This article is part of our LoL Season Splits series.
The first three weeks of LCS have come and gone, and every major region has seen some fierce competition thus far. Surprises have ensued, and yet some things have stayed the same (like SKT's record). In today's portion of the two-part series, we'll review the landscape of the North American and European regions.
North America
North America saw an abundance of new faces and organizations coming into this split. With only six of the nine teams from last split participating, there is plenty of new blood and new competition to watch. With goals to exceed North America's abysmal showing at Worlds, teams looked abroad to fill the gap in their rosters and form super teams that would be able to exceed previous expectations. Immortals, who currently remain undefeated in the league, is one of the newbies to the league, acquiring Team 8's spot and filling it with talent such as Huni and Reignover to round out their star-studded roster. Despite the success of Immortals, other organizations have floundered in their inaugural season as both Echo Fox and Renegades are tied at the bottom of the league. While Summer Split Champions, Counter Logic Gaming, remain in a top 2 position, it's unclear whether the top three teams at the end of this split will be remotely similar to the last splits, in which the top three spots went to TSM, CLG and Team Liquid.
The middle of the standings also prove to be somewhat interesting, riddled with teams who made an impressive showing last year. Despite qualifying for the World Championship last year, both Cloud9 and Team SoloMid remain in a four way tie for 4th place. With their recent destruction at the hands of NRG, it seems TSM has lost the synergy they possessed last split, as they had a near complete roster overhaul, with only star mid laner Bjergsen returning to the starting lineup. Tied with TSM for 4th place comes another huge surprise in the form of Team Impulse. Impulse, the team that failed to sell their spot in the LCS before the deadline and was forced to field a roster put together at the last minute, has utterly destroyed expectations so far. Their success this season has mainly come from their only returning player, Gate, who famously was thrown into the LCS mix last season when his predecessor XiaoWeiXiao was banned mid split for elo boosting. Gate, who played both support and mid lane for the team last split, has done a feat nobody has before, winning three consecutive games on three different roles. With an impressive performance in the top lane, and subsequent performances in the mid lane and support, Gate was able to bring his team's record to an even 3-3 this season. Each week, fans and analysts alike have expected this team to fall, but continue to surprise everyone and have the potential to be a team that will rise on the standings.
Former 3rd place finisher, Team Liquid has also made waves despite their lackluster performance. With their introduction of the first 10 man roster in North America, they have allowed for several rookies to get their debut in the LCS. Both Matt and Dardoch have found their way onto the stage, and have made vast improvements to their play since their NA LCS debuts. Since their poor start, in which the team went 0-3, the team has made dramatic improvements, winning their past three games, including one against league powerhouse NRG. It will be interesting to see how they develop the talent within their 10 man roster, and whether or not it becomes a standard practice amongst the league.
The final thing to pay attention to this split is NRG eSports. Thanks to the Sacramento Kings co-owner purchasing Coast's spot, the team has had high expectations. Coming into the league with a mixture of world renowned talent as well as rookies, it's roster has been making an impact on the league. Most recently, they had a near flawless game against former North American titans Team SoloMid, where they quickly dismantled TSM, claiming 19 kills while avoiding death. This split might be defined by the dethroning of the previous big four organizations, while new blood looks to fill their now abandoned throne. While it is three weeks into the season, it seems as though several teams who had prior success will need to make drastic changes to climb their way back to their former glory.
Europe
Europe was a region that few people had any expectations for going into this split. With the dismantling of the dominant Fnatic roster of last year, the top spot was wide open, and a mob of newly founded teams were looking to take it. Yet, of the super-teams that were predicted to dominate the spring split only one has done so as H2K shares the stage with one of the real surprise of this split thus far, G2. G2 entered the league after qualifying via the promotion tournament last year and unlike Origen before them, were expected to be a middling at best team, especially after the bizarre decision to move Kikis from jungle to top lane. While H2k technically holds the top spot by nature of their win over G2 in their head to head matching, being in the top spot at all is nothing short of a miracle for G2.
The top of the standing is not the only thing of interest, though, as the bottom is occupied by teams that seem as out of place there as G2 is in the lead. Last year's finalists, Fnatic and Origen, each find themselves holding hands with a 3-3 record, with only the truly hopeless teams beneath them. Each has demonstrated the brilliance they had last season in individual games, but each also seems prone to equally brilliant lapses of judgement that keep victory firmly out of their grasp. It's particularly mystifying in the case of Origen, who unlike Fnatic lost little of their original roster in the off-season. Week after week it's been expected that these two titans would dust off the rustiness and take the EU LCS by storm as they did last split, but it hasn't happened yet and time is running out for them to fix their underlying issues.
Still, it's hard to ignore how interesting a finals matchup between teams like G2 and Elements, who everyone thought nothing of, would be. If nothing else, Europe is currently the land of opportunity for teams, considering even clubs like Splyce and ROCCAT have managed to score convincing wins, and the next seven weeks are sure to do nothing but enhancement the excitement.
