North America has never been closer and week after week it’s getting harder and harder to rank the middle tier of teams. Topping off the four-way tie for fourth place in traditional form is Team Liquid. TSM and several other teams remain unchanged while Gravity drops. Week 6 is a great week to shake things up again and see if the upsets maintain the unstable state of the standings. The playoff picture is starting to come together as TSM and CLG try and fight off Cloud 9 to keep their byes in the first round.
Dropping only their first game since week 1, TSM lost a game to Liquid where they never quite gave up. TSM was nearly able to come back from the impossible setting up some insane plays for WildTurtle towards the end of the game. TSM did roll over Coast in the first game but Liquid showed again that the Goliath of NA is beatable. Despite this, their position at the top of the power rankings remains theirs.
A tough loss to Cloud 9 in week 5 put CLG back a game and closer to the pack. Despite the loss, they still look very strong and have only lost to elite teams (TSM, Cloud 9, Liquid) and have beat Cloud 9 once before. They’ll look to take revenge on Liquid in week 6 to show they belong up there with TSM and try to claim their stake as North America’s best.
A 2-0 week against two strong opponents certainly makes you think Cloud 9 is returning to their former glory. As the find their stride yet this split, they’ll look to compete for one of the top spots while fending off the even teams. They’ll put it in cruise control week 6 against Coast and then match up against Winterfox on day 2. Should they be able to pull another sweep, they’ll hope to advance the power rankings.
If Liquid can continue the momentum they’ve generated last week with their huge win over TSM, it’ll be clear they belong among the elite NA teams. It is worrisome that they couldn’t finish out the game against TSM cleanly, but they finished it nonetheless. Keith’s influence has really helped the team find their stride and if he continues to perform well, Liquid can find their way deep into the playoffs. Hoping to erase forever fourth, they’ll have a chance to prove themselves again with CLG in week 6.
They beat Liquid to bring their win streak to 3 but drop the game to Dignitas? Winterfox is finding their play a little bit erratic and not as consistent as they’d like. CLG and Cloud 9 wait for them in Week 6 giving them the toughest schedule of all teams. Will Winterfox step up to the plate and show they deserve to be a contender in the LCS or begin their struggles again? Time will tell.
Despite their even record, Impulse hasn’t had an impressive win this entire split. They’ll need to find some way to start beating top tier teams if they want to do more than just survive in the LCS. They’ll battle Team 8 and TSM in week 6 which doesn’t give them two easy wins by any means. Impulse seems to be a team that could break out or break down at any time.
Much like Impulse, Gravity hasn’t had a strong win since Week 1 where they took down a struggling Cloud 9 team. The difference being that Gravity has also dropped two games to Impulse. There is a positive though, they can prove themselves worthy of the playoffs with a win over Liquid in week 6 and then round out the week with a game against Coast.
Only able to bounce back and take one win after their winless week, Team 8 needs to do more to separate themselves from Dignitas and make sure they avoid the 10th place auto relegation. They’ll have a chance to get their revenge on KiwiKid and the crew after a week 4 loss. Should they be able to get back on their feet and go undefeated in week 6, they could show they’re still very much alive and realistic competitors in the playoff hunt.
While they’ve managed 3-3 in the last three weeks, they still are having extremely difficult games coming up and are going to struggle to do better than 1-1 in any of the remaining weeks. Assuming that happens, Dignitas would finish 8-10, which likely would be not good enough for 7th place and automatic re-qualification.
Things aren’t looking good for Coast who need to start winning and need to find a way to start now. Automatic relegation draws near as the remaining weeks dwindle and we pass the halfway point in the split. Unless Dignitas or Team 8 lose out the rest of the season, they’ll need to go undefeated in at least one week in the last 4 weeks.
All photos by LoL Esports
