LCS Spring Split 2020: Week 5 Team Power Rankings

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League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games. /

As we pass the halfway point of the 2020 LCS Spring Split, it’s time to rank all our teams and give them a grade on how they’ve done so far this split.

The LCS teams came into the 2020 Spring Split with wildly different expectations. From continuing a dynasty (Team Liquid), to becoming the class of NA (Cloud9 and CLG), to reclaiming past glory (TSM and Immortals), these teams have either met, exceeded, or missed those expectations.

With over half the split done and each of the teams having played every other team at least once, it’s a good time to reflect on where the teams are and where we thought they would be. Therefore, in addition to their elo rankings, I’ll be giving each team a grade based on how they are performing relative to my pre-season projections.

10. CLG (1-9)

Elo: 196 (+34)

Hooo boy was I wrong on this one. I predicted CLG to go 11-7 based on their solid core of Wiggily, Ruin, and Stixxay, with the upgrade of Crown in the mid lane pushing them into the top four of the LCS. Clearly, that won’t be happening as CLG has already lost more than seven games and Crown has been benched in favor of Pobelter.

It’s hard to pin down what went wrong other than “everything.” Crown has vastly underperformed, Smoothie appears to have little synergy with the rest of the team and is clearly a downgrade from Biofrost, and the team overall looks completely disjointed. With the pieces already starting to get blown up, it’s a question now of what players from CLG will be on the team at the start of summer.

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1st half grade: F

9. Evil Geniuses (4-6)

Elo: 308 (+16)

Even though I predicted this team to go 12-6, meaning they’d have to win out to make my prediction accurate, I don’t think I was massively off in judging this team. I worried about their coordination and synergy while acknowledging that the raw talent was there. I just assumed that the talent would be enough to out-muscle teams like Golden Guardians and 100 Thieves.

And, to be fair, EG might still do that. With eight games remaining Evil Geniuses are tied for sixth place with plenty of opportunities to make top five.

Their bot lane has been incredibly solid, at least, so they need to play around that and they’ll probably be looking to upgrade top lane after the split ends. There’s still enough talent on this team for them to make a run.

1st half grade: C-

8. Golden Guardians (4-6)

Elo: 324 (-38)

I thought Golden Guardians would be lucky to win three games this split. I did not account for the rest of North America tripping over itself like a Simpsons gag to allow GGS to back their way into four wins in the first half of the split. Now, as shocking as it may have seemed at the beginning of the year, GGS actually has a legitimate shot at making playoffs.

That is in no small part to several players stepping up massively in this split. New jungler Closer has proven that he is worth the import slot, despite my initial misgivings. Mid laner Goldenglue and ADC FBI have played well above expectations. Hauntzer has been a rock in the top lane. And Keith…well they can’t all be winners.

1st half grade: A-

7. Team Liquid (4-6)

Elo: 338 (-7)

The good news for TL is that since the start of franchising in 2018, teams that end Week 5 with a 4-6 record have a better than not chance of making the playoffs. Three of the five teams in this scenario made the playoffs, so Liquid definitely is not out of it yet.

The bad news, though, is that according to the elo rankings they’re still firmly behind the top of the pack despite taking a win off of Dignitas. In truth, watching that game it was very clear that DIG played quite poorly that game, but it was nice to see flashes of old Team Liquid again.

That said, TL is a statistically solid team relative to the rest of the LCS. They’re at the top of the leaderboards in terms of average game time for their wins, gold per minute, and gold spread, meaning they tend to win games hard. If they can continue to grow and improve, I have no doubt they’ll be back in the top three of LCS, but we still can’t ignore that this start has been a massive disappointment.

1st half grade: D

6. 100 Thieves (4-6)

Elo: 360 (+4)

I was wary about 100 Thieves entering this season mainly because of ry0ma. Thus far, nothing he has done has proven me wrong, as he’s consistently been one of the bottom two or three mid laners in the LCS this split.

Their predicted record of 7-11 is still definitely a reasonable prediction on my part as their underlying stats betray a team that’s not nearly as good as their record would indicate. Without some major improvements, I think 100 Thieves will start to run out of gas very quickly. Still, they’ve at least done as well as expected and the Thieves do have themselves in a position to potentially push for a playoff spot.

1st half grade: B

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