The first day of week seven of the North American LCS has come to an end, and while Europe's playoff picture is starting to clear up, NA's hierarchy is changing drastically game to game.

TSM and CLG are still holding onto the top two spots they've occupied for most of the season, but what's that right behind them? Team Impulse and Team 8 are making their own claims to fight for the throne with only five games left in the regular season.

Fight Club

Rule #1 of TiP Fight Club: If you see Rush, he is going to fight you.

Rule #2 of TiP Fight Club: If you run away from Rush, the rest of the team is going to fight you.

Rule #3 of TiP Fight Club: Screw the rest of the rules — let's fight.

Team Impulse, as their name suggests, are impulsive. They're a team made up of unlikely pieces from across the professional scene:

Their top-laner is a former world champion who has played in Korea his entire career up-till now.

Their jungler is also Korean, but he had never played a professional game before coming to America and was scouted in Korean solo queue — oh, and he's also the shot-caller.

Their mid-laner is the reigning NA LCS MVP, but he's also Chinese and in the middle of two different languages on the squad.

Their AD carry is actually from North America and played in the NA LCS before, but was criticized for having nerves on the big stage and failing to their deliver.

And their support tops it off by being a rookie from North America who also hadn't played professionally before going to Impulse.

The first few weeks for Impulse were muddled. You could tell all their players had mechanical ability, but it was hard to praise them when Rush would fight four people by himself for taking his blue buff and then die. They were incredibly sloppy at points, showing off how each player either came from a different culture or were in a different part of their career.

Things started to improve when their head coach Fly, formerly of Jin Air as a coach and a professional StarCraft 2 player under the handle Ensnare, came over to America permanently and started working with the team. It hasn't been easy, but little by little, the team has improved. Instead of playing predictable compositions and throwing everything on XiaoWeiXiao to carry, they've been utilizing different parts of their arsenal.

Instead of forcing XWX onto a champion like Yasuo that is out of favor, he can play a champion like Lulu or Karthus and work around his team. One game it might be Apollo carrying from the bottom lane, or they might let Rush go crazy on one of his champions and rack up kills.

They've played utility-centric compositions where they used their mobility and heals to paper cut the opposition to death, and they've also had games where they put their foot on the gas pedal and dish out insane amounts of damage. Impulse can go toe-to-toe with any team in North America when it comes to pure talent, but their real skill is the versatility they've shown with the strategies Fly can cook up for the team.

Today they put XWX on Karthus, let him farm up a storm, and put Impact on Kennen while allowing Apollo to play on a heavy burst champion with Graves. They rolled over Cloud 9 early with their composition, and it wasn't before long that XWX's Karthus was strong enough to beat Sneaky's Corki by himself in the mid-game.

They still had holes — Cloud 9 realized they couldn't beat Impulse straight on, so they went to the split push game that worked well enough to give them a chance even down 11 kills in the late-game. Impulse held on, forced C9 into a fight and win the game, but their communication and decision making, albeit improved, is still lagging behind teams like TSM and Cloud9.

Impulse are diamonds in the rough. They're bash and know it, but also can put their egos aside and play compositions that can make them a supporting character if need be. Now at 7-6 with their electric win over C9, the team that people pencilled in as a Summer team is looking more and more like a contender for the Spring title.

Although Impulse might not have the late-game cohesion and split game decisions to win them a title this season, their is a scary realization behind all of this: they aren't even close to their full potential. Rush is still improving as a shot-caller, Adrian is gaining valuable experience in his first season, and Apollo is starting to come into his own as one of NA's best.

The Team Impulse of today isn't going to grab the attention of the world giants GE, SKT or EDG.

But the Team Impulse of November? That team could be the heroes North America cheers for at the 2015 World Championships.

Around the Horn

Team 8 kept up their stellar play and took an important win over TeamLiquid. Piglet, who was starting over Keith, had a strong game on Kalista, but the rest of the team didn't follow. Quas and Fenix had a nightmare of a time, the latter dying repeatedly in lane and falling behind incredibly early against T8's Slooshi.

TL put up a fight at the end and even grabbed the final Baron of the game, but their indecision at the final dragon fight cost them. T8 picked up the final dragon stack, turned on a timid Liquid squad, and picked up the necessary kills in the river to end the game. The win deadlocked T8 and TL in the standings, with both teams sitting at a 7-6 record at fourth place.

Winterfox's new lineup got off to a blistering start, killing two TSM members in a clever level one strategy, but experience won out in the end. Dyrus held his own against Avalon's Kennen that started off the game with a kill, and Paragon's debut was littered with small mistakes, like face-checking bushes in the enemy jungle that gave up unnecessary kills. WFX can feel happy that Altec looked extremely good in his debut as support, but any more losses could kill any chance they had at the playoffs.

The Golden Age of CLG is still going strong. It might have sounded silly when the word phrase first popped up, but they're only five games away from ending up with a first round bye in the Spring playoffs. Today they had their cleanest win of the season, playing a strong all-around game against the up-and-down Gravity squad. ZionSpartan starred here, doubling Hauntzer's CS by the middle of the game and wreaking havoc with Hecarim's speed and engage abilities. CLG are now alone in 2nd with C9's loss to TiP at 9-4, and Gravity sit in the precarious position of 7th with a record of 6-7.

Coast lost to Dignitas. Dig played well, but Coast are a team walking to their deaths. Now with a record of 1-12, they have little to no hope from escaping auto-relegation. With only five games left in their season, it's time for their top players to try and audition for new jobs in the LCS, or at least have some fun on the main stage before losing their position to the top team in the Challenger league.

Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger is a staff writer for The Score eSports, and recaps each week's EU LCS and LCS. He thinks Whiplash was the best movie of 2014, and that everyone who hasn't seen it should right after reading this article. You can follow him on Twitter.