NA LCS Week 1 Winners and Losers

With the first week of NA LCS completed let’s take a look and the winner and losers of this week and what needs to happen to shake things up.

Grand Winner

Immortals

With an incredible showing in both their games ending up 2-0, including an incredible and perfect game (actually more of a slaughter) versus Team Impulse, Immortals are by far the winners of the week. However only playing against two slightly weaker teams in NA means that the new squad still has a few more tests to see if they are at the level they are considered to be at or just an equal skilled team to the other contenders for the cup. This makes their games next week versus Team Solo Mid and NRG esports lineup to be important wins and extremely hype games. So be prepared to answer the question “Are Immortals Persians or Gods?”

Winners

NRG Esports

NRG Esports is a team of veterans, a team that has amazing raw talent and potential. Going 2-0 is great validity for the squad besting Dignitas with amazing Viktor steals by GBM and what seemed to be strong teamwork. Then beating Renegades on the back of great teamfighting and more teamwork. For a new team full of strong Koreans and highly regarded NA players this seems to be an important step in their progress to being top tier. This makes next week vesus Immortals to be one of the most important matches of the split for this squad.

CLG

Counter Logic Gaming in the off-season had the two most controversial roster swaps losing solo queue legend Pobelter who signed to the now dominating Immortals and benching all-star carry Doublelift who instantly joined the TSM super squad; in exchange CLG picked up Huhi their secondary Mid Laner full time and their sub AD Carry Stixxay who was unproven and deemed weak. However after a week of play the CLG squad showed their mechanics and roster are still top tier beating their rivals TSM. However, after failing to beat Dignitas we must call the teamwork of the squad into question which will be a great question going forward in the season.

Renegades

Renegades consists of quite an interesting lineup, a mixture of Old Dogs and fresh blood. They showed strong this week crushing Team Liquid in the early game before failing to close out the game until after a marathon of a game had passed. Then day 2 they lost to NRG Esports in a game that could have gone either way. The team shows potential to be mid tier in NA if Freeze and Remi can prove to be a strong bot lane and the team can use the supportive nature of Crumbz and his stash of wards to allow RF to be a split pusher and Alex to do what he does best, stomp teamfights.

Dignitas

Dignitas is the most bland LCS team this split consisting of a mash up of players that have almost nothing special to hype themselves up. We saw that in their first game versus NRG Esports where they seemed to fall apart at the seams in a game that was theirs. However day 2 versus Counter Logic Gaming was a very strong game for Dignitas where they looked to be a strong team. This is reminiscent of their performance at IEM where the team had moments of brilliance but ultimately failed. With a few more games we will truly see if Dignitas managed to find a way to the top or if they will go back to the middle of the pack.

Losers

TSM

Team Solo Mid the super team failed. The team who managed to pick some of the greatest talent open to them lacks teamwork it is as simple as that. Against their rival Counter Logic Gaming Yellowstar seemed to not be able to shot call and Hauntzer was struck with the curse of Dyrus giving up first blood to Darshan. This team need to get it together. Without the shotcalling of Yellowstar or the stability of knowing that their carry lanes can be set up for success this roster is destined to fail.  Next week will begin the true tests either the team shakes off their slow start or they fall apart even more and the super team becomes a super failure. 

Cloud 9

Cloud 9 has proving to do opting to keep top laner Balls and picking up BunnyFufu and Rush from Gravity they must show that the team can function without Hai’s shotcalling that brought the team out of the grave and into worlds last season. That includes Balls showing why he wasn’t benched. To Cloud 9’s credit this week they had to play Immortals and they beat Echo Fox however the team needs to do more. Rush needs to go off, and Bunny needs to lead the team to victory or the team will end up relegated this split. 

Liquid

Poor Liquid one of the 2-0 teams this week. For a team with 10 players they seem to have no clue which ones to play. Failing to beat a sloppy Team Solo Mid and a newly formed Renegades. To add to the suffering Piglet was a beast in both games rocking massive KDA’s, but continually got picked off costing his team the game. The team needs to talk and figure out who is playing throwing random challenger players onto the LCS stage will not help the team. And we have to ask the question if your all-star can’t carry who can?

Echo Fox

Beating Team Impulse is no feat and losing your other game against Cloud 9 is just as bad. Echo Fox might as well be 0-2 this week they have shown nearly nothing and look to be a weak team going into the future. Possibly if Keith and Froggen manage they can break away from the bottom of the pack however that’s where they will most likely stay. Honestly this team is on the list of bottom 3 and will most likely stay there unless a miracle occurs.

Biggest Loser

Team Impulse

Expect Team Impulse to stay here a majority of the season they are 0-2, got stomped and have no extraordinary players. Sadly they most likely will be free wins for whichever teams play them and will be expected to place 10th. Personally I feel no need to talk about them considering their weaknesses will continue this way and they will be a non-factor all split.