League of Legends: LCS power rankings Week 8
By Josh Tyler
League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games.
5. Golden Guardians (7-9)
From here the LCS rankings are going to be fairly obvious, but let’s go through GGs anyway. This team is in the catbird seat, as at least two teams below them need to win one game just to tie the Guardians. If they finish tied with CLG, they win because of the 2-0 sweep this season. Both OpTic and Echo Fox both have splits, so they’d get a tiebreaker if they end up tied.
So the worst case scenario for Golden Guardians would be going 0-2 on the week and ending 7-11, CLG wins out to beat them on record, meaning Echo Fox could only do 1-1 on the weekend (by upsetting Liquid) and be tied with the Guardians who they split the season series with.
That would leave OpTic needing to win out to overtake GGs for the last playoff spot but that would require OpTic winning their upcoming matchup on Saturday. If they split (say OpTic beat Golden Guardians but then somehow lost to 100 Thieves) the Guardians would again have the tiebreaker available.
Bottom line, the Golden Guardians control their destiny heading into the last week because if they beat OpTic they’re in. If they lose, they’ll probably get to play a play-in game for the final spot.
4. FlyQuest (9-7)
Take nothing away from FlyQuest, that win over TL last weekend was huge because it locked them into playoffs and basically assured no team could overtake them for the fourth spot (other than Golden Guardians who could at best tie their record by winning out). So now they’re going to be looking to see if they can catch TSM to get the third seed and an easier first-round matchup.
It’s doable since they can match TSM’s record by winning out and TSM losing out. They’d have to play a tiebreaker for the higher playoff seed since they split the season series, but they also need to win out. Facing Cloud9 and Golden Guardians in the final weekend of play, those two wins are not guaranteed. It’s more likely than not they’ll end the season right in that fourth spot.
3. TSM (11-5)
TSM is almost certainly locked into 3rd place in the LCS playoffs right now. They need to pass Cloud9 to overtake them for the second position since C9 took the season series 2-0. As discussed above, they only need a win or FlyQuest loss to guarantee them the third spot and they’ll have a great chance to do that on Saturday against a Clutch team that’s all but dead.
The big intriguing match will come on Sunday, though, as Liquid will be hungry to prove they’re not losing a step and get revenge for that Week 4 loss. The good news for TSM is that they swept their season series 2-0 against all three teams that would be their likely round one opponents: CLG, OpTic, and Echo Fox.
2. Cloud9 (12-4)
Some more cracks in the armor starting to show for Cloud9, as they dropped a game to Echo Fox in surprising fashion. That doesn’t bode well for C9, that half of their losses have come to teams that are firmly towards the middle of the pack.
Luckily, as noted above, they’re going to likely be able to clinch that first round bye if they beat either FlyQuest or Clutch, as TSM would need to overtake their record. If C9 doesn’t lock their spot in the second round this weekend, it might be time for their fans to press the panic button.
1. Team Liquid (14-2)
Another shocking loss came this weekend, TL falling at the hands of Echo Fox. It really is jarring that Liquid seems to be losing a bit of their swagger and polish entering the playoffs, but in all honesty, I’m not too worried.
They’ve dominated their closest competition, C9 in both games this year and they have a chance to prove that loss to TSM was a fluke. The number one team in the LCS, Liquid has nothing to play for this weekend but pride and revenge. That’s probably motive enough.
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Who do you think will lock in the final two playoff spots in the LCS? Let us know in the comments below!