The 2017 NA LCS Spring Split has come and gone, and with that, many awards signalling the appreciation of great players and staff were voted on and presented over the course of the playoffs.

Being a part of the voting panel, I've taken it upon myself to justify my votes and note down my reasoning and context behind each pick given. In my own considerations for each vote is the following criteria: The player's stats over the season, the player's importance to their team, the player's performance relative to their peers, the player's mechanical skill and champion diversity and the player's burden outside of their positional duties (ie. shotcalling).

NA LCS Top Lane votes:

Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho

Hauntzer is the best top laner in a sea of amazing top lane talent that has made its way into the NA LCS this split. In fact, he has more than justified his place as a premier top laner in North America and a good option for North American teams in international competition. He has performed on all types of champions in his position, able to be an efficient frontline for TSM while also being an adept damage dealer through his usage of Camille and Rumble. Anything that his team calls on him to do is in his repertoire, and he is doing this all while assuming the burden of some shotcalling duties for TSM in the absence of Yilang "Doublelift" Peng. While this may make players less focused and perform worse mechanically as a result, Hauntzer has thrived under this system, being in control of his own lane and guiding the team to great effect.

Hauntzer has gone through the fire and flame, and come out of it on top of the tops. Great laning stats, a broad champion pool, 49 more assists than the next best top laner, the highest kill participation of all tops, the second highest CS per minute, the only gold efficient damage share of any top laner, it’s pretty clear that Hauntzer has been performing highly, and not just because he is along for the ride while his team is winning.

NA LCS Jungler votes:

William "Meteos" Hartman Nam "LirA" Tae-yoo Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett

When you think of the All-NA LCS first team, one of the main impacts necessary to observe is performance separate from the team’s. That is to say that it’s important to quantify their success within their position rather than the position of their team. Otherwise, you risk correlating that team’s success with the player’s success itself.

Many wouldn’t have thought that Meteos could have the same impact as Rami "Inori" Charagh initially did, but he quickly shut many critics up and continued stellar play for over half a split. Though only playing 19 matches, the sample size does not detract from his incredible statistics in the NA LCS; which are doubly impressive when you consider how unfavorable the very aggressive meta is for a jungler who was previously considered a “herbivore” and how little he actually played the game at the highest level prior to his return.

The highest damage share of all NA LCS junglers, with the third lowest mid-late game share of gold, a top three first blood rate, the second highest KDA and second highest kill participation. All this while playing fairly unconventional picks — able to bust out Zac and Elise — and retaining a top three position in NA for a roster that was shaken up halfway through. There’s no doubt that Lira has been an absolute monster this split, but Meteos revitalized himself and Phoenix1 through his presence, and earned my vote for NA LCS first team as a result.

NA LCS Mid Lane votes:

Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg Yoo "Ryu" Sang-ook

The contest between the top three mids has been a fairly difficult one, with each one jockeying for position at different points of the season. At the end of it all though, Nicolai “Jensen” Jensen was in my mind just a touch better than Bjergsen. Proportionally, he did more in later game stages, while both had incredible laning and farming numbers. Jensen had access to greater resources through his better farming ability, and did more with those resources than his mid lane counterparts for his team. Being that pivotal to his team with the second-highest kill participation, third highest damage per minute, low team death percentage, the highest CS per minute by almost a full minion, Jensen has also done all this on a vast champion ocean, playing 16 different champions with different levels of utility and carry potential. Having someone as stable and versatile as Jensen in the mid lane has been the catalyst for Cloud9’s overall success

NA LCS AD Carry votes:

Noh "Arrow" Dong-hyeon Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes

When Arrow first came into the United States, I had concerns about his ability to adapt to his new team given the relatively short turnaround time between his arrival and the beginning of the Spring Split. However, he assuaged these very quickly with his adept play and the support of Inori’s hard carry style early on. As the team has changed around him and the meta became more carry-oriented, Arrow took that into stride, with powerful performances alongside Ryu. Having all these amazing stats and play despite playing with three different supports across the entire split helps cement the fact, Arrow is the clear-cut candidate for the best AD carry of the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split.

Arrow boasts the highest damage percentage share of all AD carries in conjunction with positive laning stats. He shines most after 15 minutes, and he also holds the accolade of highest kill participation of all AD carries in the NA LCS. P1 is a team that plays around Arrow effectively, allowing him to deal the necessary damage to win games outright. This is exemplified through his own play on carries without utility such as Ezreal, where his stellar 80 percent win rate with the champion makes it clear that he doesn’t miss the utility-focused meta of the early split.

NA LCS Support votes:

Andy "Smoothie" Ta Adrian "Adrian" Ma Kim "Olleh" Joo-sung

After Cloud9 and Hai “Hai” Lam parted ways, a big question was where the shotcalling burden would fall. Add in the departure of Meteos and the inclusion of Juan “Contractz” Garcia as a rookie jungler with high expectations, and it was reasonable to have concerns about the potential new communication system that C9 would be immersed in and its associated growing pains. However, as Smoothie has taken on the bulk of shotcalling, his stats and play have not faltered in the slightest. Top five in warding, an adept and balanced laner, and the lowest death percentage and highest KDA of all supports, Smoothie has played the ranged support meta the best out of all other supports in NA. He performed to this standard while shotcalling his team to a successful season in the second LCS split of his career, which earned him the first-team spot in my eyes.

2017 NA LCS Spring Split MVP votes:

Hauntzer Arrow Jensen

I look forward to seeing how fans justify Lourlo and Hauntzer’s performance in a world of Korean tops in NA. — MonteCristo (@MonteCristo) December 8, 2016

The inclusion of this tweet isn’t so much an attempt at mocking Monte’s clairvoyance, but rather an example of the general sentiment expressed by most everyone coming into the split. With the loss of Doublelift for the spring split, a greater burden was put onto Hauntzer and Bjergsen as the stable communication base for TSM. No one believed that Hauntzer could thrive with this greater responsibility on his shoulders, and at the same time be asked to lane admirably against the likes of some pretty stellar new top lane imports in Lee "Flame" Ho-jong, Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok and Ssumday; let alone maintain his composure against solid established players such as Impact or Darshan "Darshan" Upadhyaya (form aside). Without this massive ability for Hauntzer to step up and hold his own against this influx of new responsibilities, TSM might have regressed substantially more.

Truth be told, the race really comes down to Haunzter versus Arrow, and even then the decision ought be incredibly close. It's a matter of whether you think Arrow's amazing performances in an early Season 7 meta where we discredited the contributions of ADCs as being pure ultimate-bots or utility-focused make him deserving of being a most valuable player outright. That in combination with his domination over his peers and importance on his team are very clear indicators of someone deserving of the MVP. That he has all this while constantly having different supports to adjust to is a testament to his skill.

Arrow's black marks are obviously the extent of actual competition he faced during the year. The AD carry pool was reduced substantially in talent with the departure and regression of a few key people in the position. Further, his play against teams in the final two weeks soured his candidacy.

Match this against other candidates who have not greatly surpassed their peers despite their impact to their team (e.g. Smoothie, Jensen, or Bjergsen). It’s abundantly clear that Hauntzer and Arrow are not only in the running, but are the front-runners. For me, however, Hauntzer earns this award for the sheer difference in expectation versus reality.

Rookie of the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split:

Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham (Jungler, Echo Fox) Juan "Contractz" Garcia (Jungler, Cloud9) Cody Sun (AD Carry, Immortals)

For all intents and purposes, NA had a very explosive incoming rookie class. However, like most explosions, the players who initially made their mark fizzled as the split went on. Only the late-blooming Cody Sun really found his footing in the second half, whereas other rookies faltered pretty heavily. Contractz smart pathing early in the season made way for poor early game stats overall, while Immortals’ slow start and lack of a bottom lane focus led Cody Sun to have some less than stellar games. Inori, if you count him, also faltered and eventually found himself on the bench. Conversely, William "Stunt" Chen has shown some incredible promise but has an absurdly small sample size that ought to disqualify him from the opportunity.

Akaadian, however, has cemented himself as the rookie of the split for respectable performances across the entire split, and putting up relevant jungle numbers that mirrored his seasoned counterparts. His incredibly high first blood rate and carry performances which involved a very low team death percentage based on his role, as well as good farming and warding. With a more stable bottom lane and the continuation of the viability of high mechanical jungle champions, Akaadian seems poised to be able to continue his good work for Echo Fox and thrive as a main carry alongside Henrik "Froggen" Hansen.

Coach of the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split votes:

Kim "Fly" Sang-chul (Phoenix1) Parth "Parth" Naidu (Team SoloMid) Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu (Cloud9)

Phoenix1’s complete turnaround from a bottom feeder of the NA LCS wasn’t just a matter of coming into the new season with a brand new roster. Behind that huge swing into a top three NA LCS team is also the work of Coach Fly, who has done one thing better than any other team this split: manage chaos and stay successful. This comes in two tiers, with the first being the need to manage a brand new roster with big personalities mixed in with a young core of North Americans. Second comes the roster shuffle that Phoenix1 dealt with through their support and jungle positions. Throughout all of this, Fly was forced to make it work and keep his team competitive.

Adrian’s departure forced Fly to introduce two rookie supports into the team, and Inori’s sudden family emergency forced him to work around an awkward jungle situation as well. This was something that he did with much aplomb through the incorporation of a stellar and different Meteos. All of these hurdles would have bested weaker teams, either through a significant dip in performance, or a complete collapse in team dynamics. See Team Liquid as an example of that, who on two occasions were beholden to the personalities of their players in the consideration of their roster decisions. Even teams with expanded rosters such as CLG either did not use their B-team subs or were forced to use other emergency subs once players were left in the lurch. Fly has shown some semblance of knowing his team, trying to utilize his different components in a way that, in a very charitable interpretation, tries to mimic the style of SKT and their usage of substitutes in order to change their style and approach to individual games.

Gabriel Zoltan-Johan is a News Editor at theScore esports and the head analyst for the University of Toronto League of Legends team. His (public) musings can be found on his Twitter.