn. S04 Keys: The organization alone will make them strong early in the season, and they need to continue to improve mechanically to be in contention in the playoffs. VIT Keys: They are going to have some SERIOUS growing pains since KaSing is dealing with two brand new synergies in ADC-SUP and JNG-SUP, arguably the two most necessary synergies in the game for success. They need to break down any language barrier quickly and develop fast; they middle of the pack is going to be VERY close from 4th on down to 8th. Cabochard will need to carry hard early in the season to give them a playoff berth. UOL Keys: The Unicorns are bringing in a fresh jungle and two brand new carries. Vizi and Hyli have their work cut out for them to bring this team out of relegation. However, I don't doubt that they have the ability to bring synergy around just in time to drag them out of the 8th-place slot. They have a chance to make playoffs, but they are going to be hounded by the hungry ROCCAT at every step, and Vitality is still a strong team, despite their potential early-season struggles. ROC Keys: I still can't believe ROCCAT acquired Steelbach. Rely on his monstrous ability to carry the game while getting Airwacks to enable Betsy. I'm not certain on Parang, but he will be the reason ROC makes playoffs or falls into relegation. SPY Keys: EU is regrowing this split, and Splyce may not find a way to get out of the relegation zone. Giants will likely pick up games here and there near the bottom, as well, so this is going to be a photo finish for every team around them. Mikyx needs to acclimate quickly, and the Splyce players from last split are going to need to up their game, else they risk another relegation tournament, which is looking more and more likely as the other teams look even stronger in the second half. How Splyce performs in the first couple weeks will determine their fate. GIA Keys: It must have been hard getting rid of xPepii, but this roster does not look particularly strong, especially considering S0NSTAR and Maxlore. Giants have their work cut out for them, and I wish them the best to utilize their fresh players to their fullest. Their situation is a little more dire than Splyce to take games early off the likes of VIT and UOL. It's vital that they try to force 1-point finishes in these weeks to come.