The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

NA LCS Spring/Summer Promotion Tournament: A Primer

League of Legends Worlds stage (Photo: Twitter)
Roar Guru
30th March, 2017
0

The last week of the North American LCS is now behind us, and although it had some surprise outcomes in store, the final standings were more or less where most of us expected.

The end of the split is bittersweet. I always miss having a full set of matches each week to sink my teeth into, but every match for the rest of spring is really important to each team.

I feel vindicated – although I didn’t expect to see Team SoloMid being beaten by Team Liquid, and I was pleasantly surprised with Cloud9’s performance against Phoenix1, the standings are right where I called them last week, give or take a match. Now that we know where each team sits, we can start to look at what the post-season has in store.

The final standings for the 2017 North American LCS Spring Split are:

1. TSM; 15-3 in matches; 31-15 in games
2. Cloud9: 14-4; 31-13
3. Phoenix1:11-7; 26-16
4. CounterLogic Gaming: 10-8; 22-22
5. FlyQuest: 9-9; 22-19
5. Team Dignitas: 9-9; 22-22
7. Immortals: 8-10; 22-23
8. Echo Fox: 6-12; 15-27
9. Team Liquid: 5-13; 17-28
10. Team Envy: 4-14; 16-29

Playoff teams now have a week or two to breathe, and to focus on preparation for their first match. This weekend, we will be seeing the Promotion Tournament, where the bottom two teams in the LCS will be fighting against the top two teams from the Challenger Series for a spot in the LCS in Summer.

The two Challenger Teams are going to be Gold Coin United and eUnited, facing off against Team Liquid and Team Envy. The tournament format is best-of-five matches in a double elimination bracket; two match wins, and you’re in the LCS, two losses and you’re relegated to the Challenger Series.

While eUnited had the stronger regular season finish, Gold Coin United took the champion title in the Challenger Series, dismantling eUnited 3-1 in the finals. This means that, as the stronger team, Gold Coin United’s first match will be against LCS 10th place Team Envy, while eUnited will have the more challenging first round opponent in Team Liquid. Matches will be concurrent, starting at 9am AEDT on Saturday.

Advertisement

Team Liquid should have the upper hand in their match, and not just because they’re playing the weaker challenger team in eUnited. They rebounded somewhat in the last week of the split, and while they are still shaky, I place them firmly above any challenger team.

eUnited do have some things going for them; their roster includes European imports Gilus and Fox who have played on the same team at several points in their history, including Schalke 04 in 2016 Summer. With two veteran players, eUnited were able to finish the regular season 3-2-0, but when they were unable to beat Gold Coin United, they showed that they were really not in a position to beat an LCS team.

The match between Team Envy and Gold Coin United is considerably closer. All season, while their peers were at least having close games, Team Envy just never found their footing. For sure if they were in challenger, they would be at the top, but they looked out of place in the LCS this split.

Gold Coin United have a lineup that would be incredibly at home in the LCS. Four team members – Santorin, Fenix, Mash and Madlife – are well-known players in the professional League of Legends circuit. Though top laner Solo has not seen the highest levels of play, he has played on both Cloud9 and Team Liquid’s challenger teams in previous splits.

Though both the challenger teams have things going for them, I don’t think either of them will move into the LCS in summer. eUnited are an early game team, and will struggle against LCS teams that have had nine weeks of practice beyond twenty minutes.

Gold Coin United do have hope, but their greatest successes have been into teams that make serious mistakes. I don’t want to imply that Team Liquid and Team Envy don’t make mistakes – far from it – but they’re generally not as serious as those made by challenger teams.

The LCS teams also have particular advantage in having played more recently; weeks 8 and 9 of the regular season were played on patch 7.5, while the Challenger Series never moved off 7.4.

Advertisement

Team Envy and Team Liquid have had four high-pressure matches and three weeks of practice with the changes to AD Carries, while the challenger teams have only had two weeks worth of scrims.

We’ve seen in past splits that extra experience on a patch can go a long way; think Immortals in the 2016 semifinals.

I’ve not seen confirmation that this weekend will be on 7.5, although I have been looking, but even if they move to 7.6 the experience with a more similar patch will be invaluable to the LCS teams.

I definitely expect to see Gold Coin United and Team Envy meeting each other twice in this tournament, as I don’t see either of them taking down Team Liquid, and I don’t see them being beaten by eUnited.

Although I think the LCS will have the same teams return next split, I do have a feeling that Gold Coin United may win their first match up.

They’ve had an extra week off from playing to prepare, albeit only in scrims, and as soon as they won the Challenger Series they could be pretty confident that their first opponent would be Team Envy.

I don’t think they will move into the LCS, but they are a smart and experienced bunch, and have serious potential to catch Team Envy off-guard, at least the first time around.

Advertisement

Here’s how I see the weekend playing out:

Bracket:
Team Envy vs Gold Coin United: GCU win
Team Liquid vs eUnited: TL win

Winners Match:
Gold Coin United vs Team Liquid: TL win, re-qualifying for LCS

Losers Match:
Team Envy vs eUnited: NV win, eUnited eliminated

Final Match:
Gold Coin United vs Team NV: NV win, re-qualifying for LCS

I would actually really like to be wrong. I have always enjoyed watching Santorin and Madlife play, and I would love to see them in the LCS over summer.

They’ve just been too inconsistent over the split though; even in some of their wins, they have struggled to establish advantages and close out games.

Advertisement

With their experience, the incumbent LCS teams should be able to overcome this, and we will be able to welcome them back in summer.

With three back-to-back days of games, this weeking is going to be rough for everyone. There is a lot of pressure riding on all the teams, and despite the differences in ability, there should still be some great games.

What do you think the LCS will look like as we go into the summer split?

close