The short break between Spring and Summer has never proven fruitful for teams willing to undergo major League of Legends roster overhauls. Researching prospects and looking for contract gaps strains the month-long window of travel, rest, and breath-catching as teams brace themselves to start it all again.

After a disappointingly predictable season, exempting the final heroic efforts from Team ROCCAT and Fnatic, one might look to Europe to break that trend. But the new teams entering the LCS, plagued in part by controversy, might give us more stand-ins for bottom-feeding Origen and Giants.

Nothing ever ends that cleanly, though. I predict a few surges brought on by coaching staff changes, and a spike in competition for teams just below G2 Esports. Power rankings start the conversation. I’ve arranged mine into six tiers for close competition, but also ranked teams within each tier to take a firmer stance on the shakeout.

AKA The return of the Elements Tier

10. Ninja in Pyjamas

Last split, I foolishly retired the “Elements Tier,” the spot reserved for the worst team in the league, thrown together with minimal hope of coming up for air. But then, Origen had the worst split in EU LCS history without winning a single best of three.

Ninjas in Pyjamas may promise to repeat the performance with a new purvey of questionable characters.

Martin “HeaQ” Kordmaa’s LCS debut as Giants’ AD carry ended in disaster, with the team incapable of securing consistent pressure in any of their lanes. Despite his trials on Giants, he might be the most promising player on NiP’s roster, given his personal gains throughout the split in positioning and lane control.

Even so, with the added importance of jungle and mid since the introduction of standard lanes, questions arise around the signing of mid laner Kim “Nagne” Sangmoon.

Nagne has always favored melee champions, and both his work ethic and champion pool fell under fire on KT Bullets in 2014. After his fall from grace, he spent an uninspiring 2016 on bottom-tier LSPL team, WanYoo. After initially getting relegated, WanYoo bought a fourth place team to get back into the LPL. With only two roster changes between 2016 Spring for him and Lee “KaKAO” Byungkwon, the new WanYoo fell down to relegation level again in a 14-team league.

Top laner Kim “Profit” Junhyung shares being relegated from LSPL in common with Nagne. He joined SK Telecom T1 after playing a tank role on Young Glory. He played passably well for SKT, but exhibited no characteristics that suggested he could carry the roster — something his team may be relying on him to do, given the other members on the squad.

NiP will likely look to jungler Ilyas “Shook” Hartsema’s guidance for an unexpected rise. But Shook often seemed reliant on extra vision from his support to avoid coin-flip invades. Leadership may not come easily.

I’s unclear if any of these players will find the ability to pull NiP up from the base of their laughably steep abyss.

Not-quite-the-worst Tier

View photos CozQ is the mid laner for Mysterious Monkeys (lolesports) More

9. Mysterious Monkeys

Not quite on the verge of repeating Origen’s run, Mysterious Monkeys have kept much of the same Misfits Academy roster that qualified for the EU LCS during Promotion. MFA’s upset over FC Schalke 04 came largely on the backs of their mid and jungle duo, Sofyan “CozQ” Rechchad and Milo “Pridestalker” Wehnes. The latter has moved on to ROCCAT, leaving the Monkeys feeling a little low on potassium.

MFA really centralized around Pridestalker in their impressive run to qualify. Without him, MFA will struggle. The promotion of Leon “Lamabear” Krüger from the bench is disappointing, but not a deplorable option. Monkeys as an organization, for their part, have had consistently high placement in the German Meisterschaft tournament, but it’s hard to predict that staff experience will transfer to the big stage.

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