LCS Summer 2020 Power Rankings: Week 5 was the Week of Upsets
By Josh Tyler
LCS Summer 2020 Week 5 is in the books, here is where the teams sit in our LCS power rankings.
3. TSM (6-4)
Elo: 407 (-50)
Losing to Cloud9, that was not only expected but understandable. At least they put up a decent fight and didn’t look completely outclassed. However, losing to Immortals is just unacceptable.
You cannot lose a game to a bottom-two team in the LCS, especially after they just lost badly to the worst team in the league the day before. That is the sort of loss that prevents TSM from creating separation from those 5-5 teams and solidifying themselves as a top-tier team.
A lot of questions are going to have to be answered by TSM this week as they gear up to face a surging 100 Thieves team along with FlyQuest. In particular, they need to figure out what the heck they are doing with those terrible drafts that have cost them so much this year. They’ll also need to figure out how to get Broken Blade back on track after he went a combined 1/8/2 this weekend.
2. Team Liquid (8-2)
Elo: 484 (+15)
In a week where seemingly every other top team faltered, TL climbs our power rankings by doing the bare minimum: not losing to bad teams. Neither game was particularly impressive, as they needed over 35 minutes to close out both CLG and Golden Guardians, but TL will certainly take those wins.
TL’s most consistent and impressive play this weekend was most-certainly mid laner Jensen, who went 7/1/10 over the two games. Beating up on Pobelter and Damonte wasn’t exactly stiff competition, but you can only beat the person across the lane from you. Next week, he’ll have to prove his mettle against Jiizuke, who was one of the best mids last split.
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1. Cloud9 (9-1)
Elo: 523 (-42)
After winning the much-ballyhooed rivalry game against TSM it looked like smooth sailing for Cloud9 to run the table the rest of the way and take the first undefeated LCS split ever. But, incredibly, they lost to 100 Thieves in under 28 minutes.
Even now, I still have difficulty wrapping my head around how C9 managed to lose. Blaber, the reigning LCS MVP, got absolutely run over by Contractz, the normally-safe top laner Licorice got outclassed by Ssumday, and a rookie support looked better than Vulcan. C9 didn’t lose on a fluke play or by running into a superior comp, they got fairly and squarely beaten.
That said, like in the Spring Split, I fully expect Cloud9 to learn a valuable lesson from this loss and come out stronger on the other side. One loss does not erase the incredible resume they built in the first half of the split.