The EU LCS has once again brought forth a new batch of imported players. Three teams remain with fully European rosters. This increases the difficulty of ranking, as often these teams start out choppy without established communication systems and find a more stable form as the split progresses. It’s difficult to gauge where teams will land, and without an established system one can attribute to them, preseason ranking sometimes have to default to a pure assessment of perceived individual skill — which rarely captures the entire story.

This year, the EU LCS moves to a group style format for regular season, similar to that of the Chinese League of Legends Pro League. In assessing the relative strength of the European League of Legends Championship Series teams, my initial intention was to mirror the group ranking format I did with the League of Legends Pro League. Because of a lack of random draw mechanism in the EU LCS, however, my in-group ranking came out similar to team selection order. As a result, it proved a more fruitful exercise to simply rank EU LCS teams by relative strength, ignoring group draw.

The top teams were somewhat easier to rank, but as I ferreted through the list from Unicorns of Love onward, I found I could rank the bottom five relatively interchangeably. A lot came down to identifying what I personally consider powerful in team building. Sadly, this means no clearly defined “Elements Tier,” but as time progresses, I’m sure one such team will identify itself by the telltale pallor of the drained morale of its players.

10. Origen

Many immediately reacted to the unveiling of Origen’s starting five with condemnation, but I spent time agonizing over whether or not Origen should actually be last.

Max “Satorius” Günther has a strong base understanding of lane positioning that made his play in Team-LDLC’s offseason events consistent. Aleksi “Hiiva” Kaikkonen has demonstrated a lot of admirable raw skill. Kim “Wisdom” Taewan tore through the jungle for Misfits. Erik “Tabzz” van Helvert has a history of communication that could stabilize the roster. Even Yoo “NaeHyun” Naehyun comes with a foundation for snowballing side lanes in the early game.

What ultimately made me cow to the consensus was that this Origen roster’s carry positions are their weakest players. NaeHyun’s teamfight positioning for LSPL Team KungFu often wasted a lot of his side lane presence, and he lost a lot of map control by giving up too much pressure in the mid lane. Tabzz has been absent from LCS for a while, and his recent form doesn’t inspire confidence. This feels like yet another Origen roster explicitly designed for Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez to make another Hail Mary appearance. If the organization’s owner isn’t done playing, this roster should provide a wealth of opportunities for him to get involved.

9. Giants Gaming

Giants this close to the bottom of the table may seem surprising, but given Nubar “Maxlore” Sarafian’s ability in the 2016 Giants Gaming roster to create plays around buffs and enable Na “NighT” Gunwoo by taking over shotcalling in the early game, it feels like this team has lost its identity. Jonas “Memento” Elmarghichi played intelligent games for Team ROCCAT toward the end of last split, and the addition of Olof “Flaxxish” Medin could allow Giants to regain their “holy trinity” moniker. With more inconsistency from Flaxxish than Lennart “Smittyj” Warkus and no sign that Memento can take over Maxlore’s central role, it feels like it would be a poor imitation.

In addition, while the bottom lane doesn’t appear too different in overall skill level, Coach David “Lozark” Vicente publicly credited some of Giants’ smart drafts to ex-AD carry Song “S0NSTAR” Seungik, compounding the sense that what previously made Giants run behind-the-scenes is gone. This team may look a lot like Summer’s surprise Giants squad, but one cannot rely on the return of the same intangibles.

8. Team ROCCAT

The jungle swap had a lot to do with me rating ROCCAT over Giants. Not only does Maxlore’s pathing seem instinctive, but he allegedly carried a lot of the communication while NighT became used to the environment. Ambrož “Phaxi” Hren and Felix “Betsy” Edling aren’t the most explosive carries, but they have both had moments of brilliance that can create a strong focus for the team. Petter “Hjärnan” Freyschuss is a good communicator and provides steady cleanup, and Kim “Wadid” Baein demonstrated room for improvement on his Korean Challenger team. He also won’t be relied upon for communication thanks to ROCCAT’s core, making this one of the bottom rosters that feels most defined, despite a lack of standout talent.

Story continues