Post-Rift Rivals LCS Power Rankings
After four weeks of topsy-turvy League of Legends Championship Series action, traditional hierarchies are proving more brittle than ever.
Spring playoff participants are winless, last-place spring teams are playoff contenders, and cosplay superheroes are making triumphant returns.
Welcome to the West Fiesta.
We’re combining NA and EU for a grand-scheme response to the first four weeks of LCS play. Rankings within tiers are listed in order.
All statistics are provided by LoLEsports and its Fantasy LCS database.
S Tier
Misfits
Want to be a successful LCS player? Join Misfits. By the law of averages, a MSF player can expect:
- A 13.64 KDA
- Four kills per game per player
- A Hextech Protobelt-01’s worth of gold per game just for the turrets you kill
- Wins, wins, wins
Misfits strolled past their toughest test of the split in G2 Esports, protecting their undefeated record essentially guaranteeing a high seed in playoffs.
With a victory over ROCCAT, Misfits will have beaten every team in EU at least once, and will realistically have locked in their spot in playoffs.
A Tier
G2 Esports
I would not classify the matches in G2’s 0-2 weekend as “quality losses,” but there is no reason at this point to discount their 6-0 start. Luka “Perkz” Perković still leads the LCS in both regions in kills, and G2 would be in sole possession of a bye week were the season to end today.
Fnatic
G2 Esports’ 0-2 week is an exceedingly welcome sight for Fnatic, especially considering the battering they took at the hands of Splyce on Friday.
Fnatic has fully embraced the post 8.11 meta, opting for boundary-pushing compositions. To date, they’ve dispatched Swain, Janna, Singed, Karma, Ryze, Yasuo, Jayce, and Jarvan IV into service in the hands of Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau and Martin “Rekkles” Larsson.
Counter Logic Gaming
Counter Logic Gaming have quietly put together a few significant wins (100, FOX, FLY) en route to a first place standing. With a 100% first-blood rate, CLG is flying high in the early game, hamstringing opponents early, and capitalizing on those advantages. Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun currently leads all NA LCS mid laners in kills, playing an integral role in the team’s success.
Team Vitality
Per Fantasy LCS statistics, Team Vitality is the second-best performing team across both regions. In eight games, Vitality has secured six first bloods, slain eight barons, and toppled 63 towers. As it stands, their downfall will be their lack of a marquee win. All of their victories have come against teams at or below .500.
B Tier
100 Thieves
Though their five-game win streak was snapped by Golden Guardians, 100 Thieves didn’t lose significant ground in the NA playoff race thanks to losses by Team Liquid and Team SoloMid. Parity, however, is not 100T’s friend, as the top seven teams in North America are within one game of each other.
Echo Fox
Until Echo Fox and 100 Thieves square off next Saturday, it’s hard to place one over another. As it stands, FOX takes the backseat due to a lower quality loss (OpTic Gaming). Unlike last split, no Echo Fox starters rank in the top three in Kills, Assists, Kill Participation, CSpM, or total CS.
FlyQuest
FlyQuest are 4-1 in their last five games. Despite poor first blood numbers, they are controlling matches of late in the mid and late-game via restrictive macro play and an ability to compete with both traditional and contemporary metagames. On Sunday, they embarrassed Team Liquid with the former.
Team Liquid
You cannot discount a split full of quality wins (TSM, FOX, 100, CLG), but a 24 minute 19-1 clobbering at the hands of upstart Flyquest exposes Team Liquid’s lack of communication, and a tendency to lose to inferior teams (GGS, FLY). If this is the best NA has to offer, American fans should be concerned.
C Tier
Team SoloMid
Team SoloMid is failing to stay upright on the waves they create. They have alternated between 2-0 and 0-2 in each of the first four weekends of play, killing their momentum every even weekend. With only one win against one of the top four teams (CLG, W1G1), TSM needs to carry a win streak against low-tier opposition longer than two games to compete.
They’re set up with easy matches in the next two weeks (OPT, CG, C9, FLY). They must capitalize to compete for a bye.
Golden Guardians
For the first time in organization history, Golden Guardians have ended a weekend 2-0. They’ve already matched their win total from the Spring Split, and considering the breakout performance of Son “Mickey” Young-min, the 4th best Mid Laner in the west by KDA, they are heading in the right direction. A deep playoff run is likely unrealistic for GGS, but a playoff appearance is now a very real possibility.
FC Schalke 04
FC Schalke 04 is playing well around dragons this split, but not securing crucial Barons that would help them decrease their game time (average 32 minutes). Oskar “Vander” Bogdan is S04’s standout performer relative to role, ranked second in KDA among EU supports, and first in kill participation.
Splyce
Riot did Splyce no favors with a miserable three game stretch to start the season, but they’ve been laying the hurt on EU since week two, administering an absolute saucing to Fnatic this week. This lineup is better than their record.
Clutch Gaming
Apollo, at his best, is a positional virtuoso, a master of controlled aggression, and committed to a fault to the conventional marksman meta. Hey, it’s working for him.
Side note, Solo is very lucky that Maxtrobo is one of the worst top laners in Academy circuit, otherwise that DXRacer chair of his would be very hot right now.
ROCCAT
Everything ROCCAT has offered this split has been manifestly average. All their players fall between 3rd and 7th in KDA in EU, and they’ve struggled to secure objectives (two Barons, seven dragons). Fortunes have it that mediocre might just be enough for ROCCAT to steal the 6th seed in playoffs, especially considering the weakness of the bottom four, and ROC’s demonstrated ability to win high-stress contests (see attached bloodbath for reference).
D Tier
Unicorns of Love
UOL got smacked around a lot less when Romain managed them.
Just saying.
Giants Gaming
Giants’ victory over G2 Esports has much more impact near the top of the standings than it does at the bottom. It’s a poetic note for Giants, but playoff-capable teams do not lose six straight games to average teams, regardless of who they beat in an any-given-Sunday scenario. Pass.
Cloud9
Somehow, Cloud9 continues to find new ways to disappoint. The triumphant return of Pizza Delivery Sneaky pushed them to a victory over red-hot FlyQuest, but their match against CLG, which could have propelled them within two games of first place in a crowded upper half, ended in heartbreak after a heated comeback.
Until this team fully reunites the original roster, synergy and late-game composure will continue to be an issue.
Optic Gaming
Dhokla needs to seat his greed and get a lot smarter about his split pushing. OpTic lost a very winnable game against Clutch on Sunday off the back of a 4v5 Baron defense that should have included Dhokla’s Gnar. With his Teleport available, Dhokla opted to push for the win instead of equalizing the fight.
OpTic lost.
F Tier
H2K
With a combined team KDA of 1.15, a -85 kill/death differential, and a paltry 5.5 kills per game, the issues with H2K are no mystery. This team has secured first blood 0 times, killed 0 Barons, has 0 gold leads after 15 minutes, and has knocked down only two turrets per game. Top Laner Lennart “SmittyJ” Warkus has been particularly useless, sporting a 0.8 KDA (LCS-worst) and a 7/31 kill-death split (worst among all non-supports).