NA LCS Grades: Week 6

Here are the NA LCS grades after all 10 games from week six.

It feels like the NA LCS was just on it’s way back, but here we are with only three weeks remaining in the regular season of the spring split.

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For the most part, we have now seen enough to give us a general idea of every team. As the push for the playoffs begin, it’s time to take a step back and dish out grades for all 10 teams.

Cloud9 – A

Spoiler alert, but Cloud9 are a great team with Hai in the lineup.

They went 2-0 this week, but it was a strong showing with wins against TSM and NRG.

TSM and Cloud9 always create a super hyped environment, and they didn’t disappoint this time around. 46 kills went down between the two teams, but it was C9 who came out on top after nearly 47 hard minutes on Summoner’s Rift. This was a quality win that’s nice to have on their resume.

NRG isn’t a top team, but they are a respectable team that can put up a good fight. However, Cloud9 didn’t have much trouble with them as they gained more control as the game carried on and ultimately won in 38 minutes.

Cloud9 is 8-4 overall and tied with CLG for the second spot in the league. It will be interesting to see if they throw Bunny FuFuu in at support instead of Hai for a game or two. That’s probably what they would like to do, but doing that might risk their second place spot. Only time will tell.

Echo Fox – A

Things were really rough for awhile for Echo Fox, but they have turned that around with two perfect weeks in a row.

They defeated Liquid in a 58-minute game on Saturday that went down to the very last team fight. It’s moments like those that can carry a team forward in the future.

The momentum from that game did indeed carry over in today’s match as they easily handled whatever Impulse tried to throw at them.

It’s good that they were able to dominate these last couple of weeks, because their schedule gets very tough moving forward. Next week, Echo Fox will have to battle against TSM and Immortals. They will get a lot of respect if they split those games or are at least strongly competitive in both.

As of now, Echo Fox is 5-7, which has them in sixth place. Not too shabby for a team that had to use subs for awhile.

Immortals – A

The goal coming into this week was to stay perfect, and they did that.

They opened their weekend of games against Renegades, and the game was surprisingly more competitive than most people had imagined. They were down 7-1 in kills at one point, but they were never behind and always had control of the game. They ended up taking the game at the 32-minute mark.

Today’s game against Liquid was supposed to be the game of the day, but Immortals wasn’t having any of that. They came out and smacked Liquid from the very beginning, and built a massive 11K gold lead by 18 minutes in. That’s just nuts. The game was never in question.

Immortals are now 12-0 on the season with a comfortable lead in first place (next closest team has four losses). Since first place seems like a lock for them, the story now becomes if they can continue being perfect.

Counter Logic Gaming – B+

Relax, CLG fans. It would be nice to give them that beautiful “A,” but it would feel wrong to do that for beating two bad teams.

They dominated Impulse in their first game of the weekend, and followed it up with a strong win over Renegades the next day. There’s not a lot to say here. CLG is a top team, whereas the two teams they played are not. That doesn’t give us much to take away, but it’s good that CLG handled business and proved they are in a class above the teams they played.

At 8-4, CLG is now tied with Cloud9 for second place in the NA LCS. It doesn’t look like they’ll have a shot at the top spot, so they need to focus on holding down the two-seed in the final three weeks of the regular season.

Team Dignitas – B

This weekend kind of sums up the story of Dignitas. They are a bad team that isn’t bad enough to be relegated, and sometimes they can put on a good show and beat a solid team. Wooo!

Saturday had Dignitas battling the mediocre NRG, and even NRG looked to be too much to handle for them – and that’s bad. Maybe it was the Karma pick by GBM that nobody saw coming, but Dignitas never had control of the game and fell at 27 minutes.

However, in true Dignitas fashion, they bounced back today with a shocking win against TSM. It was a very competitive game the entire time, but Dignitas pulled ahead as the game progressed since they simply worked better as a team. Their comp was a lot better than TSM’s, and that definitely showed in the fights.

Dignitas is tied for the eighth spot with a 4-8 record.

NRG Esports – C

NRG is the definition of a mediocre team, and that’s not a bad thing. Yeah, for them it’s bad because they want to be the best, but every league needs mediocre teams – and NRG is here to fill that need.

GBM was the first person in the NA LCS to bust out Zilean mid, and he continued being a trendsetter this week by playing Karma. Dignitas were the first people to feel the wrath of the cheese, and perhaps it was too much for them as NRG cruised to a smooth victory.

NRG was hoping to have similar results against Cloud9, but the latter simply proved to be the better team.

The loss moved NRG to 6-6 which is good enough for fifth place currently. It looks like they will be a playoff team, but a playoff team with no shot at actually doing anything.

Oh a separate note, Impact is supposed to be one of the best top laners in the world, but NRG continually puts him on tank champions. Please, let this man show you he can carry!

Liquid – D

Liquid has been a really weird team to predict this season, but this was supposed to be the week where they showed us something. However, instead of doing that, they dropped the ball and lost both games.

The game against Echo Fox on Saturday was a rough one. Liquid was slightly ahead as the last fight of the game broke out right in front of Echo Fox’s base. If they win that fight, they win the game. Simple. However, as Phreak so eloquently put it: “Oh my god. Keith is a superhero.” Keith got an amazing quadra kill with Lucian to win the game at 58 minutes. Tough game for anyone associated with Liquid.

It would have been nice if this loss lit a fire under Liquid’s behind for their game against Immortals, but that didn’t happen either. Not much should be said about that game on the side of Liquid. To put it nicely, Immortals demonstrated they they are on an entire different level than Liquid.

Liquid now finds themselves in sixth place with a 5-7 record. The rest of the season will test them as they could head into the playoffs or fall with the bottom tier of the league. Hopefully it’s the former, because there is a lot to like about them.

Renegades – D

Oh, Renegades. Alex Ich is a legend. Crumbzz is good on the analyst desk. Freeze is a monster AD. Why can’t you be good (or at least mediocre)?

We should never expect anything from Renegades, because this week might be as good as it gets for them.

They lost against both Immortals and CLG, and in the end weren’t even close to winning, but they were competitive and entertaining during the beginning of both of them, so that’s…something.

The good news for them is that they do have an easier schedule next week with games against NRG and Dignitas. Renegades has the very last spot in the NA LCS with only one win, and their goal at this point should be to avoid getting relegated.

Team Impulse – F

Impulse had a decent start to their season, but they are 1-5 over the last three weeks – and that includes this weekend’s 0-2 outing.

They seem like a team that lacks identity, and it’s hard to say they have anything going for them.

A loss to CLG on Saturday wasn’t surprisng, but the fact they they got smashed in under 26 minutes with a 15.5K gold deficit was. It was a walk in the park for CLG, and losses like that are awful for any team.

Today against Echo Fox was their opportunity to redeem themselves, but they dropped the ball with that one as well. It was one of those games were they essentially lost in champion select, and Echo Fox proved that by making it an incredibly easy game.

Impulse is now tied with Dignitas for the second-worst record in the league at 4-8. Yes, it’s about winning games, but it’s also about putting up a fight and showing that you are improving as a team. That’s what Impulse needs to show us.

Team SoloMid – F

Doublelift performing well. Giving fans false hope. Wait, are we sure this isn’t CLG?

It’s just confusing. TSM had a rough start to the season, as expected, but they looked great last week. A lot of people thought last week’s strong outing was the start of something special for TSM, but all that hope was taken away after the last two days.

The Saturday showdown against Cloud9 was a fantastic game, but it felt like TSM should have won it. They crumbled as the game moved on and lost the fights that mattered the most.

TSM fans weren’t going crazy over the loss to Cloud9 since they are a top team, and besides, TSM would bounce back with an easy win over Dignitas – right? Nope, not on this day. TSM didn’t win the round of champion select, and they couldn’t win the fights that mattered as the game carried on.

This was the first 0-2 week of the season for TSM, and hopefully it’s their last. They are now in fourth place with a 7-5 record, and second place is only one game away.

Make sure to check in every Sunday night for the NA LCS grades!

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