Impact
VG IMPACT IMPACT
INSIDE: NA LCS Spring Split Playoffs
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CONTENTS
Will immortals remain "immortal" in the standings?
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NRG? Newcomer or New champion
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With the Spring season of the North American League Championship Series coming to a close the playoffs have finally come into shape. Familiar faces like Cloud 9, led by possibly the best shot caller in North America Hai Lam; and Team Solo Mid, with North American MVP Soren Bjergsen seek to claim the best prize in the North American Scene once again. But despite their intentions League newcomers NRG gaming and Immortals with their Korean import talent look to disrupt the old rule in North America. The troop is rounded out with 2015's Summer champion Counterlogic gaming and the always respectable Team Liquid. At the end of the split, the standings ended with Immortals at the top, only receiving one loss(To Counter Logic Gaming) all season. Second place belonged to CLG, Cloud 9 ended the season strong in 3rd while Liquid, NRG, and TSM finish off the table in their respective positions through 6th. The playoffs itself are formatted in a best of 5 series, with the teams seeded from 1-6. Seeds 1 and 2 recieve first round byes, while seed 6 plays seed 3 and 4 versus 5. The winners move on to the semi-finals,and from there to the finals in Las Vegas on April 17th. Coming into the playoffs the general consensus among fans and experts alike heavily favors the Immortals as the favorite in the tournament. Dropping only one game in the regular season combined with their star-studded line up makes them a nearly unstoppable force. Immortals places highest in the NA LCS in gold lead at 10 minutes, lowest average game-time, and highest
Photos from Christian Wisneski and respective LCS teams with permission.
SPRINGTIME
WILL THE ROOKIES STEP UP FOR TEAM LIQUID?
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Team Liquid comes into the playoffs as the biggest question mark. They possess great talent in former world champion ADC Chae "Piglet" Gwang-Lee and rookie jungler Joshua"Dardoch" Hartnett. Team Liquid possess a lot of talent in their veteran ADC but this season their roster includes mostly rookies, including Dardoch and support Matt" Matt" Elento. For Liquid to be a darkhorse they need to have their rookie talent step up to a professional level. NRG E-sports is the team whose word of the season is inconsistency. After starting the season off strong they dropped games to teams at both the top and bottom of the table. Resulting in a team who does not even know who they are capable of beating. Not many are counting on NRG to make a run but Korean mid laner Lee" GBM" Chang-Seok can always make plays with his deep champion pool and game knowledge. If there is any team fans or analysts expect to make a run or challenge the top despite being in 6th this season it's Team Solo Mid. Having been in all 5 previous NA LCS Finals TSM looks to once again rise from the ashes with a new roster and a new drive to win. Having acquired CLG's ADC Doublelift and European stars Bora "Yellowstar" Kim and Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen. Plus Team Gravity's promising top laner Kevin"Hauntzer" Yarnell. Preseason analysts placed TSM at the top of the standings. Will they step up in the playoffs and become the team they were imagined to be? The key matchups in this playoff series will rely on which junglers can snowball their respective ADC or Mid laners. With the current Meta shifting towards teams running 3 marksmen getting any of those ahead as a jungler can prove to open the gates to a quick victory. If the jungle match-up is the most important then looking at the current top junglers it would be easy to see that C9's jungler Rush can take control and carry them to the finals. But rookie talent
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average team KDA in the League. Their attack damage carry, Jason"WildTurtle" Tran, has been on fire this split leading all ADC players in damage dealt and kills aquired. Their support Adrian has maintained the highest support KDA in the season and did not even die in game until the 6th week of the season. But the main attribute for success regardng IMT has been their import of the Korean Top and Jungle duo of Huni and Reignover. Reignover has had the highest first blood participation of the spring split. Joining in over 70% of the first kills. Leading in every stat possible it is quite obvious as to why IMT would be the heavy favorites in the playoffs. But there may be a weak link. The Korean Duo has a 95% regular season win rate, while in playoffs on other teams their winrate drops to 63%. A 30% drop in winrate in playoffs signifies that this team may have some problems closing out the season under pressure. Counter-Logic Gaming come in as the second favorite. Closing out the summer season in 2015 as the North American champions. Although the roster has been weakened through the loss of star ADC Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng to TSM and Mid Laner Eugene"Pobelter" Park to IMT. Despite these losses CLG has managed to fill their absense with veteran Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes and former bench warmer Choi"Huhi" Jae-Hyun and has finished strong in second place. Despite this the team seems to lack a true competitive edge compared to some others( IMT, TSM) Cloud 9 Gaming is one of the perennial titans of the North American League scene. Shot caller Hai " Hai" Lam has been moved to the support role to preserve his role as a leader while leaving the jungle to the highest ranked player on the Korean server, Yoonjae "Rush" Lee. Mid laner Nicolaj"Jensen" Jensen has been hot all season while ADC Zach" Sneaky" Scuderi has always been known as a king of mechanical skill. The problem for this C9 squad is in the passive and sometimes lackluster, sometimes godlike, play of Top Laner An "Balls" Le.
From top left to bottom right, top to bottom: Counterlogic Gaming, NRG Gaming, Immortals Gaming, Team Liquid, Cloud 9, Team Solo mid
on Liquid with Dardoch and proved success from Imports on TSM, IMT can attribute to their success. Continuing with the theme of Marksmen dominance it would also be safe to conclude that the battle in the Bottom lane between ADC's can prove to be vital. By this logic, CLG with their always dependable support Zaqueri" Aphromoo" Black,with the veteran Stixxay along with TSM's quality carry in Doublelift can make these teams contenders for top spots. NRG and Liquid both lack synergy or impact in their bot lanes, and in Liquid's case even possessing a language barrier. This sets these teams behind from the get-go, and it will take even more perfect gameplay for them to prevail in the face of a better comm'd opponent. After analysis throughout the season and the matchups heading into playoffs regarding individual skill, team play, ability to play in an array of compositions, and just plain statistics we at VG Impact would like to make our official predictions for the NA LCS Spring Playoffs Finals. In game one between NRG and Team Liquid, superior jungle and ADC play should lead them to a clean 3-0 sweep in the first round. Meanwhile although Cloud 9 possess superior jungle play in Rush, his champion pool is much to small and can be banned out. By this fact and balls inconsistency we predict a 3-1 win for TSM. Moving into the semifinals, IMT would square off against TSM in what would be a game of season statistics vs. post season power. In this matchup I believe TSM will find a way to tilt the 17 year old top laner Huni, making this a repeat of worlds vs. SK Telecom T1. A close, but winnable series... for the opponent of Huni. TSM 3-2. In the countermatchup of CLG vs. Team Liquid, we can't really find too much between these two teams. It will come down to who gets ahead first, and who can prevent a catastrophic throw. CLG 3-2 In the finals, we have TSM vs CLG, a historic rematch of rivals, old teammates, and old organizations. In the opposite of last years 3-0 CLG win. TSM wins 3-0.
A historic rematch of rivals, old teammates, and old organizations organizations.