NA LCS week five power rankings

We now know that NA > EU. Where do things stand at mid-split within the region?
Photo via [Riot Games](https://www.flickr.com/photos/lolesports/35413243600/)

Immortals technically stayed on top of the power rankings for two weeks, since there was a break for Rift Rivals last week.

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But boy, have they fallen. Going 0-2 in week five will do that. So will TSM’s dominant performance at Rift Rivals. Our writers took that into consideration, since TSM and Phoenix1 looked so good.

Without further ado, the rankings heading into the second half of the Summer Split.

10) Team Liquid, -1 (5 points)

Well, we’re right back where we started. Liquid started the split in last place, picked a few votes here and there, even surpassing FlyQuest after week four. But it was disappointing to see them lose yet another winnable match against Echo Fox in week five. Yes, Echo Fox is better than them right now, but at some point, Liquid needs to pick up some unexpected wins to make any moves in the rankings.

Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin gave them a lead with a bot lane gank. Grayson “Goldenglue” Gillmer, back in the lineup at mid lane, was staying even with Froggen. But a boneheaded play by Reignover around Baron—he died without flash—gave Echo Fox control of that objective. Echo Fox is horrible at taking Baron—why give them that opening at all?

Liquid is playing better. But for now, they’re unanimous at last place.

9) FlyQuest, +1 (12 points)

FlyQuest surprisingly went 2-0 before the break, beating both Dignitas and Echo Fox. They have a couple easy matchups against Liquid this week and EnVy next week to see if they can get back into contention.

ADC Jason “WildTurtle” Tran has been popping off for them. He still leads the region in deaths, but last weekend, died only 10 times in 6 games. Keeping him alive is a huge focus for the team in the late game.

8) Echo Fox, -1 (15 points)

Echo Fox still falls apart at key moments, but the win over Liquid was enough to preserve their place in the standings. Henrik “Froggen” Hansen has somehow increased his lead in damage-per-minute. A few Corki games and an insane Malzahar game, in which he did over 1k dpm, helped. And they even successfully pulled off a Baron bait!

7) Team EnVyUs, -1 (24 points)

Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik was back in the lineup at mid lane in week five, and after taking a game to re-acclimate to the stage, went off against Dignitas. Still, it’s strange to see the team move so quickly between Pirean and newcomer Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer from Europe. This is not a team that will really contend for a title—why not see what you have in the younger player?

There’s a possibility that, with the coming of a franchised league on the horizon, EnVy will be under pressure to perform well this split to solidify their potential spot in that league.

6) Team Dignitas, -1 (27 points)

Dignitas could have fallen further after a 0-2 week if not for weaker performances in the spots below them. But the goodwill they accrued through a hot start is nearly all gone. Johnny “Altec” Ru is an improvement over the slumping Benjamin “LOD” deMunck, but isn’t really a top-tier LCS ADC himself.

5) Phoenix1, +3 (29 points)

The phoenix metaphors are too easy with this team, and their play had steadily increased in the weeks leading up to Rift Rivals, even if series wins remained rare. But this team showed up in Europe and played the best we’ve seen from them in months.

Last split’s MVP, No “Arrow” Dong-hyeon is looking better. But the key has been the resurgence of the team’s other Korean, mid laner Yoo “Ryu” Sang-ook. Ryu wasn’t the best mid laner at Rift Rivals, but he did pressure his lane and fought well when Phoenix1 wanted to dive mid. And he gave jungler Mike Yeung access to the opposing jungler. Ryu’s ascendance is what really helped the team rise at the end of last split. Can he pull off the same trick again?

4) Cloud9, no change (34 points)

Cloud9’s record at Rift Rivals was disappointing, but they actually played well in the early game. Young players Juan “Contractz” Garcia and Andy “Smoothie” Ta really showed the world how good they can be. But the late game shot calling once again came back to bite them. They did beat TSM the week before, but look a ways off from the regional leaders now.

3) Immortals, -2 (40 points)

Immortals took a big step back in a crucial week, losing to both TSM and Phoenix1. In retrospect, Phoenix1 were on an upswing and are regaining their spring form. But giving over Nidalee to Mike Yeung in the last two games can’t happen. They left it up and got away in the first game, but Mike Yeung deserves the respect of the Nidalee ban at this point.

2) CLG, +1 (47 points)

Week five was a bloodbath among top teams. TSM went down to Cloud9 at the start of the week and Immortals lost to TSM. They took care of business against Cloud9 to give themselves a great shot at the number one ranking and a week break during Rift Rivals.

Instead, TSM dominated Rift Rivals to such a degree that we couldn’t help but put them atop the standings. This is an LCS ranking, but we’d be foolish not to use the information we learned at Rift Rivals. And what we learned is that TSM is playing at a very high level.

1) TSM, +1 (48 points)

TSM were quite clearly the strongest team at Rift Rivals. Their practice on a number of different comps is paying off, and the return of Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng has resulted in cleaner map movements and engages. Doublelift still gets caught in side lanes, but more often than not, TSM are ready to take something cross-map.

They’re also playing really well around Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, especially when they use him as a form of engage. Their all-in teamfights have become cleaner over the last month as a result.

The question is, with the top-ranked team regularly going down, how long can TSM maintain their hold on this spot?


Photos via Riot Games Flickr, Match stats from EsportsWikis, player and team stats from Games of Legends and Oracle’s Elixir.


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Author
Xing Li
Xing has been covering League of Legends esports since 2015. He loves when teams successfully bait Baron, hates tank metas, and is always down for creative support picks—AP Malphite, anybody?