NA LCS awards predictions for the 2016 Summer Split

Taking a look at the upcoming NA LCS awards.

The 2016 Summer Split was the best split the NA LCS has ever seen. The thrilling best-of-three format set us up for fantastic series, dominating performances and exciting upsets. In conjunction with Riot’s official player awards, let’s take a look at which players stood out for their teams. These awards will differ somewhat from Riot’s official categories, but don’t worry, we’ll start with one we can all agree on:

Most Valuable Player: Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg

Bjergsen, Team SoloMid’s iconic leader, is perhaps the most recognizable and popular player in the history of NA. In fact, TSM is basically named after his prowess.

After a forgettable Spring Split in which he and star ADC Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng failed to mesh

their talents with the rest of the team, some thought those two players might have fallen out of their prime.

Well, TSM fans, order has been restored and Bjergsen is again our king. He provided tremendous impact and pressure for Team SoloMid, allowing them to live up to their name and play the other lanes amazingly. His champion pool, the largest in the region, allows for creative picks that punish opponents in unique ways.

He never lost lane. He roamed all over for his team. He unlocked compositions that gave others nightmares. He led TSM on the greatest winning streak NA have ever seen. All of that spells M-V-P.

Second place: Immortals jungler Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin

Best Rookie: Vincent “Biofrost” Wang

TSM had an incredible split, and they definitely deserve any awards they will get. Biofrost stood out for his incredible play and synergy with Doublelift.

Biofrost came into the split as an unproven rookie, but he stood out for his incredible play and synergy with Doublelift.

Just type in “Biogod” into Google and you’ll get a litany of highlight videos like this:

The craziest part of that montage? Counter Logic Gaming’s Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black is one of the most accomplished players in the history of NA. His signature champion is Bard, and yet we are calling Biofrost, a rookie, a god on that champion.

And it wasn’t just his Bard. It was his Braum. His Karma. The way he saved Doublelift. The way he stepped into Bora “Yellowstar” Kim’s shoes (Yellowstar being all-star quality himself) and totally changed the way TSM played — for the better, of course. You can’t put all the blame on Yellowstar for the Spring Split — it was just a difference of gameplay and personality — but you can’t argue the results with Biofrost.

Biofrost is seriously good.

Second place: Phoenix1 jungler Rami “Inori” Charagh

Most Improved: Team EnVyUs ADC Benjamin “LOD” deMunck

LOD is a veteran of the LCS pro scene that has never really caught on with a top-tier organization. We really didn’t know what EnVy would look like heading into this split, but their torrid start caught a lot of eyes.

Then came the swoon to end the regular season, but its seems that over the last several weeks, LOD stepped up as a more consistent source of damage for them, and that was nice to see since they were winning at the start of the split despite some fairly innocuous performance in the duo lane.

Once the team was kicked down a peg and teams started realizing how to play against EnVy, LOD was still able to perform well.

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• 2023 LCS Summer Split Awards – LCS All-Pro Team

It’s interesting to see what a player is doing in losses, and in those games, LOD averaged an abysmal 2.65 KDA. However, some of those losses really weren’t his fault, and it was clear that he was always a solid player for the team. 

It’s also clear that LOD is a very clutch player as he just went a combined 12/3/19 against Echo Fox (admittedly the weakest duo in NA) in the last match of the season to save EnVy’s playoff spot.

Second place: Cloud9 support Andy “Smoothie” Ta

NA LCS First Team

Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell, Reignover, Bjergsen, Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi and Biofrost.

Biofrost and Immortals’ Adrain “Adrian” Ma were close, but when the two faced off against each other, TSM had ward control over Immortals and Adrian’s champion pool looked suspect.

NA LCS Second Team

Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, Eugene “Pobelter” Park, Doublelift and Adrian.

Doublelift and Sneaky can basically go either way, and it simply comes down to preference. Sneaky got the nod because of his innovation in champion pool and the fact that the rest of his team played more inconsistently than TSM all split and he still managed to shine and carry.

NA LCS Third Team

Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong, Jake “Xmithie” Puchero, Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen, LOD and Andy “Smoothie” Ta.

It was nice to see Impact have a good end to the split after a bad spring performance and inconsistent start. Xmithie holds the third-place jungle spot due to the impact on his team and the vision he provides. Liquid jungler Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett is a star in the making, but he makes a lot of mistakes trying to do too much. Jensen has stumbled a bit lately, but he is still Jensen. LOD and Smoothie both solidified their respective positions for playoff teams.

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