NA LCS Spring 2018 Mid-Season "Rest of the Way" Tier List

DISCLAIMER:
For clarification purposes this is a TIER LIST not a necessarily a prediction of placement like my Preseason list was specifically targeting. I'm going to put the teams in order from weakest to strongest by seasons end I'm not going to go through to guess every single matchup and predict wins and losses for all 30 remaining games because things change but I will give my rough estimatates for win and loss totals for each squad. Once again this is NOT necessarily how I believe the standings will end up although it mostly sticks to that for the most part. Think of it more as who I believe has the best chance to win the split outright combined with who I believe has the most potential. 

Preseason Predictions:

B Tier Teams:

10) 100 Thieves

9) Flyquest

8) OpTic Gaming

7) Golden Guardians

A Tier Teams:

6) Counter Logic Gaming

5) Echo Fox

4) Clutch Gaming

S Tier Teams:

3) Cloud 9

2) Team Liquid

1) Team Solo Mid

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Mid-Season Rest of Way Tier List:

C Tier Teams:

Golden Guardians:

Previous Position: 7th (B Tier)

New Position: 10th (C Tier)

Estimated Record: 3 wins - 15 losses

I was hoping we'd see the good ol' Hai magic here but I think this team is just a cut below the rest of the league. Between the unusual firing of Locodoco and overall player quality on this squad I just don't see anyway they finish above a handful of wins. It's not for lack of heart, they're certainly trying and they're fighters as all Hai teams are, but this team just doesn't have the tools to fight with. However, I do think they'll steal a few, likely from some combination of OpTic, FlyQuest, CLG, or perhaps a playoff team that has clinched in week 9 and wants to start academy players or something like that. After all, every once in awhile the guy bringing a knife to a gun fight can get the jump on someone.

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B Tier Teams:

OpTic Gaming:

Previous Position: 8th (B Tier)

New Position: 9th (B Tier)

Estimated Record: 5 wins - 13 losses

OpTic are similar to Golden Guardians except they have at least two high quality players that are good enough to steal games on their own in PowerofEvil and Arrow. I had a lot of issues with the stylistic construction of this team. Lemon and Arrow aren't exactly complimentary unless you're thinking opposites attract. Akaadian can be a great playmaker but has struggled this season. Zig can at least pull some draft pressure with his willingness to counter and play aggressive pocket picks like Kled so they're not completely dead in the water but this team has basically only shown one style so far and they're very predictable. Maybe that changes with future patches but I don't see the game changing drastically before the end of the season so I can't get too high on OpTic.

Counter Logic Gaming:

Previous Position: 6th (A Tier)

New Position: 8th (B Tier)

Estimated Record: 6 wins - 12 losses

While I may have been a big hesitant to be as bold on my call of CLG not being good by putting them in the A Tier and barely in the playoffs in my preseason list I'm not convinced that this is a pretty bad team and I should have trusted my gut on them before. CLG have had leads and thrown them. Had games that go exactly according to plan and they can't close them. Tried their pocket picks and can't win with them. I've been trying to tell everyone for a year that their "super star" legacy players are tremendously overrated and were being carried by good leadership and coaching in an NA LCS that stubbornly refused to make simple adaptations to the way CLG play. If you just look at the way other teams played CLG all of last season you could tell they were extremely disrespectful of the individual players because they just assumed they could outplay without adjusting to the style, it just turns out that the players overperformed what they really are AND the system was winning games for them. Now that they've been figured out I can't see this team being much better than OpTic, except instead of a collection of veterans working for that last paycheck, they're the frustrated, full-tilt variety. They'll get some wins and there's a chance they outperform this simply based on their veteran players but this is a coach that's been figured out, and a team that's had its supposed "stars" exposed. They could adapt and prove me wrong but I'm betting against it. I'll inevitably get some kickback for this one but I'd ask what have they done to prove otherwise? I'll give you "they get early leads" and that's it, what else do you have?

100 Thieves

Previous Position: 10th (B Tier)

New Position: 7th (B Tier)

Estimated Record: 8 wins - 10 losses

When this team came out of the gates with a handful of wins I was beginning to believe that the "one out" way that this team could not be bottom of the table was going to come to fruition. My prediction was that if they could get the veterans some wins that they'd regain confidence and perhaps motivation but it turns out this team was just winning games by not making mistakes which is good enough in the very early season when both good and bad teams are still figuring out who they are and how to do that. 100 Thieves do almost nothing proactively. They sit back and wait for mistakes and SOMETIMES capitalize on them. This isn't a winning formula especially when other bad teams can just play scaling and good teams can out tempo you. If they showed me that they can create their own opportunities in games I'd trust this team more but I don't. About the only thing I'm giving 100 Thieves credit for is having a good read on how the game was going to be on Patch 8.1/8.2.  They'll get their wins here and there and because they got off to a fast start they might even make playoffs, in fact they probably will, but that doesn't mean they'll be a playoff quality team by seasons end.

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B+ Tier Teams:

FlyQuest

Previous Position: 9th (B Tier)

New Position 6th (B+ Tier)

Estimated Record: 7 wins - 11 losses

I'm not saying FlyQuest are a good team but I really liked how Fly and Anda looked working together in their first weekend on the stage. I'm not going to overreact to two games and say they're the next coming of ... well I guess last years' FlyQuest but I do think this team is poised for a "run" at least in the capacity that a bottom half team can pull off. I had them rated 9th in the preseason because Anda was an unknown quantity and I wasn't sure how the imports would work out but it appears they've got it more together than I initially predicted. I could imagine a scenario where they make playoffs if Clutch falter or 100 Thieves crash even harder than I'm anticipating. I think this team has the most upside of the non-playoff teams to make the post season. It's doubtful they make playoffs but I do think by the end of the season this will be a team that we wish made playoffs. Look for a surge in the second half.

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A Tier Teams: 

Clutch Gaming:

Previous Position: 4th (A Tier)

New Position: 5th (A Tier)

Estimated Record: 9 wins - 9 losses

Clutch Gaming are such a tease. Imagine if Lira wasn't having the worst season of his career how good this team could be. Febiven is absolutely destroying every lane in seemingly every matchup, playing the map better than anyone, and is more or less solo carrying this team while Lira tries desparately to weigh him down. Solo has overperformed my expectations although he's not exactly a world burner. The bot lane has held up their end of the bargain. This is the Febiven show and I'm anticipating that to continue and Lira to get it together for the second half. At least my preseason evaluation of this team was more or less spot on other than Lira underperforming. I'm placing them here under the assumption that Lira can't possibly continue performing as badly as he has been. If he can be 80% of his potential then this will be a playoff contender, if he can reach closer to 100% then this team could be good enough to pull and upset and go to finals.

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S Tier Teams:

Team Liquid

Previous Position: 2nd (S Tier)

New Position: 4th (S Tier)

Estimated Record: 12 wins - 6 losses

I actually think this is the most likely prediction to be wrong on this list because even I can suffer from some recency bias. Liquid got absolutely obliterated by Cloud 9 this past weekend but I think it was one of those situations that showcases why best of one matches suck. I'm sure this would have been a competitive second or maybe third game but instead people get to sit for an entire week with "man Cloud 9 is so much better than Liquid" coursing through the echo chamber. Bad games happen, less frequently to good teams but they still happen from time to time. Liquid are a great team and in my opinion NA will have four, maybe five of those by seasons end as the top end of the region is extremely good this year. My preseason prediction was for this team to come out the gates hot, which they mostly have, almost all of their wins have been decisive stomps in short times and closing speed one of the tell tale signs of potential greatness. They just had a few bumps in the road. Ultimately the top four teams should be a cut above the rest of the pack and could finish in any order between the four of them due to their consistency and player quality I just think Team Liquid is who they are and their potential isn't quite as high as the next three teams on my list. 

Echo Fox

Previous Position:5th (A Tier)

New Position: 3rd (S Tier)

Estimated Record: 13 wins - 5 losses

Echo Fox are an absolute blast to watch. They remind me so much of the old LMQ lineup and a lot of the stronger LPL teams in that there isn't a fight they won't take. Every single player assumes they can outplay every single situation which will sometimes get them into trouble but only against teams with the pound for pound talent and strategy to contain them and, surprise surprise, those are few and far between. Huni and Dardoch are taking over almost every game and the ones that they don't Fenix picks up the reigns. Speaking of Fenix... I always thought he had talent but didn't agree with the polarized opinions of the community on him. Some say he was terrible and only famous for one play, others say he was great but had attitude problems. I was honestly right in the middle somewhere. A talent that could be harnessed and I wasn't sure if this was the environment for it but Rick Fox is channeling his inner Doug Pederson (Eagles Head Coach) and creating a really supportive team culture for these guys and it's paying off. Emotional intelligence, when paired with talent is extremely powerful. Would it surprise anybody to see this team go undefeated in the second half and make this first half look like they were just styling on people? Not really. It's not likely but that really wouldn't surprise a lot of people. Echo Fox have shown the ability to play both top and mid centric and their bot lane are so stable that they get to play simply to negate the effects of the enemy bottom which makes their job a lot easier. They can 1-3-1, deathball, 2-core, they have the tools and talent to do it all. They're their own worst enemy at this point. Jungle is such a crucial role in the game right now and Dardoch is playing like the world class talent we've all known he's had the potential to be and it's exciting to watch. I'm so glad this experiment seems to have worked out. This is legitimately the most enjoyable team to watch in NA LCS. I'm a huge fan.

Cloud 9

Previous Position: 3rd (S Tier)

New Positions: 2nd (S Tier)

Estimated Record: 14 wins - 4 losses

A lot of my hesitation on Cloud 9 had to do with rookie top laner Licorice and he's done nothing but impress me. As a matter of fact, Solo on Clutch has as well but he hasn't overperformed to quite the same extreme that Licorice has. He's shown the ability to absorb a ton of pressure with minimal loss as well as take over games on carries and hasn't really struggled at all, even against other premium top laners (although we haven't seen the Huni matchup yet). With Licorice showing well and Svenskeren and Jensen building chemistry I think this team also has an extremely high ceiling. Cloud 9 are similar to Clutch Gaming who are also built around a stud mid laner of similar capabilities, an aggressive jungler, overperforming rookie top laner, and a stable veteran bot lane but I just think Smoothie is a world class player and while Apollo and Hakuho are a severely underrated lane, they're not quite as good as Sneaky and Smoothie (although this is closer than people think).

Team Solo Mid

Previous Position: 1st (S Tier)

New Positions: 1st (S Tier)

Estimated Record: 13 wins - 5 losses

Let me hear all of them "boos." Just get them out now. Look, I know people have made a habit of hating on TSM but think about how good last years iteration of TSM was all year long and just imagine them being better. Hauntzer is another year better than his incredibly performance last year, Mike is the hot new jungler with a ceiling that goes to the moon and is crucially in that second year to really settle in, Zven and Mithy have been, and still are, the best bottom lane in Western League of Legends, and Bjergsen, for all his struggles internationally has been an absolute monster for YEARS now with Jensen only as recently as last split finally challenging him for the throne. You could argue that this team has the best mid and bot lane in the entire west, a jungler that could be there, and a top laner that I'd argue is top 3 at his position in the West, not just NA. How am I not supposed to believe they'll Cleveland Cavaliers this league and harshly remind everyone who they are the SECOND they forget? Strength of competition? NA was almost as competitive last year and TSM still came out decisively on top. Rough start? It's exactly that. Best of ones? Ok well you've got me there but you could argue that for any team. I just think TSM have the most upside of any Western team potentially ever. Those of you that have known me for some time know that I've always been a TSM hater but I can't argue with what I see. I think with four losses already this team probably won't finish first but they'll be the strongest team come seasons end.