LCS Spring Split 2021 - Power Rankings (Week 1)
Cloud9 and 100 Thieves tied for the top spot in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split 2021 Week 1 as both finished with undefeated records. Evil Geniuses, and Team Liquid tied for third while the rest of the teams under them were left to fend for themselves.
This is the first week outside of the LCS Lock In tournament, which means teams came in with more experience, playtime, and understanding of the meta more so than past seasons.
With all of that in mind, here are our power rankings after the first week of the LCS Spring Split’s regular season.
#1 Cloud9 (3-0)
Cloud9 benefitted the most out of any team from the LCS Lock In tournament — having played 17 total games. With Team Liquid unexpectedly having lost to Immortals, they look a few levels above their competition, even though they’re tied with 100 Thieves for the number one spot. Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami looked much improved compared to his LCS Lock In performances but one could blame it on the enemy team picking Camille with Ignite and Teleport multiple times. Then add the fact that emerging frontrunner for MVP for the split so far, Robert “Blaber” Huang, camped his lane — no wonder he looked improved.
The rest of the team still looked as solid as they had previously. The other mainstays of Jesper “Zven“ Svenningsen and Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme in the bottom lane still look like one of the better bot lanes in the league. While Luka “Perkz” Perkovic seems to be slowly getting into the form that many expected him to be at once he arrived in North America.
#2 100 Thieves (3-0)
The other half of the tied for first place at 3-0 duo, either lost its proactiveness they portrayed all Lock In tournament long or they went for new things. The strong 4-man bottom lane dives they always went for turned into 3-man botched dives. While their quick response time to the enemy team’s plays started to lag this week. 100T seemed to have thrown everything they learned from the Lock In tournament out the window. They have little to no business being tied with Cloud9 for first place in the standings.
During the Lock In tournament, their early game was clear, concise and calculated while their mid to late game struggled. Come Week 1 of the LCS Spring Split, they flipped that. Slow and lethargic early game plays came to fruition for the thieves but they seemed to turn it up come mid to late game — this was especially apparent in their match versus Counter Logic gaming.
Teams have begun to target Tanner “Damonte” Damonte’s champion pool — banning his Twisted Fate and Galio in the three games this week — and it revealed some weaknesses that many had a feeling they were there.
#3 Team Liquid (2-1)
As one of the two 2-1 teams alongside Evil Geniuses, they suffered a surprising loss to Immortals. Mohamed “Revenge” Kaddoura got his counterpick against Barney “Alphari” Morris and he demolished him. It was an Alphari that was looking like one of, if no the best top laner in the league. Regardless, this was just a much-needed hiccup for this team. They took care of business after their loss and handled both Dignitas and FlyQuest back-to-back without much problem.
#4 Evil Geniuses (2-1)
Despite getting their surprising LCS Lock In run cut short by the team above them, they were able to continue their momentum going into Week 1. Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro had some impressive games while Jeong “Impact” Eon-young had a phenomenally dominating performance on the Shen versus FlyQuest. This solo lane duo have been able to work well with each other, having Jiizuke blind pick mid lane champions freeing up a counter pick for Impact in the top lane.
#5 Immortals (1-2)
Even though they are tied with four other teams at 1-2, this team, after their impressive win over Team Liquid, they can be touted as an exciting team. As the second to last LCS team to get all of the starting members, including jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir, they seem to have a hidden potential that could live up to the hype. Revenge getting a counterpick against Alphari was huge, and it’s something Immortals can looking forward to building upon in weeks to come.
#6 FlyQuest (1-2)
Our “cautious optimism” from our Week 2 LCS Lock In Power Rankings has died down a little bit but it’s still there. They were able to take care of Team SoloMid to start their week only to later have to face both Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid — tough luck. David “Diamond” Bérubé’s Lock In tournament hesitation criticisms were addressed and it showed, a promising sign.
#7 Dignitas (1-2)
Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett’s attempt at his “What jungler will he pick this time?” after a Rengar game and a Dr. Mundo game didn’t amount to much, he was behind in both games. This led to his team also being behind. Like FlyQuest, they faced tougher opponents this week but were able to get a win over a discombobulated Counter Logic Gaming.
#8 Golden Guardians (1-2)
Big struggles for this team this week, their LCS Lock In magic ran out. All it took was an Evil Geniuses First Blood onto to Aiden “Niles” Tidwell to derail the magic train. Their lack of experience continues to show but this group of players will undoubtedly get better as the weeks go on.
#9 Counter Logic Gaming (0-3)
As the last team to still not have their full starting roster ready to go, one cannot fault them too much for being 0-3 and being at the bottom of our list. That’s what would one normally think, but after seeing all of their very much winnable games this week, this brings on plenty of concern.
It’s not often that a team — at least a team that isn’t in the upper half of the standings — can get seemingly insurmountable early game leads and still manage to lose. In their last two games, Counter Logic Gaming were up five to six thousand gold at 20-25 minutes and couldn’t close it out. If this team cannot manage to win those games, it does not bode well for the games that they are either slightly behind or are even in the early game. Their match versus 100 Thieves on Saturday was winnable and so was their match versus Team SoloMid on Sunday.
Tack on the mid laner situation, benching Eugene “Pobelter” Park and bringing in Alexy “rjs” Zatorski that is going on right now — this does not help. Maybe if they had veteran voices such as Pobelter, or their missing starting jungler, Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen they could’ve possibly closed out those games.
#10 Team SoloMid (1-2)
Even though they are one of the seemingly endless 1-2 teams, we have them at the bottom. If it wasn’t for the fact that Counter Logic Gaming threw their gigantic lead, they would’ve finished winless after Week 1. Team SoloMid just looks bad, it’s as if Lock In did nothing for them. They still looked uncoordinated and disjointed while their drafting is still a huge asterisk. This team had an expected value seeing what was speculated and reported their players costed them and they went completely below it.
Team SoloMid looks like what they are on paper, five players who have never played with each other. But what makes it even worse is that all of these five players, except maybe Mingyi “Spica” Lu, have proven their worth in the past many times over.
Images via Riot Games