Tales of the LCS, Issue #4
Mid-Split Mayhem
By the time next week’s games finish, more than half the Spring Split’s matches will be over. The landscapes of both Europe and North America are starting to become clear. There were some teams that went into this year with a lot of hype, only to crumble not long after the kickoff. Still, others were determined to surprise, emerging as formidable newcomers from their neophyte shells.
With that, let’s take a look at the main surprises that jumped at us out of the brush in week 4 of the League of Legends Championship Series.
The Story So Far…
The Power of the Love Train
One of Europe’s biggest success stories is the team called Unicorns of Love. UOL wasn’t the top seed to challenge the LCS teams of last split, but were the only ones to qualify out of the challenger scene. On top of that, they were privately funded by the family of team manager Fabian “Sheepy” Mallant, with no sponsors until Razer recently decided to back them. Their unique team name and penchant for oddball champion picks quickly endeared them to the public, and a win over Team Solo Mid at Intel Extreme Masters San Jose fueled the so-called hype train turned love train until their debut in the EU LCS proper.
What many wrote off as beginner’s luck, or a run of cheese that relied on quirky top lane Poppy and surprise jungle Twisted Fate picks to win, was quickly dispelled. UOL have shown that they can play the standard meta and play it well. They’ve scored impressive victories over more experienced teams such as ROCCAT, as well as the red hot neo-Fnatic squad. Now they are 5-3 in the standings, ranking third overall going into week 5.
The Unicorns love to fight and oftentimes they gallop into battle on the back of their star mid laner Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage. The young German prodigy has distinguished himself as a master of Syndra and gained notoriety during the team’s stint in the challenger circuit by besting old guard staples Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez (formerly of SK Gaming) and Alexey “Alex Ich” Ichetovkin (formerly of Gambit Gaming’s classic Moscow 5 lineup) in lane.
He’s since brought out six champions in only eight games, showing a level of diversity not typically found in rookie players. Even Martin “Rekkles” Larsson, the golden child and MVP of the 2014 Summer Split, simply stuck to a Graves pick for seven games straight this season.
The Unicorns of Love may be new faces to the scene, but they have already become household names. They’re a group of friends living a dream they never expected to live and they look like they’re having fun playing League on the big stage, something often overlooked in such a high-pressure competitive environment. As they are now, the young team is poised to reach levels of success a new LCS team hasn’t obtained since Cloud 9 first graced North America.
Elements Fading
Call the Avatar, because the Elements are out of balance! Coming into this season as last year’s Summer Split champions must weigh heavily on any team and for Elements, it seems that the pressure has shaken them a little. When they were under the Alliance banner, they were the European super team. Their players were handpicked by legendary mid laner Henrik “Froggen” Hansen as the most talented individuals who were hungry for the win. Froggen built this squad around himself for the express purpose of taking the Summoner’s Cup at Worlds.
While that dream fell short in 2014 after an insane upset loss to KaBuM! e-Sports, the controversial addition of the Rekkles to the team was hailed as the final component to push Elements over the top. With the Summer Split MVP on their side, you’d think the super team would start being super and dominate in 2015. Instead, they find themselves at 4-4, squarely in the middle of the pack and tied with the likes of the often underestimated Copenhagen Wolves!
Does Rekkles still have issues gelling with his team?
Their 0-2 week 4 can be attributed to two things, namely inflexibility and predictability. Elements have run the same type of team since week 1, which is a late game scaling composition, combined with a playstyle that is rather passive until one or two core items have been bought across the team. This results in a rather weak early game that their opponents can capitalize on. Add the fact that they sometimes take no reliable form of wave clear and they essentially open themselves to being “KaBuM’d” repeatedly. And let’s not forget that it hasn’t been two weeks since Rekkles went on about their team environment not being in the best state at the moment.
Elements need to start showing that they have more in the tank than one solid strategy as a fallback, strategies that rely on more than just their innate skill to carry them. With more successful teams such as SK Gaming and Fnatic showing that it’s more about team play than star power, the different Elements need to work in harmony if they want to reclaim their crown.
Their first big step towards rebounding has surprisingly come in the form of a new top laner. Mike “Wickd” Petersen, who has been playing with Froggen since the CLG.eu days in 2012, is being replaced by Kevin “kev1n” Rubiszewski who has had successful runs as part of SK Gaming and Millenium in the past.
Business as Usual in North America
One surprise that struck the other side of the Atlantic was an anti-surprise. Though we expected many shake-ups to occur and carve out a clear power curve out of week 1’s 7-way tie, the LCS’s fourth week left us with… ties. You’d think it was a business meeting with how many ties North America has right now. Team Impulse, Cloud 9, Gravity Gaming, Team Liquid and Winterfox all sit at 4-4, while Team8 and Dignitas are sitting just one win behind. That’s right, just when we expected some teams to make power plays, the majority of them simply didn’t, and parity remains prevalent. Surprise!
While this usually means that a league is rather competitive as was usually the case with Korea’s old OnGameNet The Champions, in North America, the parity can be attributed to many teams simply being inconsistent.
Team 8’s run of good form in week 3 was met with a reverse performance for this week, losing both their games rather handily just when they seemed to get their unique playstyle of funneling carrying power onto their star top laner Steven “CaliTrlolz” Kim.
Team Impulse, Gravity Gaming and Winterfox all suffer from the same syndrome in that for every dominant game they pull out, they get dominated in turn. The differences in their wins and losses are night and day, and there’s no clear indicator that these teams are aware of what can consistently work for them. For Winterfox at least, the next week will finally bring their true support, Jang “Imagine” Hyeonsu, back from Korea as his VISA issues were sorted out.
For teams like Team Liquid and Cloud 9, theirs is the burden of not living up to expectations. One team has a world champion AD carry in Chae “Piglet” Gwangjin, and the other is a two-time NA LCS champion. Despite being poised for success, they look sluggish and sometimes disjointed on the Rift. Whatever their internal issues, the hype is quickly fading despite their pedigrees. They’ll need to find something to make them click soon, lest they end the season in mediocrity.
Chae “Piglet” Gwangjin’s struggles with his new team prove too hot to handle for now.
In Liquid’s case, their management has decided to bench Piglet. While the thought of sidelining a world championship level player may sound absurd, Piglet has obviously had a rough time adjusting to his new environment on Liquid. Controversy aside, the organization feels it is best to run with Yuri “KEITHMCBRIEF“ Jew, the week 1 sub that surprised everyone with his dominating performances. Benching players mid-split has worked for some organizations before, most notably with Gambit and Evil Geniuses when they still played in Europe. Rest assured that Piglet’s comeback will not be a question of “if” but “when”.
The Golden Age vs the Golden Boys
Two teams that didn’t settle for mediocrity however are Team Solo Mid and Counter Logic Gaming, the teams that make up the oldest rivalry in the history of League of Legends. With pink hair dye promised for the owner of the losing team, both squads gave it their all this week, carrying the honor of their organization in their play. So it was that CLG’s new golden age of good form went to battle against the fan favorites, the perpetual golden boys of North America, TSM.
With both teams scoring a win on the first day, it was down to this match to decide which team is truly number one in the region right now. Both teams started off countering each other’s moves perfectly, with vision being cleverly denied by CLG’s Jake “Xmithie” Puchero to stop TSM’s tower diving and dragon control. The mid game came with little bloodshed until CLG’s monopoly of the dragon forced TSM to make bolder engages. And that’s when the turn happened.
TSM’s top laner, Marcus “Dyrus” Hill and coach Choi “Locodoco” Yoonsub beaming after the big win over their rivals.
Up until this point, CLG was slowly draining the map control away from TSM, and even got to destroy an inhibitor to open up the base. But one botched teamfight was all TSM needed. CLG’s Austin “LiNk” Shin missed a crucial opportunity for a Lissandra ultimate and Yiliang “DoubleLift” Peng went too far forward to go for kills, costing him his life. The misplays would stack themselves high on CLG’s part, and with one skirmish after another, TSM would eventually close the book on their rivals.
The biggest thing to note this match was the fact that TSM’s shot calling, while unstable at times, came together when it mattered. TSM’s mid lane ace, Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, was back on his signature Zed pick, and truly put the team on his back, as he has been doing consistently throughout the Split. While there were definitely holes in their play, and possible future problems for the team in terms of the international scene, for now TSM reigns supreme in NA, painting CLG’s golden age a nice bright shade of pink.
Week 5 Matches to Watch
Team ROCCAT vs Elements 
It’s difficult to imagine that what would be a top billed match in the summer of last year is now a middle of the table battle in 2015. Both teams are coming off a 0-2 week, and not to mention an underwhelming season thus far, especially for the defending Champions who will field kev1n in a trial by fire. Who will be the first to turn their fortunes around?
SK Gaming vs Fnatic 
North America doesn’t get to have all the fun when it comes to premiere matches. This week, viewers will be treated to Europe’s very own El Clásico. SK and Fnatic have been bitter rivals since before League of Legends, all the way back to the original Counter-Strike.
Once the top two teams in EU, both organizations have seen falls from grace and scores of new players, and they’ve played through entirely different landscapes to get where they are now. After years of battle, the two stand at the top of the European ladder once more. Though much has changed, you can be sure of one thing — this is going to be an epic League of Legends match as SK looks to tie Fnatic’s record 9 win streak.
Cloud 9 vs Counter Logic Gaming 
CLG was riding hot until their big defeat to their perpetual rivals last week. Cloud 9 was riding hot as the undisputed best team in North America until the start of this season. Both teams have chips on their shoulders, have something to prove and have a whole lot of Summoner’s Rift to let out their frustrations.
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