Hello everyone! It’s been about a year since we’ve posted anything, but with the shutdown of all daily activity, it appears to be the only thing left to do before the internet itself gets taken down! Unlike the NBA, Riot has advanced technology allowing them to continue the LCS online, allowing the conclusion of one of the craziest splits the LCS has ever seen:-

By week 9, only 1 playoff team was locked in;

Cloud 9 matched TSM with the best record in the history of the LCS (17-1);

The four-time back-to-back champions aren’t even in the playoffs;

Goldenglue MADE playoffs;

And, teams aren’t actually delusional for not signing Pobelter and Damonte.

With such a wild split, we’re looking to provide some clarity in understanding the teams’ strengths and what to expect this weekend. We hope you enjoy this piece, and if you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know!

Note: Game stats were calculated before week 9 finished and have not been updated.

1: Cloud 9 (17-1)

Almost all analysts and players are in agreement that Cloud 9 is the only actual good team in the LCS and it reflects in their absolute dominance over the league. They had the largest gold difference at 15 by over 2000 gold and the shortest average game time by over 3 minutes. They’re winning almost every lane across the board and winning almost every early skirmish by simply ‘outplaying’ their opponents. Besides their individual skill, the team is on the same page with every move, having complete authority over the entire map, dictating the next play while their opponents play catch up. For their first 12 games, they hadn’t even lost an inner turret or Baron!

It’s difficult to say what went right for Cloud 9 this year, but it definitely started in the offseason. So let’s recap.

They decided to keep the core of Licorice and Nisqy as both have shown themselves to be strong solo laners and generally reliable (except when Licorice dies top lane greeding over waves). They were also more than likely looking to keep both Svenskeren and Blaber, but we’ve learned that the former MVP didn’t want to stay on the team because of the direction they were heading. Jack took this opportunity to create a package of Svenskeren and Zeyzal to sell while simultaneously looking to make a huge pick up in Vulcan, resulting in the highest buyout of any player in the history of the LCS ($1.5 million). And this wasn’t even the most shocking part of their off season! After 7 years, they decided it was time to let go of Sneaky to find a stronger bot laner— Zven. After his less-than-stellar time on TSM, the announcement wasn’t super hyped up, but C9 fans were still excited as they believed the “Talent Suppression Machine” brought players to their worst, while the the supersonic-galactic-cranium development team at Cloud 9 could turn any player into Faker—and they were right!

Cloud 9 spent the off-season bootcamping in Korea and developing synergy. Zven and Vulcan went earlier than the team, as a duo, playing almost 500 games in a few weeks and ending high Challenger on the Korean ladder (~1400 LP). This decision seemed to pay off immensely, with the team coming into the LCS as a fortified unit with a synchronous bot lane unmatched by anyone else in the league.

With so many moving parts in the offseason, there were a plethora of things that could’ve gone wrong with this roster, but everyone on Cloud 9 stepped up, resulting in the most dominant team in the history of the LCS.

Coming into the playoffs, anything less than a championship is a failure.

2: Evil Geniuses (11-8)

Can we finally admit that Jiizuke has earned his import spot? Good! Glad we’re on the same page.

In the offseason, you can see what the Evil Geniuses had in mind with their roster. They picked up a Cloud 9 trio of Kumo, Zeyzal, and the last split’s MVP, Svenskeren, while also grabbing two-time-World Champion Bang, but the best import on the market (after the Chovy deal) fell through. Even before seeing their mid lane acquisition, LCS fans were moderately excited about this team, safely placing them 4th on their pre-split rankings. After Jiizuke was announced, most of this excitement fell off a cliff and turned into anger against the organization for picking up a ‘washed-up import’ instead of going for one of Damonte or Pobelter.

As the split began, this anger seemed justified as they started 2-4 in the first 3 weeks and appeared to have no consistency whatsoever (1-1 in 6 out of 10 weeks of the LCS). By the end of week three, the team had been getting memed pretty hard by the community, with Cloud 9 themselves fueling the fire.

With the fans already gunning for EG, Bang and Jiizuke received a lot of flack for not being able to, or willing to, communicate with the team, and were blamed for the team’s lackluster performance. (This was fueled by a misunderstood portion of an interview with Zeyzal)

Bang and Jiizuke then heard y’all were talking shit and proceeded to take turns popping off week-to-week as they transitioned into consistent threats for EG. By the last week of the LCS, Bang had the second highest KDA of all players at 11.3, and Jiizuke tied for most solo kills of any player at 11.

Besides their imports, the rest of the team has seemingly found their footing too. Kumo has easily had the largest amount of growth going from arguably the worst player in the league to a reliable top laner, able to hold his own.

In playing a series, Jiizuke might even be what gives this team an edge. He’s recently been giving them a huge amount of priority in draft, getting 1-3 target bans. It wouldn’t surprise me if FlyQuest follows suit and bans out Leblanc and Ryze in the first rotation (as done by 100T in the tiebreaker). This would give EG a massive advantage in finding themselves priority picks like Aphelios, Ornn, and Senna without having to give much up.

I think it’s fairly safe to say that EG performed above expectations and the team is a real contender to get excited about. With Jiizuke and Bang looking like their old selves, the Evil Geniuses are truly a threat coming into the playoffs.

And Jack? Nicole doesn’t want a refund.

3: 100 Thieves (11-9)

100 Thieves has been an interesting team to watch during playoffs. Coming into the season, fans were optimistic about the moves the organization made. Papasmithy was brought in as the General manager, signaling that 100T would be fixing the management issues that had plagued them in the last few years. They also re-signed Meteos and Cody sun, who had both left the organization on somewhat poor terms in their first year with the organization. The only real point of contention was the signing of Ryoma, an unknown player from the Oceanic region.

That being said, 100 Thieves had a very successful spring. The first half of the split was slow, with the team only winning 3 of their first 9 games. In the latter half of the split, however, they quietly sported the second-highest win rate of any team, going 7-2 in the second round robin, only losing to an uncharacteristically strong TL, the ever-dominant Cloud 9, and a tiebreaker to the improving Evil Geniuses. All-in-all, the Thieves managed to place 3rd, which is amazing considering their last year’s showing.

Though no member of 100T is unimportant, Ssumday and Cody Sun have been crucial in many of their victories. Cody has always had a reputation as a very talented ADC, but in this split he really showed that he deserves the spot. He’s maintained a solid 4.4 KDA, and was responsible for 28% of his team’s damage with only 24% of the gold. He and Stunt aren’t typically ranked among the strongest botlanes, but it’s clear that their work as a duo, especially playing weakside, is more than enough for their team. Now on their topside, it’s clear this team would not be where they are at right now without Ssumday. Ssumday clearly understands what his role is and he knows how to effectively tackle each game. He is smart and patient with how he moves on the map and his team matches his playstyle almost perfectly. He’s often the reason 100 Thieves have a chance in their games and is almost never the reason why they lose. In every game Ssumday is a ticking time bomb and simply by the eye test, it’s clear some of their wins are impossible without his presence.

Ryoma is a bit of a wild card. In the first half the split, it’s hard to tell if he was under-performing or simply not gelling with the team—but he was not effective. There were many mechanical misplays as simple as missed skill shots or mispositioning that resulted in heavy deficits for the team. That’s not to say that he’s solely to blame, but something needed to change—and it did. In the back half of the split, Ryoma was actually a really strong mid laner, showcasing highlight-reel plays, such as his Zoe into Immortals. His stats reflect this too, outperforming Cody with a 28% damage share with only 21% of the gold. He was also part of 75% of the team’s kills, more than anyone else on the team. Perhaps Ryoma just had to get over the nerves, or maybe he over-performed in the back half of the split. Either way, I expect his play to have a significant impact on the playoffs.

100 Thieves look stronger going into playoffs than most would’ve expected, and I probably should make a joke about them being Thieves and stealing a series away from C9, but truthfully, fans should hope for at least one game win against C9 and be happy with that. The new playoff format means there could actually be a huge benefit to playing Cloud 9 this early on and they’ll have more time and experience than any other team should they play Cloud 9 in the finals again.

4: FlyQuest (10-9)

FlyQuest is the Nega-100 Thieves of the 2020 Spring Split. Their start was incredibly impressive, though many fans and analysts expected a good performance with a strict upgrade to the roster in the mid and support positions. Pobelter was solid but PowerofEvil is the large carry threat that the team really needed. They finished the first half of the split exactly opposite the Thieves, with a 6-3 record. They reasonably dropped a game to an unbeaten Cloud 9, though they did falter to a much weaker TL and EG. Then the back half of the split reared its ugly head. Now, I’m not going to say it was a failure, because they still placed well and still won about half their games, but with the start they had, barely ending positive isn’t anything to write home about.

Let’s talk about da Poelice (that joke works, you’re gonna have to trust me on it). German Stixxay takes up a pretty fair 25% of his team’s resources. But does he use it well? Yes. The guy does 36% of his team’s damage, the highest damage percent of all players globally. He’s dishing out nearly as much damage as two players can be expected to, and he’s doing it across a wide array of champions with 9 unique picks this split. His split end was relatively weak for his standards, but it was still a solid performance and I don’t expect it to go anywhere but up.

FlyQuest’s top lane has seen the biggest hardships this split. V1per was impressive in 2019, stomping many teams with his Riven, while performing on other picks as well. This year, he has been less than stellar by his own admission. Once teams began to figure him out and pressure him, he got abused quickly. The team resorted to subbing in Solo for the last two weeks of the split, which has had mixed results. Frankly, the solution to this issue isn’t obvious, but it has to be solved fast. There are talented top laners in this playoff bracket, and FlyQuest will not be able to succeed without changes.

With the new bracket system benefiting them greatly, FlyQuest has a good chance in the playoffs. They match up first against EG, who also lack a strong topside—and PoE should match well into Jiizuke, since they’re both European and ‘not Danish.’ Even if they lose to EG , they’ll get another chance against Golden Guardians, who they have an even better matchup with. Things won’t be easy for them, especially if PoE is expected to carry as much weight as he has been. We’re looking for their bot lane to step up and if not, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Flyquest bomb out early, but if the pieces come together, (I mean really well), a top 3 finish isn’t out of the question.

5: TSM (9-9)

Team Solomid are the LCS’ true coinflip team. They have shown the highest of highs, being the only team to defeat Cloud 9 this split, while also putting out abysmal performances, scoring 2-6 against the bottom four teams in the LCS. BrokenBlade and Bjergsen have both proved they’re capable of being the best in their roles, but BB hasn’t played with the consistency to be ranked with the best. The controversial Dardoch pick-up has seemingly gone well, as he’s lasted an entire split on the same team, even with TSM’s trend of switching junglers—Oh, and he’s played pretty well too. And I do think it’s safe to say their bot lane is performing to expectations by being stable, surviving lane and then showing up in teamfights when it matters.

This split, TSM has been very strong in the early game, with an 82.4% first blood rate and having the second highest gold lead at 15 (629) behind Cloud 9. Their main issue has come from their late-game decision making and inability to close out games. Just last week, they lost to 100 Thieves with an 8k gold lead, 8/0 Azir, and Baron buff—this should not happen! When they are on the same page, this team is deadly and can smash any team in the league, as shown in week 7 against Cloud 9, crushing them in just under 27 minutes.

Like their fans will tell you, TSM’s wins this split have a pretty high correlation with how they’ve drafted. They’re sporting a 100% win rate on Xayah & Rakan as well as Syndra and Sett, and conversely a 0% win rate into Ornn. So why not just ban Ornn and draft what’s been working? Let’s be honest, limited champion pools and being predictable is not what’s going to win a best of 5.

With all this said, It’s difficult to say whether or not TSM fans should be excited going into the playoffs. Outside of Cloud 9, TSM does have the highest record into other playoff teams at 7-3, and for anyone who watched the C9 game (go watch it if you haven’t), you know TSM has the potential to be the best team in the league. TSM now has to step up, or their playoff run might end before it really starts.

I truly believe that TSM is the only remaining playoff team that can beat Cloud 9 in a series—and it wouldn’t be that shocking. But on the flip side, they could also get swept in the first round and that wouldn’t shock me either.

Let’s see which TSM shows up.

6: Golden Guardians (9-10)

When Golden Guardian’s roster was announced, I expected a 10th place finish. Every game they play, I expect them to lose—and somehow they keep winning. It’s blunt, but it’s a sentiment echoed throughout the League community coming into the split. Golden Guardians had an interesting offseason. They held onto Hauntzer, who at times looks to be one of the best top laners in NA, and BrokenBlade’s former teammate Closer was brought in from Turkey. They also signed GoldenGlue, giving him the LCS’s best name by a large margin: Golden Guardians Greyson “GoldenGlue” Gregory Gilmer. However, the roster move to end all roster moves was lying in wait. They replaced their support with Le Toucan—the first time Support master—Keith McBrief.

Though there’s plenty to talk about here and we have to start with Keith. He only started for half of the split, but he was the deciding factor in nearly every game. The man was astounding. His ability to get caught out of position and die was unmatched. The thing is, Golden Guardians seemed to get their wins regardless. There were moments of greatness hidden in the Briefs, though. Against TL, Keith’s Thresh was sincerely very impressive, landing multiple hooks and earning 2v2 kills against Doublelift and CoreJJ. Keith was eventually substituted for Huhi, who wasn’t particularly important in either wins or losses, but has brought out some exciting picks such as Sett and Ziggs support.

Closer and FBI are the other points of interest for Golden Guardians. Closer has looked like one of the best Junglers in the league, and FBI has impressive stats for a player that sneaks under the radar. The fascinating thing is that Closer deals only 11% of his team’s damage, which is the lowest of any Jungler that played 18+ games. Somehow he still manages to create influential plays and he’s seemed to be a great import for the team. FBI is nearly the exact opposite. He boasts a 31.7% damage share, beating out every single player but PowerofEvil. When you consider that he’s played with two different supports of which neither have been spectacular, his performance is absolutely stellar.

Golden Guardians barely squeaked into the playoffs and frankly, even their tiebreaker game was very unlikely to occur. Going into the last week, Golden Guardians had very little control over their fate, and needed many other games to go a certain way. Their road through the playoffs is incredibly tough compared to their opponents. They begin in the lower bracket, meaning they don’t get to drop a series, and they already appear to be the weakest of the six teams. If the Golden Guardians manage to get a series win, I wouldn’t expect to see a second, but this team has been doing the impossible since the beginning of the split.

Regular Season Split MVP: Zven

It might be obvious to you that out of the 5 MVP candidates that is the C9 roster, we chose Zven. For the first half of the split, he remained deathless for 5 games and remained with one death until their 9th game. His KDA maxed out to 84 before normalizing and he ended the split with a 14.6 KDA.

C9 Zven is nothing like the TSM Zven who’d been letting us down for 2 years. He’s tactical yet bloodthirsty, and dishes out insane amounts of damage in teamfights. He’s performed on all of this year’s marksman and has been flexible, playing Syndra in the bot lane as well. Bar his fasting Senna game, he averages crazy advantages, sporting a 14.3 cs difference, 1,030 gold difference and 538 experience difference at 15 minutes in the game.

He’s also NA’s best Senna and has had it banned against him in their last 6 games in the first rotation of draft.

Zven has already achieved greatness with his performance this year, but if he wins the split, he’ll be the first player to ever win a split in Europe and North America, and will also be one of the major catalysts of C9 winning their first split in 5 years!

As a personal message to Zven,

Thank you for not giving up on our region.

– Every C9 fan

Predictions for Day 1

Saturday, April 4th

Match 1: EG vs Fly aka The Evil Geniuses vs The Power of Evil itself

Predicted Score: Evil Geniuses (3-1)

The Evil Geniuses vs The Power of Evil itself

EG has steadily been looking like a better team each week while FlyQuest has recently been looking worse, or teams have been figuring them out.

I actually think FlyQuest has a better shot if they put in V1per, as he’s shown he can be a clear threat with the potential to punish EG’s weak top laner. If he does perform, he could take over the entire series. Also, unlike other teams, PoE should be able to nullify or even match the threat of Jiizuke, leaving the games up to execution on the day. On average, however, I believe EG has been performing at a higher level than FlyQuest and should be able to take the series, but the Power of Trees and Evil might be enough to cut them down.

Sunday, April 5th

Match 1: C9 vs 100T

Predicted Score: Cloud9 (3-0)

Believe it or not, we expect C9 to sweep the series. Bar top lane, they are individually better than 100T in all roles, and as a unit, even stronger. In no way do I believe 100 Thieves are a weak team, but Cloud 9 are on another level, and putting up a fight is the best the Thieves fans can hope for against the ruthless C9.