As the regular season comes to a close, I not only feel a pang of sadness for teams that definitely aren't going anywhere, but a bit of excitement for the playoffs. Continuing yesterday's theme, some teams offered up a few extra cards, and other teams — didn't. What can we expect in the next week? Nothing, really.

Except that King is dead. King is definitely dead.

Royal really doesn't give up

After a disappointing 0-2 loss to WE last week, Royal Never Give Up looked as if they could actually be the LPL's worst team. They wandered around the map disjointed as if they had never actually played League of Legends before and didn't know that dragons and towers were valuable objectives and not to be given away on a whim.

So far, RNG are 3-1 against the LPL's Top 4 teams this week and only three points below Master3. Even their loss to Qiao Gu this morning wasn't too devastating. It's as if, in the span of one week, their drafting has improved, their vision has flourished, they've re-prioritized objectives, and Mlxg, last year's Demacia Cup award choice for best LSPL rookie, has actually become worthy of the heavy hype following his name.

RNG look a lot like they did as King in the offseason, playing around their bottom lane with strong — though different — solo lane pillars. They face Invictus Gaming tomorrow, and if RNG can go positive for the week against Snake, QG, and iG, they could well overtake a flagging Master3.

The flashy players get all the attention

Last split, I remember saying that if U found another team and became a starting mid laner again that he'd instantly be Top 5. I'm not sure if that game to pass, but by now I think he's the third best mid laner in the LPL.

I actually rate pawN fourth.

This may or may not be close to blasphemy, but my argument in favor of U is his massive team fighting skill. He doesn't solo kill very often. Generally, he'll get a CS lead, but it won't be demonstrative: perhaps about 10 or 20 minions 15 minutes in. U pressures his lead in laning phase inconsistently, and that's something that ranks him lower than both Rookie and GODV.

At the moment, no one team fights like U. His seeming understanding of terrain and ability to hold ultimates for the right time under pressure makes him the best late game team fighting mid laner in the league. He's better at it than GODV or Rookie, and both of them are better at team fighting than pawN.

pawN is a fantastic mid laner, and it's hard to say his role isn't indispensable to Edward Gaming. His laning is quite strong, and he's more likely to get a 1v1 kill than anyone else in LPL, but he's more an enabler while the other three carry their teams. He can have a bad individual game and still do his job.

With some of Snake's sloppy early and mid games, U can't miss his ultimates. He has to get the right targets. He does that enough that Snake, despite their flaws and the work they had to do to become stronger this split, sit in third place just three points below Qiao Gu. U's skill makes him uniquely hard to rate, and he'll fall under the radar for a lot of people, but I don't know if any other player in the league could do what he does for his team.

A strong laning top is essential to beating Invictus

Invictus Gaming looked better today than they did through most of the season. Most of their improvements stemmed from actually being able to execute a split push strategy and spreading pressure across the map instead of just waiting for dragon fights.

At their core, Invictus Gaming still operate the same way. Zzitai does most of the work in the early game shoving out his lane and drawing pressure. It worked extremely well against Master3, as looper's laning isn't his selling point. Zzitai's Maokai accumulated a massive lead against looper in both a standard laning phase and a lane swap scenario. If that happens, and Zzitai doesn't get smashed by the enemy jungler, iG can usually close the game. It just doesn't always happen, as Zzitai is definitely not the best laning top laner in LPL.

As for Time, he played much better than he did in Demacia Cup today. His Lucian gave Invictus Gaming more early pressure than we're used to seeing from the bottom lane, and he had some nice repositioning in team fights. Laning against Smlz and looper is significantly easier than trying one's hand against Snake's Flandre or Martin or kRYST4L. For both Zzitai and Time, it's crucial to see what they do against teams with stronger side lanes and how deep their effective champion pools go.

Invictus Gaming said they only played Time because Kid was working on a visa in case they make the World Championship. This is perhaps one of the thinnest excuses I've ever heard, but if it's actually true, we won't see much more of Time in the future anyway.

For those who have fallen — we salute you

Technically, WE is in the same spot as Unlimited Potential. They play three more series this split at 16 points, meaning they can 2-0 two sets to tie with Master3's current place on the ladder. They face Qiao Gu, Invictus Gaming, and Unlimited Potential. The likelihood that they'll make it is low with how they played today.

Still, I said that last year. The truly fallen are King who cannot escape bottom four, regardless of how well they do. Their aim now is a better seeding into the Promotion.

I go out of my way to say this because the last best-of-two today may have been the worst league of legends played by two teams in LPL all year.

Well, Energy Pacemaker vs WE Round 1 last Spring was probably worse.

Both teams demonstrated an inability to understand the map and several individual misplays. Neither team really drafts actual compositions. Single champion picks like Yasuo or Nidalee often save them.

At one point, both teams had better team play than this. In fact, just yesterday, King executed a strong Kalista-centric composition that smashed in LGD. That was not today. Today was about throws, strings of disasters, and a lack of coordination.

Both teams have star caliber players on their rosters that perhaps have lost motivation and play less and less like stars every set. It's sad to see them at the bottom. They'll have to decide whether to retire or hope for a better 2016.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore eSports. You can follow her on Twitter.