Mid-Split LCK Power Rankings

Mid-Split LCK Power Rankings

As we slip past week three and into the start of week four of the LCK 2015 spring season, we’ve begun to see the general skills of each team in the league. All eight teams have now played four sets in the season so far, and there’s enough film to allow us to guess where the participants stack up against each other. This is a ranking on where I think the teams fall on the table considering only current form. I do take into account strength of opposition played as well as momentum on this list. LCK is only entering its fourth week, so most of the power rankings will still be similar to the actual rankings. This is unavoidable from lack of games played, but there’s still plenty of room to debate. First off I will put my rankings in order, and then give a brief run down on why I placed each team where I chose.

1. GE Tigers

2. SK Telecom T1

3. CJ Entus

4. NaJin e-mFire

5. Jin Air Green Wings

6. Incredible Miracle

7. KT Rolster

8. Samsung Galaxy

1. GE Tigers: 4-0 (8-1)

(2-0 win vs Incredible Miracle)

(2-0 win vs Samsung Galaxy)

(2-1 win vs Jin Air Green Wings)

(2-0 win vs CJ Entus)

MVP Points: Lee (400), Smeb (200), kurO (100), PraY (100)

After the preseason we kind of knew that there was something good building here, but it’s a bit of a surprise that they got off to such a good start. Granted they started off with two of arguably the worst teams, and haven’t played any of the preseason top three, but quality wins over CJ Entus and Jin Air are convincing enough for top spot three weeks through. There is still a lot of resume building left on their schedule, but at this point it’s pretty clear they will make top four come the time the first split ends. You could make a case that Lee might be the best jungler playing in all of Korea right now, his Jarvan and Lee Sin being very bright spots for the former Black Sword player.  However, as of now it’s really been a clean team effort for GE. All five players on the roster were in the top two in KDA for their position as of week two, which could be the result of having a team full of very good laning players. For now GE has shown impressive play and sits first place on the LCK table, but they have tough sets ahead that will show how for real they are.

2. SK Telecom T1: 3-1 (6-3)

(2-1 win vs NaJin e-mFire)

(0-2 defeat vs CJ Entus)

(2-0 win vs KT Rolster)

(2-0 win vs Incredible Miracle)

MVP Points: Faker (200), Easyhoon (200), Bang (100), Wolf (100)

 The winners of preseason have found decent success with their first four sets of LCK Spring. This team is a bit more spread in terms of what they can do because of the amount of substitutions used in every single set, as they have yet to field the exact same roster in back to back games this whole season. Most of the subbing is the every other game swap of Faker and Easyhoon, but as of the two most recent sets, Wolf has been switching out with the more aggressive Piccaboo at support. Aside from a shock 0-2 to CJ Entus week one, SK Telecom has been looking quite dominant in most of their games, and usually end up snowballing whichever mid laner is in for that game. Bengi has shown to be a bit more aggressive than in previous seasons, which has helped out all the lanes. Overall this team still gives the impression it might be at the peak in LCK, but taking into account the 6-3 game record, second is probably deserved.

3. CJ Entus: 3-1 (6-4)

(2-0 win vs SK Telecom T1)

(2-1 win vs NaJin e-mFire)

(2-1 win vs KT Rolster)

(0-2 defeat vs GE Tigers)

MVP Points: CoCo (300), Ambition (100), Shy (100), Space (100)

Probably the biggest surprise of the season so far is the sudden dynamic play of CJ Entus. They looked a shell of their former glory in the preseason, but given a few weeks of practice and now we have a potential powerhouse on our hands. The most impressive part of this three week run is that they have done so well against all four of the top finishers in the preseason. Space has stepped up his game immensely from previous seasons, and Ambition’s switch to jungle has been much less painful than most expected. Still, the biggest stars right now are CoCo and Shy, both of whom have been incredible three weeks in. Even with a giant list of substitute players on their roster, they’ve yet to need to resort to using them after such promising play. While the lanes have been doing well, the shot-calling of CJ Entus is what I think has improved the most, as they have proven to be quite good at taking trades on objectives. With the hard part of the schedule out of the way, I expect to see CJ Entus entering the break in the top 4.

4. NaJin e-mFire: 1-3 (4-6)

(1-2 defeat vs SK Telecom)

(2-0 win vs KT Rolster)

(1-2 defeat vs CJ Entus)

(0-2 defeat vs Jin Air Green Wings)

MVP Points: Duke (300), Ohq (100)

It’s been a tough start of the season for NaJin e-mFire with games against three of the current top four in the LCK standings. That still isn’t much of an excuse for the reason from the drop off from preseason to now. The only set win to their name after three weeks of play is a week 1 sweep of a rather bad KT Rolster side. The biggest underperformer at the moment is Ggoong who was considered an elite mid laner entering the split. He has had very differing results game to game, sometimes a carry, and sometimes a nonfactor. The support position also seems to be a big question mark as Cain and Pure continue to battle to be the starter. When NaJin e-mFire has looked at their best is when Watch has managed to be enough of a factor to influence the mid lane and help Ggoong. On the plus side Duke has put in some very good games from the top lane. Also Ohq has cemented himself as an elite marksman player in Korea for the time being, and with some good team play, looks the part. Considering the quality of the roster, we know there’s plenty of room for improvement. NaJin’s schedule does get a bit lighter for the remaining three weeks of the split, but there’ll need to show some improvement to take full advantage.

5. Jin Air Green Wings: 2-2 (6-5)

(2-1 win vs Samsung Galaxy)

(1-2 defeat vs GE Tigers)

(2-0 win vs KT Rolster)

(1-2 defeat vs Incredible Miracle)

MVP Points: Chaser (200), GBM (200), Chei (100), Cpt Jack (100),

 The Jin Air Green Wings have been doing quite well for themselves with what was considered to be an average at best roster when the season started. The only sets they’ve lost so far were a 1-2 encounter with the top spot GE Tigers in week two, and a close battle with Incredible Miracle yesterday. Against their other two opponents Jin Air has looked quite solid in all phases of the game, but still quite unimpressive at random times. After the 2-0 of KT Rolster though, it seems like they might be a bit of a contender. GBM has been quality in almost every game, much to the surprise of Jin Air fans, and Chaser has been a real bright spot from the jungle with his ban worthy Jarvan IV. In fact most of the strong Jin Air wins seems to revolve heavily on how Chaser does; if he’s doing well, they are very formidable. For now they are a middle of the pack looking team, but there are still a lot of tough sets on the schedule, so there’s still some uncertainty remaining.

6. Incredible Miracle: 2-2 (4-5)

(0-2 defeat vs GE Tigers)

(2-0 win vs Samsung Galaxy)

(0-2 defeat vs SK Telecom T1)

(2-1 win vs Jin Air Green Wings)

MVP Points: TuSin (100), Lilac (100), Frozen (100), Wisdom (100)

Incredible Miracle was the last place team from preseason, and continues to have a somewhat bleak outlook. They have actually managed two wins, but neither has been against top four teams. Even though they just beat Jin Air, I ranked them lower because there’s still a lot we need to see from this team. It’s honestly even hard to identify clear strengths from this Incredible Miracle team, all of their laners have done well at times, and at other times performed quite abysmally. The most potential is probably from their ability to hold on in lanes, by not falling too far behind early they give themselves a chance to comeback in the mid to late game, and have used this very effectively in their wins. Only one of their losses came before 30 minutes and that was to SK Telecom T1. Sadly it’s going to take a lot more than that to challenge for the top half of the table, but they do have something to build off of. The results to this point tell me this team is somewhere near the bottom and the middle of the pack.

7. KT Rolster: 1-3 (3-6)

(0-2 defeat vs NaJin e-mFire)

(0-2 defeat vs SK Telecom T1)

(1-2 defeat vs CJ Entus)

(2-0 win vs Samsung Galaxy)

MVP Points: Hachani (100), Score (100), Ssumday (100)

It’s easy to press the panic button on KT Rolster, but there are still some signs that this team can still present a challenge for the elite teams. To start they played badly against the top teams, but showed in their last set that they can still dismantle a bad team. Score slowly seems to be looking like the jungler he was in the preseason, and Ssumday and Nagne have shown small improvements in relation. Additionally, Arrow and Hachani are still able to deal with any bot lane in LCK. The problems that KT Rolster has faced are a tough opening schedule, and a track record of bad in game decisions. There likely needs to be some kind of change in how they go about the pick/ban phase so that they have a better chance at preforming in some of these games as well. Still, it’s hard to say that they can turn it around after what we’ve seen. Top four seems a bit out of reach at this point, so seventh place is a solid ranking for now. There’s potential for them to improve, but we are just going to have to wait and see if they can figure something out, because as on now the results are not even close to good enough.

8. Samsung Galaxy: 0-4 (1-8)

(1-2 defeat vs Jin Air Green Wings)

(0-2 defeat vs GE Tigers)

(0-2 defeat vs Incredible Miracle)

(0-2 defeat vs KT Rolster)

MVP Points: Wraith (100)

There’s not much to get excited about for the fans of the new Samsung Galaxy team. The collection of Solo que players and Wraith, showed a bit more promise during the preseason, but that is all but a memory three weeks into the split. It’s just difficult to believe in a team whose one win, an incredibly badly played (but exciting) week one victory against Jin Air Green Wings, is all they have to show. None of the players picked from the ladder have shown enough to make me believe that they might make themselves into a solid LCK player, and Wraith has played poorly even with his own non-standard supports like Sejuani. They do seem capable of good shot calling at times, but have yet to show any real improvements in play. Take this all into account and add onto the fact that they have not played SK Telecom T1 or CJ Entus yet, and it feels safe to say this is currently the worst team in the LCK.