NA Relegations is always hard to watch because most of the time my friends are always in it playing for their spot in NA LCS. This time it’s filled with 3 teams that I do not wish to see go, especially XDG. I’ll be giving a preview and my predictions in this article.

EG vs C9T

C9T is a team filled with all pretty well known amateur teams. Yazuki was formerly on C9 and was part of the old Orbit crew alongside Hai/Nien/Lemon. He’s been shifting around team to team and was famously on Azure Cats before we knocked them out at relegations. Kor Kez is a high elo soloq jungler who is pretty respectable. Alongside him is his mid partner the one and only Bischu who is well known for his Nidalee and…well, Nidalee. Then we have the 16? 15? 14? year old Altec at ADC who has sported the rank 1 solo queue title for various seasons alongside Gleebglarbu. Everyone is well known, so watching them contest vs EG will be quite interesting. C9T is the only team (afaik) that has been doing “well” vs LMQ so they should be able to hold their own vs LCS teams. But knowing them, I think Bischu is the weakest point of this team. Yazuki is the top consistent player alongside Kor Kez who will camp bottom lane incessantly. Who knows, maybe C9 will help them train and get into LCS, which definitely could be a possibility since they do share the same sponsorship title.

EG is a team that has been filled with various problems. Whether it is shot calling, rotations, or making it out of lane in the first five minutes, they are going to have to do their research on C9T to win. Despite this, I believe that EG’s member are much stronger in lane and will do quite well vs C9T. People see them as the “old and out,” but I believe in Krepo and Yellowpete will do quite well. Snoopeh also has a knack to camp random lanes of his choosing and Pobelter always has the will to carry.

Unless they are completely off their game, I’d say that EG has a good chance to take this series 3-1.

Complexity.Black vs CST

Westrice is pretty good in the top lane but never really buys wards. He is very easy to camp. Brokenshard is a good jungler. Pr0lly always plays unconventional mids and is a strong mid laner. RobertxLee is a pretty good ADC but never seems to perform on LAN. Bubbadub is a good support player. Despite them having a pretty respectable roster, I still have to give this to CST because of their experiences in LAN and in LCS. They have had a whole season to practice and playing vs CST is always annoying (from experience).

When I match them up side by side, I see Zion beating Westrice, Nintendude doing well despite him getting so much flak from the community. Shiphtur always performs and I think will be able to carry vs amatuer teams. Wiz needs to step up and do some rotating. I play with Daydreamin in soloq and he seems to get the warding/vision part kind of down so we’ll see how it goes.

I’m saying Coast will take this 3-0.

XDG vs LMQ

And finally the most hype and anticipated match is between LMQ and XDG. XDG sports many of my former teammates and closest friends in the LCS scene so it worries me to see them play vs one of the top contenders for the LCS spots. Despite LMQ having all this hype, I still believe XDG to still have that “potential” to pull out their CLG late game and beat LMQ. Don’t get me wrong though, almost all of the players of LMQ have impressed me in scrims. They play quite well and it is quite hard to see how well they do rotationally in scrims, but I think that is their biggest weakness. Their strength comes from their jungler the most. He outputs pressure really well and is able to control the game with his mobility boots junglers all the time. I think Mancloud will do quite well vs XiaoWeiXiao and with the mid meta shifting towards something more comfortable for Mancloud, I give him an advantage. The place to watch in the game is going to be the bottom lane. Doublelift says that Vasili is one of the best ADC he’s played vs, but lately he’s been playing off. It will be up to Sheep to make some plays with his Thresh/Morg/Leona to help Zuna make plays and get hype.

XDG’s strengths lies in their rotations. They have been lackluster in lane and inconsistent so they will most likely try to 2v1. By making it 2v1, Mancloud is able to out 1v1 most mids and when the mid game comes, Xmithie is really good at pressuring mid and allowing Cloud to snowball or allow lanes to free farm. Then it is up to XDG to not throw at baron and wait for other teams to make a mistake until they make the play to beat out the enemy team in team fights. It’s going to be super duper close, but I think whoever has the better day will take the set.

Because I’m biased… XDG 3-2 LMQ