Before going into this week’s power rankings I’m going to hopefully provide some clarity of how I rank each team, as well mention a slight change that will occur going forward each week. First off, when I do weekly power rankings my goal is to give the best vantage point of the North American LCS right now. That means that each ranking is not based on where I expect these teams to finish but where I currently view them. That does not mean each ranking doesn’t consider past performances, as I believe it is impossible to evaluate the present fully without understanding the past.

With this goal in mind, I attempt to base each team’s performance holistically, starting with general roster strength and then focusing in on how they draft based on it. From this I look to see how successfully each team drafts towards the meta, as well as having the ability to diversify into multiple styles that fit it. Once the game begins, my goal is to evaluate how each team plays their early game, whether that means playing aggressively with winning lane match ups or playing safer around a late game composition I attempt to understand how their composition wins and how well they play towards that early on. Once the teams hit the mid to late game, it’s important to see how well they transition into the more macro focused games; such as how they ward, control waves, play around objectives and eventually close out the game or come back from a deficit. The teams that I view as being the most well rounded will be ranked the highest, and those obviously with the most flaws the lowest.

Going forward, in an attempt to provide a bit more insight to where each team ranks comparatively, these power rankings will be broken down into the typical tier system (based on North America only) as well as 1-10. These tiers will be explained in more depth in a separate article that I am currently working on and then linked near the top of all articles going forward. Without further ado, here are your Week 3 NA LCS Power Rankings.

S-Tier: N/A – While North America has a couple very talented teams, none of them would qualify currently as an S Tier team. An example of a S Tier team for those curious would be Samsung Galaxy from the LCK.

A-Tier:

#1: Counter Logic Gaming (-) Though their record is still exceptional I’d imagine the CLG house is pretty frustrated this week. A pair of fantastic drafts from Coach Tony “Zikz” Gray lead into game one victories vs both Echo Fox and TSM, giving CLG hope to take an undefeated streak into Week 3. Unfortunately, with some questionable plays highlighting a pair of game two losses CLG was unable to recover and eventually fell to arch-rival Team SoloMid. What I want to highlight this week though are the key errors in both Game 2s, starting with the match vs Echo Fox. In this game, we see CLG draft a scaling 1-4 comp, with an aggressive bottom lane and scaling in both the mid and top. While CLG was able to gain an early lead on Orianna, you would expect CLG’s composition to focus primarily on their pushing bot lane, and dictate the pace of the game while attacking EF’s point. Instead they decide on a risky gank mid with vision of the stronger Lee Sin looming, resulting in a snowball in both the mid and bot that allows EchoFox to control the map. Similarly, in Game 2 vs Team SoloMid, CLG’s bot lane makes a head scratching decision by going for a hook onto Ashe with vision of three TSM member’s completing Infernal while the Choi “Huhi” Jaehyun and Joshua “Dardoch” Harnett roam top side. While these mistakes may seem like blips from a usually strong early game team, they do highlight CLG’s tendency to regularly be in a rush to make a play, even at the determent of their composition’s win condition. How I’d like to see CLG improve is by toning back their aggressive shot calling and experimenting with a more passive early game with late game compositions. It would allow for growth in style (such as letting Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaya play split pushers instead of tanks consistently), while preparing them for more balanced early games on the international stage.

#2: Team SoloMid (-) Team SoloMid is a team with all the components to compete on the international stage. A roster comprised of superstars in every role, as well as the willingness to try new things regularly, this team’s potential looks to be the greatest in North America. Unfortunately, they currently lack the execution in multiple key facets of the game leading to another 1-1 week highlighted by a loss versus Team Dignitas. In their match with Dig they again experimented early on with a very side lane focused double marksmen comp in Game One. While this proved to be successful versus the slower Cloud 9, they were heavily punished by the more aggressive Dignitas resulting in a deficit in both their side lanes as the team questionably played more around the mid lane then anything. For me, this signals discomfort in this general team composition, and a misunderstanding of resource allocation after falling slightly behind from timely ganks by Lee Sin. Overall TSM is likely still adjusting to the return of Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and what this means for the general strategy of the team, but it is promising that most of their games have remained relatively close while still experimenting. Combine this with the fact that when playing a more comfortable style, like in Games 2 and 3 vs CLG, TSM tends to be a step ahead of their competition allowing them to stay near the top.

B-Tier:

#3: Team EnVy (+4) – Much of the time when watching Team EnVy play, the spotlight focuses only on Nam “Lira” Taeyou. Though his strong jungle pathing and fantastic mechanical plays consistently deserve credit for EnVy’s early success, this isolated focus also takes away from the deserved attention for rest of the team. In particular, the play of both Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik and Apollo “Apollo” Price have silently turned the head of this writer, as Team EnVy looks to evolve into a three-threat team. Starting in the mid lane, Pirean has shown that though he may not be the most lane dominant player in the world, his ability to push up and roam on champions such as Taliyah and Ahri have consistently lead to both kills and objectives around the map. Combine this with leads in the bot lane from precisely played 2v2’s, such as those in the Immortals series, and we see Apollo providing high damage as well as crowd control on a regular basis. While top lane still appears to be a question mark, if Team EnVy can continue this three-pronged attack there looks to be a playoff berth on the horizon.

#4 Cloud9 (-) –Through the start of Summer (as well as parts of Spring) Cloud9 has looked like a team with only one identity, the late game. Highlighted by painfully predictable drafts phases C9 looks to have an uneasiness towards early game play making. Though consistent picks of late game mages (such as Cassiopeia and Orianna) allow Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen and C9 to capitalize on many mistakes from their opponents later on, it is quite disappointing to see a team with international aspirations unable to play early games at a high level. Whether this is due to a lack confidence in early shot-calling or just generally preference to play around the late game, this playstyle will likely continue to work against lower tier teams in North America (such as their pair of 2-0s this weekend against Echo Fox and Phoenix 1). In the hopes of improving towards the up-coming Rift Rivals competition, it would be nice to see Cloud9 diversify with more early game focused mid laners such as Taliyah, Ahri, and Syndra allowing Jensen to capitalize on his lane dominance or make rotational plays around their more utility focused bot lane.

#5: Immortals (-2) – I’ve seen a lot of comments this week stating, “Where did the Immortals team go that we saw against TSM and P1?”. My response, nowhere. Immortals in Week One played almost identical to how they played in Week Two versus both FlyQuest and Team EnVy. They played predominantly around early pressure from Jake “Xmithie” Puchero leading to early gold advantages in their side lanes. Where their sets differed this week is two-fold. First in both the Phoenix 1 and Team SoloMid series from last week, Immortals had advantageous drafts focused around the early game. With a lead in the early game as well as early game compositions their opponents were unable to maintain, as their scaling orientated drafts became gold starved, leading to early victories from IMT. This week though, they were instead met with more equality in the drafting phase, as FlyQuest and Team EnVy played to their early game strengths and punished any over aggression shown by IMT. Speaking of over aggression, the other difference from IMT this week was a few key mistakes when invading with the lead. Primarily seen by via slow rotations from the likes of Lee “Flame” Ho-jong and co. Immortals didn’t look as crisp in their coordination as they did Week 1. Chalking this up to a clash of equally aggressive styles, and minor communication issues IMT makes a small drop going into Week 3.

C-Tier:

#6: Dignitas (-1) – When looking at Team Dignitas it’s pretty evident where this roster starts falling short… (Hint – it’s not the Koreans) So instead of bashing on their weaknesses, I’m going to instead focus on one of their surprise strengths so far this summer, Jang “Keane” Lae-Young. Though Keane is not one to consistently dominant his lane opponent, his performances have been crucial in the early season success of Dignitas. Seen primarily through his play on supportive mages such as Orianna and Karma, Dignitas has received a stabilizing force in the mid lane that allows for aggression the jungle role and a relief of pressure top side for Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho. If this type of play continues from Keane, I would expect Dignitas to remain competitive deep into the split and learn to utilize his abilities to grow into a more well-rounded team. Now if only the bot lane would follow suit…

#7: Echo Fox (-) – Echo Fox Echo Fox Echo Fox…. Watching this team throw away lead after lead this week was probably one of the most disappointing occurrence of events I’ve had as a fan of the NA LCS in a while. Echo Fox played like a team on a mission for most of their matches versus Cloud9 and CLG. Arguably they deserve to be higher rated after some stellar individual performances by both Jang “Looper” Hyeongseok and Henrik “Froggen” Hansen brought them to the cusp of upsetting two of the titans of North America. Unfortunately, an inability to close is something we’ve seen teams like EnVy struggle through for long periods of time no matter the talent present. Due to this I’m unwilling to go out on limb and say Echo Fox is a playoff caliber team until there is a larger sample size to pull from. Hopefully that’s not the case as both Looper and Froggen deserve better after great split pushing efforts on Leblanc, Jayce, and Kennen. What needs to happen for this team to succeed is to be more decisive as a squad. Multiple times they half committed to a call, whether that be a baron or an inhibitor push, and they were brutally punished for that indecisiveness. If they can show the willingness to commit, even if it goes badly, maybe there won’t be such a sour taste in their mouths after they play.

D-Tier:

#8: FlyQuest (+1) – Throughout my first two articles I criticized FlyQuest’s weaker laners as one of the main weaknesses in the team. Well when watching this week’s match ups FlyQuest ensured I wouldn’t be able to do that as their draft phases and play lead to winning match ups on a consistent basis. These pair of strong performances out of An “Balls” Le and Hai “Hai” Lam were characterized by pushing lanes and strong map movements to help unlock Galen “Moon” Holgate. Eventually this led to an advantage in objective control and victory versus the weaker Phoenix 1. Though these basic plays ended up working versus P1, FlyQuest was unable to capitalize on their aggressive laners in both Game 1 and Game 3 of the Immortals series as they fell behind in lane and were unable to maintain leads gained off early-mid game map movements. In Game 3 their loss was characterized by many small mistakes related to poor warding and improper back timings from generally greedy play. Overall FlyQuest did show some improvements this week as they showed strength in early game. Now if they can learn to tone back their characteristic aggression and improve on lack luster macro play they should save themselves from disappointing losses like they suffered versus Immortals.

#9 Team Liquid (+1) – Much like the team above them, Team Liquid appears to be a team with an identity in the early game. In both their series versus Team Dignitas and Team EnVy, Liquid was able to accrue early game leads much like they did in Week 1. The surprising part of this is how they were able to do so, with the combination of Kim “Reignover” Yeu-Jin and Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer. With Goldenglue having lane priority often, he was able to make the quicker move towards his jungler early on, who was consistently allowed on comfort champions. Because of this, the tandem ended up being a forced to be reckoned with providing Team Liquid with some promising play to build confidence upon as they accomplished their first victory. Combine that with the consistency out of the top lane and carry potential from Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin and there looks to be hope in what appeared a dire situation only a week ago. [Paid for by Steve. :horse:]

F-Tier:

#10 Phoenix1 (-4) – Phoenix 1 looks lost.

I could end the piece right there, and many of you would just nod in agreement. What is a roster of talented veterans is somehow floundering at the bottom of the NA LCS. Starting with a plethora of questionable drafts, Phoenix 1 just looks unsure on how to win within this new meta. When looking towards the jungle, it is clear that there are some discrepancies in shot-calling as Rami “Inori” Charagh was quickly subbed out for the more proactive William “Meteos” Hartman. Though Meteos provided P1 a stronger identity out of the jungle, as the week went on Phoenix 1 still lacked a sense of rotational play as they were regularly a step behind on any pressure Hartman could muster. Once they had identified that they were falling behind in what appeared to be a prolong laning phase, P1 chose to team fight instead of making objective trades around the map. While normally team fighting could be a benefit for the mechanically skilled team, their drafts instead focus on hyper carries in the bot lane from Noh “Arrow” Dong-hyeon leading to a lack of damage and continually lost fights. Hopefully this team evaluates the play of those around them and begins to understand the 7.11 meta, because right now they look lost.

All opinions and insight are provided by Tyler “TheSaintt” Ladzinski, sole proprietor of TheLolEsportsBlog

Lol Esports related tweets can be found at https://twitter.com/TylerLadski