The fifth week of the League Championship Series is now in the books, but it hardly brought any clarity to the standings in League of Legends’ biggest competition.
In North America, every single team posted a 1-1 record, a testament to just how competitive the teams in the region have become.
Europe, on the other hand, looks a bit different: Alliance lords over their scene with a 10-2 record, while SK Gaming, Millenium, Fnatic, and Supa Hot Crew fight over the next few spots. But a surge from ROCCAT, whose 2-0 record this week put them on a four game win streak, could throw a wrench into the established trends. ROCCAT’s 7.83 KDA was massive this week, a full two kills higher than the next best team, Alliance, and their 5.54 mark.
This was a blast from the past in North America, with traditional top teams Team SoloMid and Cloud9 dominating the MVP rankings. Hai Lam and William “Meteos” Hartman have had disappointing seasons statistically for Cloud9 as the defending champions have struggled, but this week showed that maybe there’s some light at the end of the tunnel. Team SoloMid has also struggled to find the form that ranked them just behind Cloud9 in each of the past two seasons, but they’re starting to come around.
In Europe, Alliance and ROCCAT both put together great weeks, but it was Mimer Ahlstrom’s huge game as a carry Kayle that was the best individual performance of the week, a 13/2/5 game against Copenhagen Wolves for the emerging top lane star.
Lucian dominated champion select, picked in every game this week save two, but with the 4.10 patch now on the live server, nerfing his favored Bloodthirster build, that may be a thing of the past.
One emerging trend to note: game length. Europeans just like to play more League, it seems. This week they averaged 45:47 minutes per game, against only 34:39 for the North Americans. That means European fans got about 32 percent more LCS this week! That’s a massive difference, and it’s a trend that’s borne out through the rest of the season so far.
After this next week we’ll hit the midway point of the LCS season, fourteen games through the twenty-eight match season. And with weeks like this one, where every match is close, what a season it’s been.
