At the end of the North American Super Week, Cloud 9 retook the top of the North American table in the League Championship Series. Their repeat win has some notable differences from their first victory last season—notably, being pushed by Team SoloMid. Cloud 9 had no real challenges last year, but TSM stepped up big time and actually led the league for a majority of the season.
The rivalry between these two teams is only going to get more intense as they vie for the gold in the playoffs next week. For now, Cloud 9 have the clear lead, with a 4-0 record for the week along with the highest GPM. If TSM wants to close the gap, they’ll definitely have to address how they ended up fifth in income.
Other stories from the LCS Spring Split wrap up with much less fanfare. XDG, whose midseason roster antics left nobody satisfied, end with a 7-21 record and another week with the worse gold income. Evil Geniuses have showed some promise in avoiding relegation. That was thanks partially to Tyson “Innox” Kapler, whose 16 kills and 2 deaths over the final week show some major improvement. He joined the team as filler just before the season began, but has clearly made his case as a team leader in recent weeks.
North America’s champion picks have remained largely similar throughout the season, with Thresh and marksmen like Lucian played as much as possible. Bans, however, have changed drastically, mostly focused on middle lane champions like Lulu, LeBlanc and Kha’Zix, with no Kassadin in sight. Champion picks should remain similar throughout the playoffs, but things might change up with international competition in May at All-Stars Paris.
