This week of North American LCS was full of action as we saw the implementation of Ekko on this patch along with a few new champions coming onto the rift. Ekko finally hit the Fields of Justice in style as he was used in many roles this week. It seems the use of Ekko can be very versatile and unpredictable. His mobility, crowd control and sustainability makes him an excellent pick in the jungle as Team Liquid showed in their game on Saturday. His prowess in the solo lanes was also shown with picks from TSM and CLG. Zionspartan brought him into the top lane on Saturday versus their opponent and TSM’s Bjergsen added yet another addition to his pool with his Ekko pick on Sunday against TDK.

 

Ekko went undefeated this week though Ekko was hardly the reason for all of those wins. Though Ekko is a very strong pick as a melee AP assassin, Ekko seems to have a little trouble against team compositions with high crowd control. We saw this in the TSM vs. TDK game where Bjergsen would go in for a kill and would be unable to use his ultimate to stay alive due to the combos from TDK with Annie, Malphite and Gragas being able to keep him controlled for long enough to be bursted down. His high sustain is unable to be used in these instances and ignite of course would be something to use against this powerful assassin.

 

Another interesting event that occurred this week was Bard being seen in better numbers. We saw this last week in the infamous rivalry game of TSM vs. CLG when Lustboy picked the Wandering Caretaker to take down CLG. Though this week is more than just one game Bard found himself on the rift. Lustboy’s counterpart, Aphromoo picked him up for both of their games this week and made a very strong argument for why this should be banned against him. Aphromoo was one of the reasons CLG came away this week 2-0 and tied for first. With his ability to blow flashes and make picks with his ultimates, Aphromoo created situations in favor of CLG many times to give them the victory.

 

We saw this week that Bard is actually able to be played in many different styles. The intricacies of his kit allow him to be used for many things which allows him to be featured in many different team combinations. Lustboy showed Bard’s ability to be used as a support good at team fighting landing double Cosmic Bindings time and time again to create an advantage for his team. His high early-game sustain from his Caretaker’s Shrine creates good lane pressure and a good way to position teammates for team fights. His Magical Journey ability also gives Bard a good escape or ability for quick ganks on any lane through walls. As Aphromoo displayed in their game against NME esports, his ultimate can be used to create favorable situations for a team or even to create picks where you can pick off enemy team members. I hope we see both of these champions more and more as the split continues as they both created large impacts in the matches they were featured in.

 

This week in the matches we saw only CLG and Team Liquid go 2-0 to be the only teams fighting for first place. CLG proved they weren’t the same team as last split by winning both of their games and not going into a downward spiral after their loss to TSM last week. Even CLG’s Aphromoo noticed they weren’t the same team this split as he told the Rivingtonthe3rd people weren’t giving up after the loss and their coaching has kept them focused.

 

Team Liquid also came back this week after going 1-1 last week bringing back their dominating performance against the likes of Cloud 9 and Team Impulse. Both games were amazing performances by the boys in white and showed that every position is a force to be reckoned with. IWillDominate used Ekko in the jungle against Cloud 9 to beat down their opposers and help win their team the game with superior ganks. The most notable part of the powerful squad is their teamwork. This week and the weeks before their team-work seemed to put them far in front of their enemies. After going 2-0 this week, these teams are regarded as the best in North America. We shall see if they can keep up the trend as Team Liquid squares off against TSM and Team Dignitas next week, while CLG goes up against Cloud 9 and TDK.

 

Two teams also played to a subpar quality this week as they went 0-2 at the end of the week. These teams were TDK and NME esports. Both happened in an unfortunate fashion. TDK played yet another game with two substitute players on their team. They were supposed to go into this week with a full roster but due to unforeseeable circumstances, played with Bischu and Lattman in their lineup once again. They almost came away with their first win against TSM on Sunday due to very sloppy play from the Esports veterans of TSM but could not prevail in the end and on Saturday Team Impulse was able to show up and take the victory from them in a convincing fashion. Hopefully TDK gets their full roster for next week as we near the middle of the split, it will be difficult to be competitive at this point but at least they would get out of relegation.

 

The other team, NME esports, was unable to find a win in two extremely close games against Team 8 and CLG. In both games NME had opportunities to take the game but were unable to capitalize on their advantages giving Team 8 their first victory of the split and CLG the ability to stay tied for first. NME has been playing relatively well for a fresh team in the LCS. Against veterans in the LCS they have shown they deserve their spot but are unable to compete for a top spot in the LCS. Though this is a lot to ask for from a new team, they seem to have a lot of talent on their team. Flaresz is one of the top players on the solo queue ladders and many are saying Trashy could be one of the best Junglers in the LCS. I think in time we will see a lot of good things from this novice team.

 

This week yielded many entertaining matches in North America and I can’t wait for there to be more. With Bard rising in popularity and the release of the AP assassin from Zaun, new strategies are arising and create fun matches to watch. I know I’ll be watching next week to see what happens. I hope you will be to. Don’t miss the action!

   Week 3 NA LCS: The Dawn Of The Caretaker