This week’s North American League Championship Series saw some of the most hyped rematches of the split. Including games between Gravity and Team SoloMid, Cloud 9 vs. Team Liquid and TSM vs. TDK. This week saw some of the closest and most explosive games of the season due to the massive improvement of many of the teams.

 

The match between Cloud 9 and Team Liquid was a very hyped game because of the roster switch Cloud 9 made just a couple days before. Jungler Will “Meteos” Hartman stepped down from the team to make room for ex-Cloud 9 mid-laner Hai “Hai” Lam. Hai took over in the jungle this week with very little experience to boot. Hai previously played jungle a few seasons ago on Quantic Gaming. Cloud 9 thought this would be a good move in order for the team to use an experienced shotcaller again since Hai was their key to victory last split before his retirement. As the game began, you could see glints of Cloud 9’s old self but as the face-off reached late mid-game, their teamwork and shotcalling seemed to fall apart. A late baron throw arguably cost Cloud 9 the game and Team Liquid emerged victorious.

 

Cloud 9 saw a rough week this week facing yet another 0-2 week to put them just two games ahead of last place’s TDK. With more practice, Cloud 9 could see a victory next week though against the slumping Team Dignitas or even the hot Team Gravity. The team looks hopeful to retrieve a victory with a little more practice as Hai dusts off his shotcalling prowess.

 

TDK was a very hyped team this week after their massive improvement when they implemented their full roster. TSM also saw some media attention this week as they switched out Jason “WildTurtle” Tran for Yuri “KEITH” Jew. In the early game, TDK applied massive pressure against the TSM bottom lane with a great number of jungle ganks giving their AD Carry the advantage to carry over into mid game. TDK looked to be in control for most of the game until Bjergsen’s unpunished Runeglaive Ezreal ramped up to do massive poke damage to give TSM the fights they wanted. At the end of the game, Ezreal became too powerful and TDK ultimately saw their demise.

 

Gravity fought for their spot to tie first place on Sunday as they faced off against the top team TSM. In their last matchup, Gravity won the early and most of the mid game until their shotcalling broke down to give the victory over to TSM. Coming into this game though, Gravity was looking to be a much improved team with a victory over CLG on Saturday. The game began and TSM looked to not stand a chance. Gravity applied pressure in all the right places mirroring TSM’s every move in the early game. Move played his unique sight stone Nidalee to give a great vision lead to Gravity which allowed for large capitalizations to be made by taking all of Bjergsen’s early game blue buffs. During this time, Keane also punished Bjergsen’s play of Runeglaive Ezreal by ultimately counterpicking him with a mid-lane Jarvan IV pick. Bjergsen saw a rare loss in the farming game as they hit mid-game. In the mid game, TSM had just 2 kills and had not taken a single Dragon. Every teamfight TSM tried to fight ended in a loss and at the end of the game, TSM could do nothing to prevent their loss to the up and coming Team Gravity.

 

Gravity seems to be one of the most improved teams in the league. Having come from a team that only made it into the LCS because of an expansion of the league, to a team that is now fighting for first place with veteran team, TSM. Each lane is performing at an all-time high and most lead the league in damage and or farming. BunnyFufuu, just beginning his role as shotcaller this split, shows great promise to become one of the best shotcallers the LCS has ever seen.

 

Overall, this week’s LCS continued the trend of exciting games and improving teams. Many of the spots in the league are still being fought over so late in the split. We hope that some day we will have a first place that is claimed by just one team. Until then, we have much to look forward to in the weeks to come.

   NA LCS Week 6