Spring Ender – A Look Back at the NA LCS

Over the last three weeks, the top teams of in North America battled it out in grueling best of 5 series to determine who would earn the right to wear the crown in North America for the first half of the year.

Now the dust has settled, so as the Spring Split draws to a close and the hype around the Mid-Season Invitational builds, let us take a look back at what became of the 6 teams that entered the playoffs in the NA LCS.

Team Solo Mid – The Best in the West?

TSM after winning IEM 9 at Katowice

They were the champions of the 2014 Summer Split and yet there were doubters. They won IEM 9 and Katowice, the organization’s first international tournament win since 2012. Still, there were those that were skeptical, due to the fact that they never directly faced the top Korean talent, or a formidable Chinese team.

Yet now, with their second straight LCS title, and their third overall, Team Solo Mid have a legitimate claim to be the best team in the West. They have shown versatility in their play, resilience in an extended series, deep adaptation in their picks and bans and not to mention stellar play from their members as well.

Though their biggest test is yet to come in the Mid-Season Invitational, it seems that within the NA region, TSM have the perfect formula for success. They have talented, motivated youngsters in the likes of Spring MVP Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg whose dominating performances may just make him the best mid laner in the West, and Rookie of the Split Lucas “Santorin” Larsen who has proven himself to be a versatile role player, giving the team whatever it needs to win, be it an initiator, a tank, or secondary damage dealer.

Add onto that the veteran talents of perpetual top lane face Marcus “Dyrus” Hill, who can seemingly recover from any amount of camping thrown at his lane,to the unassuming playmaking ways of their enigmatic support Ham “Lustboy” Jangsik of CJ Entus Blaze fame. Top it off with the relentless hours of preparation served up by Choi “Locodoco” Yoonsub as their coach and one would be hard pressed to find any glaring weakness in TSM at all.

Barring the fact that they could just be downright outskilled, this current iteration of TSM is the best the organization has looked in comparison to the rest of the world. With their sights set on the MSI, the hopes of North America rest on their shoulders to finally prove once and for all that the West actually has a fighting chance against the regularly dominant Korean and Chinese teams.

Cloud 9 – Hais and Lows

From the time the team formerly known as Quantic Gaming entered the NA LCS, they have historically been nothing but consistent and dominant. Cloud 9 still hold the record for the best LCS regular split record of all time, and are now the longest running active roster in the history of the game.

The source of C9’s tactical genius, Hai, is finally stepping down from the main roster.

Their mark of greatness was impressed so indelibly into the minds of their fans, so it was hard to swallow that Cloud 9 looked, for the majority of the Spring Split at least, to be faltering. Whether it was the struggling champion pool of their mid lane captain Hai “Hai” Lam, or the underwhelming performances of once dominant forces An “Balls” Le and William “Meteos” Hartman, 2015’s C9 was a shadow of its former self.

Even their fabled strategic prowess that often afforded them superior team compositions and game plans in the pick and ban phase were diminished by every other team also gaining a more robust support staff, something C9 were quicker to acquire a year or so ago.

Though their new floor seems incredibly far from the ceiling they set for themselves, because they came out the gate so strong, their current non-peak forms still manage a second place finish (that’s both in the regular split and in the playoffs). For a team that knew nothing less than to be at number one however, things had to change.

In a bid to reorganize themselves and regain their status as NA’s dominant team in the summer, Hai has stepped down from the main roster and moved to a managerial role within the organization. An as yet unannounced mid laner will fill the strategic prodigy’s shoes, and for now at least, the most consistent team in NA LCS history is getting ready to shake things up.

Team Liquid – The Curse is Broken

Though they are no longer flying the Curse banner, the Liquid organization has always been haunted by “the curse” – that their team could only reach 4th place in any event. As far as the LCS is concerned, Liquid’s record seems to prove that the curse is real, having finished 4th three times out of the previous four splits.

For the 2015 Spring Split, however, it seemed that Liquid was finally dealt a winning hand, acquiring two powerful Korean imports, including Chae “Piglet” Gwangjin, a Season 3 World Champion. Despite the massive hype going into the split, the acquisition of Piglet fell flat. Liquid only managed to pick up wins with Piglet very late into the game, and just eked out a playoff berth in the final week.

Up against the formidable CLG squad that looked like a top tier team for the first half of spring, many thought Liquid had nary a chance of success. And then they swept their opponents. Suddenly, the struggling squad that couldn’t find synergy with its big name pickups was meshing together.

Another curse Liquid had to contend with was their playoff record against Cloud 9. Twice, Liquid was wiped out of the playoffs by C9 in spectacular sweeping fashion, and even with their upset against CLG, many still predicted a quick exit for the team.

Again, Liquid proved that curses were meant to be broken. Though they ultimately lost the series to the 2-time champs, Liquid bested them in back to back games, and were merely one victory away from an LCS final! To top it all off, they beat the formidable Team Impulse in their next series to finally break the curse and claim 3rd place in NA.

With the sharp upward trend the team is on at the moment, and with the rest of the team not only forming around Piglet but also exhibiting star power of their own, most notably Kim “FeniX” Jaehun whose mid lane play downright carried Liquid through some of their playoff wins, the future looks bright for Liquid. Curse free and only growing stronger, look for them to be more serious contenders in the Summer Split.

Team Impulse – Fast and Furious

Impulse was an apt renaming for the organization known as LMQ; a team that burst through last year’s Summer Split on blitzkriegs and raw aggression. Impulsive entirely encapsulates this team’s play, with its quick decision making and brute force approach, when Impulse win, it often feels like a steamroll victory.

This playstyle is not without its faults however. Relying primarily on early game leads, the solo laners of Impulse were amiss without proper backup in the early game. Communication issues also marred the team’s earlier matches, having to contend with English, Chinese, and Korean native speakers in their ranks.

However, the brightest point for the team has undoubtedly been Lee “Rush” Yoonjae. With a name like that, it’s no surprise that Rush is the epitome of Impulse’s mindset. He is a mechanically adept machine of aggression, targeting the enemy lanes and even jungler with champions looking to brawl. He even defied the recent tank meta by simply picking bruisers and building tank items on them.

Despite the language barriers and undoubtedly unstable team environment, Impulse proved they were a team that could hang with the best of them, producing wins over TSM, C9 and CLG in the latter weeks of the Spring Split. Though they had the misfortune of facing Team Solo Mid before the finals and falling to the superior best of 5 preparation brought by Locodoco, Impulse has a lot to be proud of.

Since their synergy is still building, Impulse can become an even more dangerous outfit in the Summer Split, especially if they learn to diversify their strategies a little. It’s likely you’ll find them near the top of the table once more, gunning for their opponents with reckless abandon.

Gravity Gaming – Rough Landing

Gravity were always going to be the underdogs coming into the playoffs. Throughout the split, the team had looked largely inconsistent, beating some of the better teams in surprisingly convincing fashion, yet falling to some of the weaker teams just as easily.

However, with two big LCS veterans in Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco and David “Cop” Roberson, Gravity made a bigger splash in the LCS than many expected, especially considering that they just qualified through the Expansion Tournament as Curse Academy.

Keane has gained a name for himself as Gravity’s mid lane ace by containing Bjergsen with his Urgot pick.

Aside from their duality when it came to their wins and losses, Gravity also proved two opposing philosophies at once. That their old guard members could still tangle with today’s teams, and that their new talent was just as promising. Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell put up surprisingly solid numbers for a rookie top laner, and Jang “Keane” Laeyoung led the Western revolution of Urgot mid picks when he bested Bjergsen’s Zed with it.

Despite only winning one game in the playoffs against Impulse, Gravity can be proud of what they’ve accomplished. For such a young organization, they have shown enough flashes of brilliance to give weight to the possibility that they can become so much more. Should they find an element of consistency, and a style that works for them, Gravity can smooth out the edges and hopefully correct their flight paths for the summer.

Counter Logic Gaming – Another Season of Disappointment

The internet at large has already talked up a storm on the subject of CLG. Whether it be pundits such as Duncan “Thorin” Shields or Richard Lewis of the Daily Dot, or even the mass of Redditors looking to voice their many colorful opinions, CLG has received more than its fair share of jabs, jokes, and jeers.

This is of course owing to the fact that after what could be the most promising setup the team has had in years, CLG still come up empty-handed. They brought in powerhouse split pusher Darshan “ZionSpartan” Upadhyaha in the top lane, a World Championships tested jungler in Jake “Xmithie” Puchero, and even bolstering their support staff with LCS veteran William “Scarra” Li as head coach.

CLG’s playoff woes perpetuate into 2015.

Their split went off to a stellar start as the team seemed to have the strongest early game in the entire region, largely thanks to their ‘Rush Hour’ bot lane, even managing to batter down TSM’s gate in their first fated clash of the year, only to have the game turned around at the last moments.

This would prove to be a microcosm for the playoff run CLG would have, and even for the team’s entire LCS history. As they entered the playoffs as the 3rd seed against heavy underdogs Team Liquid, who even has to play a tiebreaker to qualify, things should have looked easy for CLG. Instead, they were swept 0-3.

For a team analysts always insist has the makings of a championship run, CLG never appear to get close. They posture, they prep and then when it comes down to the wire, they choke. Promises of change have been offered time and time again, yet the same results ring true.

While CLG is too big of an organization to die out or even lose steam as far as popularity is concerned, perhaps it’s time for the community to accept that the team’s glory days may be too far behind them and to stop expecting so much.

Before Summer Starts

We have a good amount of time before the Summer Split begins, and there’s much to look forward to before then.

If you want to find out the fate of the NA LCS teams that didn’t make the playoffs, click here to read The Promotion Picture, which is a recap of the Challenger Series playoffs and stay tuned for the Promotion Tournament results article.

That’s not all. Stay tuned for our look back at the EU LCS to find out the fates of neo-Fnatic, the beloved Unicorns of Love, and SK Gaming.

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