The end of week two is a great time to assess the League Champion Series and find out just where the Summer Split is heading. Each team has faced six of the other seven squads in their region.
One leader emerged from the pack in each region: Dignitas in North America and Alliance in Europe. Both teams are 5-1 and bested their closest challenger last week, LMQ for Dignitas and SK Gaming for Alliance.
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But both regions are hotly contested. Cloud9, LMQ, and Counter Logic Gaming are all packed near the top with 4-2 records. The defending champs, Cloud9 looked like they are returning to their indomitable form when they knocked off LMQ. CLG will have a shot at Dignitas’ crown next week, when they face each other for the first time.
In Europe, SK Gaming and Supa Hot Crew are right behind Alliance at 4-2. Supa Hot Crew emerged as contenders by building off a solid 2-2 Super Week, taking out two easier teams in matches they should win.
With only three spots in the World Championships available for each region, it’s no surprise things are so competitive.
Fnatic and Team SoloMid are the two most storied teams in their regions, but both are 3-3 and languishing in the middle of the table. TSM posted an 0-2 record this week, revealing a team that’s struggling to find their identity after two roster changes. Fnatic looked good against Millenium, but lost a confusing game against a weakened Gambit Gaming. They’ll both need to pick things up to continue their streaks of appearances at worlds.
Dignitas was easily the team of the week in NA. They completely destructed LMQ, picking apart the previously undefeated eam and dominating the match about as well as you possibly can. Darshan “ZionSpartan” Upadhyaya, the team’s new top laner, and their long-time marksman Michael “Imaqtpie” Santana took home deserving MVP honors. After Super Week, the two received criticism for their average stat lines despite the team’s 3-1 record. This week, Dignitas proved they can win with a variety of styles and players performing well.
Upadhyaya posted a 5/0/14 KDA mark with 60.71 percent kill participation, a key stat for him considering team fighting was his weakness when he joined Dignitas. Santana was the Spring Split’s biggest carry as he took the highest percentage of kills of any player in the LCS, and this week he returned to that form with a 11/1/12 KDA mark.
In Europe, Supa Hot Crew had two easy matches. And they took full advantage of them. Mimer Ahlström , Marcin “Selfie” Wolski, and Bram “WeWillFailer” de Winter are now all the top players statistically at their positions.
The most interesting stat of the week, though, may be the Red versus Blue numbers. In Europe, Red won six of eight matches, while going even in North America. That’s a far cry from what our analysis of the matchup in past seasons discovered, but its a definite trend through two weeks this season.
Next week we’ll see some more prime matches. Counter Logic Gaming has a chance to take the top spot in the league with Cloud9 and Dignitas on the docket. But they could also plummet to 4-4. In Europe, Supa Hot Crew finds themselves in a similar situation. Wins against Alliance and Fnatic could catapult them into first, but they could be revealed as pretenders instead of contenders.
Illustration by Jason Reed
