EU LCS W3D1 PREVIEW

Alliance 5W - 1L vs Roccat 1W - 5L

Alliance is unstoppable. Roccat is in so bad a slump that replacing its bot lane with potatoes might help. Generally, in the bizarro world of the LCS, this means we can expect Roccat to surprise win.

SK Gaming 4W - 2L vs Millenium 3W - 3L

SK is showing consistant play. Mellenium is still wavering. If Week 1 Kerp shows up, Millenium will have a shot. If Week 2 Kerp shows up, Mellenium will lose. It's a Tale of Two Kerps.

Copenhagen Wolves 2W - 4L vs Gambit 2W - 4L

Both teams are trying to find synergy with their new players. Both teams are slowly improving. However, niQ is still finding his stride with Gambit, while the Wolves' new players are at the heart of their progress. Based on this observation alone, I expect the Wolves to really come together and make a strong showing in this game.   

Supa Hot Crew 4W-2L vs Fnatic 3W - 3L

Fnatic lost to Gambit. Lost...to...Gambit. Meanwhile, Supa Hot Crew are on a Supa Hot Streak. Once again, this should mean a Fnatic surprise win, but Fnatic like riding roller coasters and I expect them to beat Roccat on Friday, so, unfortunately, today will have to be the down side of 'up and down.'  

What Are You Doing Under There?

 League in the Land Down Under 

by Jodi "PunkLit" McClure

Hyper-excited shoutcasters are calling the end of a game. Colored lights flash over frenzied fans, who watch the match with raised arms. The clacking of thundersticks is heard as the nexus explodes. Riot's logo appears, followed by a smoky beige video of players posed with crossed arms, appearing dangerous and determined as they stare down the camera. It looks, for all intents and purposes, like any other day in the LCS, save for one interesting factor. This is the Autumn Regionals in Australia, and you've probably never heard of most of these fellows.

While we generally pay attention to European and Asian Leagues, we give very little notice to what goes on in the land down under. League in Oz is as mysterious to us as life in the outback, and it's only during the wildcard phase of Worlds that we tend to give the Oceanic scene any consideration at all - but they're certainly not unworthy. 

     

Prior to receiving their own server last year, Australian league fans had to endure terrible pings and crushing lag. Despite this, their team Immunity still managed a valiant showing at Worlds, holding their own against CJ Blaze and finishing the group stage tied for second.

Even though the Oceanic League resembles our LCS, it's layout is very different. Teams qualify for the Autumn and Winter Regionals through a number of smaller tournaments, and then the top eight teams play in what is known as "the round of 8," an online, streamed B03 event that runs for three weeks.  The top four teams then compete live on stage in the Autumn or Winter Finals, and the winner gets a buy into either the Winter Regionals or the Wildcard Tournament, with the hopes of moving on to the World Championships in Korea.

Viewership of these Regionals (and playing of LOL in general) has been growing at a rate quite similar to what the NA LCS experienced in its first year of production. Riot now rebroadcasts the NA LCS on Twitch during primetime Australian hours. Combine this with big NA names such as Dignitas and Curse picking up Australian rosters, and Australian fans are starting to pay a lot more attention to the NA LCS. The broadcast definitely has its fans.

Among the Oceanic League, Team Immunity has the largest following, although Avant Garde Ascension is knocking on their door. Each team has its own gaming house, a strong social media presence, and its share of popular streamers. (Like Minkywhale from Avant and Raydere from Immunity.)

Assuming the Oceanic Regionals continue to follow the path of the LCS, given a few more years, the Australian teams should be achieving the same large scale growth and fame that EU and NA LCS players are experiencing now. Currently, the Aussies have just completed the first week of their Winter Round of 8, so if you have any interest in watching, now is the time to check them out! 

How Well Do You Know Your League Champions?

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

How will Braum change the LCS Meta?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

Braum’s release into live play has had a huge impact in solo queue and normal games. With the highest win rate of all the champions so far, it’s hard to deny that this new support is more than free elo. The question, however, is how much of an impact he could make on the LCS meta-game and, in my opinion, he has the potential to change a lot.

First and foremost, Braum will most likely be picked or banned most of the time. It’s hard to deny how useful he is in many situations: he brings invade potential, hard engage, hard disengage and powerful shielding with the absolute negation of one piece of damage. His level 1 is crazy strong because not many supports can reliably trade with the stun he brings out, especially if it’s synergized with a Lucian double shot. Braum/Lucian will likely be a very popular lane considering how Lucian is already picked in almost every LCS game as the main contested ADC outside of Caitlin or Twitch, who are more situational. However, Braum’s kit also enables the play of ADC’s like Jinx and Kog’maw that can dish out tons of damage provided that they are kept safe from being blown up. Kog’maw has already begun to see more play in recent times and now is the perfect time for him to ascend the ranks as one of the highly-contested ADC picks. Jinx already is a situational pick as she is considered by some as the best ADC to play when you have enough protection for her high damage output.

In the same light as Jinx and Kog’maw, another lane that could be affected greatly by Braum’s release is the mid lane. Froggen at the All-Star event showed the world what can still happen when Anivia is allowed free reign. He mentioned himself that Anivia simply doesn't fit into the meta which is why he cannot play her on a regular basis in the LCS. However, with the protection of Braum as well as the synergy of a potential stun lock between them, Anivia might actually be able to sneak back into the Meta and could be allowed to wreak havoc in the mid lane. Her wave clear, lane control and high burst have always been valuable assets to a team; they just always needed a shield to stop her from being bursted. The same could be said for other double-edged sword mid laners like Vel’koz, who never actually made it into regular competitive play or even live play due to an inability to dish out the high sustained damage he brings without being completely exploded. The second that Velkoz is caught out or while he is channeling his ultimate, the protection of Braum could allow him to quickly re-position and be valuable to the ensuing fight. The synergy of Braum’s ultimate knock-up and the Life Form Disintegration Ray could also prove deadly if played right and in unison. This could finally be Vel’koz’s patch to shine.

But with setting up many champions to do well, Braum will also push some champions out of the Meta. Braum has the ability to push some champions that rely heavily on single target damage out of competitive play because of his main ability: Unbreakable. Champions like Nidalee and Leblanc will see their effectiveness reduced greatly in siege situations where they rely on the ability to blow up one key target. Added in with a Yasuo wind wall and that’s a near impossible situation for Nidalee, in particular, to get any poke damage with spears without a monumental mistake being made by the enemy team. Provided that the Braum is quick, Rengar’s ability to burst out a squishy target could also be completely negated by the power of Unbreakable.

But of course this is all still speculation for now and we won’t know the true extent of Braum’s impact on the LCS until he makes it through. But if the regular play stats are anything to go by, he could completely change the flow the duo lanes or simply force teams to re-evaluate their ban choices which could allow other contested picks to get back onto the rift. 

NA LCS PREVIEW : Week Two

Written by Hussain Moosvi

At the end of a fantastic Super Week in the NA LCS, the results have left a bigger question mark on roster changes than before the split started. The hope was that Week One would show the impact of those changes, but the only immediate difference was seen in Team Dignitas. With the jury still out on the others, and Week Two having an incredibly competitive schedule, fans hope to have some of their questions answered in what is sure to be a memorable week in the 2014 Summer Split.

DAY 1

Counter Logic Gaming (2-2) vs Team SoloMid (3-1)

The day starts off with one of the best rivalries in League of Legends. CLG had a decent Week One with the addition of Seraph and they show promise for the rest of the split. There were good signs for fans in the form of CLG's early game, which only lost to C9, and the rush hour bot lane looked as solid as ever. Link seems to have improved his laning phase quite a bit, and has shown that his trip to All-Stars was well worth it. With that said, CLG's shot calling had some glaring mistakes and it is clear that Seraph is not up to par with the other high tier top laners in terms of his understanding of the current meta. This was touted as a problem by CLG's coach, MonteCristo, and should not be a concern for CLG fans moving forward, as Seraph will only be improving from here.

TSM had a good week with their only loss to Cloud 9, but it is important to note that they had a fairly easy schedule. EG and Complexity are by far the weakest teams in the split right now, and if TSM wants to compete with the better teams they need to improve their vision control and early game rotations around the map. Amazing had a strong showing in Week One with a 10.2 KDA, while Gleeb showed potential, but against some relatively weaker bot lanes. This game will be key in scouting the strength of the TSM bot lane against arguably the best bot lane in NA. It will also give a good idea of where each team stands, with TSM finally facing a higher caliber team and CLG's two wins being against weaker teams in EG and Curse.

All that aside, TSM vs CLG matches are always instant classics. Make sure you're strapped into your seat to witness what is undoubtedly going to be an explosive match.

compLexity (1-3) vs Evil Geniuses (0-4)

compLexity and Evil Geniuses looked way out of their depth in all their matches. EG's performance made it clear that they had a lot of work to do with their new roster, and despite compLexity's huge upset win over Cloud 9, they looked lost in all their other games. This is expected of compLexity as they're coming into the strongest collection of teams the NA LCS has ever had, and with their constant "need to improve" attitude, compLexity looks to learn as much as they can from this split. EG showed a few moments of good play in mostly bad rotational decision making (Baron for Nexus is worth, right?), but that is to be expected from a team with a new player and their previous split record. EG knows that they need to make changes to improve their form and with the competitive nature of this split, they are bound to improve.

One important thing to note is that compLexity will be fielding a new mid laner in mancloud while pr0lly deals with some family obligations for this week. Despite EG's problems, this should give them a heavy advantage and it will be up to mancloud to fill some very vocal shoes in pr0lly's position. mancloud is a player with a lot of experience and an immense amount of skill, and while the change does make EG the favorites, a surprise upset from compLexity is not out of the question. Keep an eye out for the mancloud vs Pobelter match-up as it will be crucial in deciding the winner of this match.

LMQ (4-0) vs Team Dignitas (3-1)

The second highlight of the week, this match-up is going to be crucial in determining the true strength of the Dignitas roster with their new support staff. LMQ has looked dominant, especially with XiaoWeiXiao's CS numbers in every game. Vasilii seemed like a hit or miss player coming into the week with his aggressive style, but his 17.7 KDA says everything about his skill. Individually, LMQ have looked near perfect across the board. While DIG's solo lanes have been heavily upgraded and look formidable so far, it is going to be up to the "kiwipie" lane to withstand the threat that is Vasilii.

Despite LMQ's dominant performances, their shot calling at times has looked a bit shaky. It will be very hard for DIG to individually outplay their opponents in this match-up and they'll have to look at outplaying LMQ around the map. With shaky shot calling against compLexity and dominant shot calling against Cloud 9, this aspect of DIG is still up in the air. The key match-up in this game will be Shiphtur against XiaoWeiXiao. Shiphtur has looked incredibly good in DIG but has fallen behind in his CS during laning phase in every game so far. This is because of various factors and so far hasn't been too big of a concern, but against a player like XiaoWeiXiao, Shiphtur's performance is the key to a Dignitas victory. With LMQ's team aggression meeting Crumbzz's early game aggression, the first fifteen minutes of this game should be explosive and will likely decide the winner.

This is a key game during Day 1 as it sets up our expectations for both teams going forward into their equally tough Day 2 schedules. Have your popcorn ready before this starts because you won't want to miss a single second.

Cloud 9 (2-2) vs Curse (1-3)

Our last match-up of the day features two teams that have confused the minds of most fans. On one hand, we have Cloud 9, one of the most dominant teams in the history of the NA LCS. Two time consecutive NA split champions, Cloud 9 were expected to show up insanely strong at the start of this split. The losses that occurred were a huge shock to every viewer watching. A lot of fans are worried that this might be the beginning of the downfall for Cloud 9 but it is important to remember that the team was playing with barely any practice with their primary shot caller, Hai, and Cloud 9 has always recovered from losses with a vengeance. Despite their initial stumble, Cloud 9 are still the heavy favorite in this match and will most likely show the world their true strength as a team. Hai is a passionate player and doesn't take losses lightly. He'll be coming into this with something to prove.

Curse has had a very strange time so far. In all of their games, Curse looked just a tiny bit away from winning their games and the consistency with which they managed this feat is a troubling issue. Curse lost their early game in the majority of last week's matches but still gave their opponents a solid fight through good picks. They also scored a victory over Team Dignitas, who had beaten Cloud 9. The scary part about Curse games is that the issues for the team to fix aren't as blatantly obvious as some other teams. Curse plays a good game, but never a great game. Their early game needs to improve and their mid/late game, while good, could be better. Curse has been constantly improving since Spring Split, and if that trend keeps up, then this match will be a very good game to watch for the sheer rotational outplays that are bound to occur.

Cloud 9 wants vengeance for their losses, and Curse wants to desperately prove that they belong among the top teams in NA. Both teams are thirsty for a win, and because of that, be ready for a fantastic match to end off Day 1 of the second week of the NA LCS. 

Adaptation – Change is good

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

Once upon a time, Fnatic and Gambit were the two hardcore powerhouses of the European scene. There was competition from CLG.EU and SK, but ultimately, those two were the front runners. The difference in skill between them and their competition was clear, but as time has begun to pass the level of competition has grown stronger, to the extent where, in Europe, there are at least five teams within reach of the top at any one time. Adaptation is a must to be able to keep up with such a heavily demanding league and the concern that has risen in the camps of Europe’s two biggest teams is a lack of that adaptation. Read More.

Amazing is Awesome Sauce (Puns be Damned!)

by Jodi "PunkLit" McClure

Maurice "Amazing" Stückenschneider could not have picked a better in-game name. The twenty-year-old German jungler who recently joined TSM has left some impressive numbers in his wake. During his time with the Copenhagen Wolves, he registered some of the highest weekly KDAs, despite his team's sluggish performance. Since arriving in America, Amazing has streamed a few times. Relaxed and humorous, he exudes a good attitude along with a healthy dose of bravado. But while he's patently confident of his own skills, the two time EU MVP is very careful when making predictions about his performance with his new team.  READ MORE..

EU LCS Roster Swaps: What’s the Impact?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

Millenium - Kottenx

While Kottenx may have been picked up in the dying weeks of the Spring Split, I feel the true display of his impact to the team started with the qualifier against NiP. His ganks are impactful, the team responds better in tough situations, and overall their rotations and shot-calling have gotten miles better. Millenium now have depth to their game-flow that wasn't present last split. Their play-style isn't as predictable and their synergy with each other is stronger. It’s like Kottenx was the long lost key to unlock the chest of riches that is Millenium’s hidden potential.

Every other member of the team has seen a huge rise in both confidence and overall performance. Creaton is returning to the form he showed before he broke his hand and Kev1n is showing why he is one of the best top laners in EU. Kerp, in particular, now completely shines in the mid lane and rightfully deserved MVP for week one. If he wasn't on fantasy teams before Super Week, he definitely will be now.

Millenium already have a third of the wins they achieved last split in this first week. Last split, they faced Roccat in the opening Super Week and only managed two kills. This split, the tables were turned as Roccat were dominated and could only manage three kills. Being 3-1 and tied top with SK and Alliance is undoubtedly a better position than anyone could have imagined and clearly a position they deserve to be in.

Supa Hot Crew - wewillfailer (and the addition of Nick "LastShadow" De Cesare as an analyst.)

The difference to Supa Hot Crew this split is amazing. With the addition of wewillfailer and analyst Nick De Cesare from Korea, the crew, like Millenium, look like they've found a new lease on life. Suddenly, the mid to late game weariness is gone and replaced with structured objective rotations. Their leadership seems more solid and you can see it in their shot-calling. They still retain their explosive play-style but there is now an element of confidence and tactical awareness behind it. Other obvious differences are that this time they are in the split with the belief they'll go far, rather than just hoping to win one game. Also, wewillfailer doesn't give up as many free deaths as Migxa did. 

These changes have seen them give hard-fought battles against the top three teams in the league at the moment, coming away with a win off Alliance and what could have been wins off Millenium and SK Gaming. Considering that they finished this week 2-2 with what was probably the hardest Super Week draw of any team, it’s hard to deny the fact that the Supa Hot Crew are building up to become a real force to be reckoned with and could be a challenger for Worlds at this rate.

Copenhagen Wolves - Woolite and Airwaks

To have to come into a split replacing arguably the best ADC and jungler of spring is no easy task. The real success behind the Wolves last split was driven by Forg1ven and Amazing, the latter picking up a back-to-back MVP awards. 

While Woolite and Airwaks have shown that they are ready to debut upon the LCS stage, it's still glaringly obvious that they don’t have the relentless carrying capabilities of Forg1ven and Amazing. They have talent. Airwaks was essential in the Wolves’ only win of the Super Week against Millenium, and Woolite held his own in kills and cs, but they haven’t yet gained the experience needed to consistently pull the team through, and until they do, the Wolves will struggle with their upcoming games. 

YoungBuck, Unlimited and cowTard simply do not showcase hard-carrying potential; they come across as players who cement the success of the team rather than the players who create that success. Either cowTard or YoungBuck needs to start individually shining or the new blood needs to adjust quickly to the demands of the LCS and their team if they want a shot at playoffs.

Gambit Gaming- niQ

Many had expressed fears that Gambit wouldn't be the same after the departure of Alex, and indeed, in the Super Week, there were worrying signs. Genja put up some good stats but couldn't carry. Darien’s performance was less than helpful. EDward and Diamond seemed unable to make much impact across the games, and niQ doesn't seem to have the natural synergy with the team that Alex had. While niQ is clearly a mechanically-strong player, off the laning-phase he appeared to dwindle in relevance. It doesn't really seem as if niQ’s introduction to the team has changed any of the problems that were arising at the end of the Spring Split. 

Gambit hasn't truly replaced their leader role and the lack confidence among them is evident. Diamond, in particular, doesn't appear to be the jungle king he once was. Alliance had absolutely no regard for dragons in their game against Gambit and simply chased kills all the way to the end like a solo queue team - and they still won. Despite having the whole off-season to work on their issues after almost ending up in relegation, it appears they still haven’t filled all the cracks in their team. Every dynasty has to come to an end. Is this the split were Gambit’s does?

We had our friends at CSI enhance this a few times.

And now we can make out what it says!

Okay...Now You're in Trouble...

This isn't Xpeke's "I'm sorely disappointed in my team's performance" face. This is his "Someone, somewhere...is going to pay for this soon" face. Burdened with a frustrating 0-2 start, Fnatic must once again do some soul searching. But, let us not forget, this is the team that looooves losing streaks and dramatic (if not insane) climbs back to the top. While their play can be improved upon (greatly?) I wouldn't count out Fnatic yet. They've stuffed a lot of damn words back into people's mouths.

The question, to me, isn't can they do it. The question is...when will their anger-fueled, bullet-like ascent back to first place start? :)