LCS Spring Split 2021 - Power Rankings (Week 4)
The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) has a definitive number one team in the standings in the form of Cloud9 after they’ve put themselves two games ahead of second-place Team SoloMid and 100 Thieves while also being three games ahead of the team who many think can rival them when at full strength, Team Liquid, who is tied for fourth place alongside Dignitas and Evil Geniuses.
Week 4 had a number of upsets, such as FlyQuest taking down Team SoloMid and Counter Logic Gaming mounting a comeback win versus Dignitas. Teams like Immortals and Evil Geniuses added yet another win to their record but still remain unmoved when it comes to standings.b
Although we didn’t shift teams around this week, there were thought changes on most. With that being said, here are our power rankings for the fourth week of the LCS Spring Split’s regular season.
#1 Cloud9 (+0)
Robert “Blaber” Huang continues to crush it in the jungle, cementing himself as by far the best jungler in the league. When you compare the top two, top three players in other roles, there is no clear-cut gap like the one Blaber has on his counterparts. This is not all, as Luka “Perkz” Perkovic is slowly creeping up to the status that was expected of him once he arrived in North America, and it’s evidenced by his latest picks, such as the LeBlanc.
It also doesn’t hurt to reiterate again for a second week in a row that Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami is no longer their weak point as he’s been steadily improving and no longer being exploited. With that said, he’s their weakest player, which isn’t a bad thing looking at the calibre of players on the team. Once Fudge finds his footing and reaches the potential he’s been highly coveted to, Cloud9 is going to be even more terrifying.
#2 Team SoloMid (+0)
Team SoloMid went from the bottom, and now they’re here; this is their second week in a row now where we put them at number two. They finally found their footing and are beginning to experiment; they tried their hand at a couple of 1-3-1 compositions. Both of those games were strong performances, and the team overall continues to trend upward. Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon is playing conservative with the team picking him tank champions, while also doing a great job coordinating engages with Mingyi “Spica” Lu and Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh. And once again, they top it off by giving Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage resources allowing him to carry from the mid lane.
Although Team Liquid did throw their game against them, kudos to Team SoloMid for being able to capitalise. They dominated Counter Logic Gaming as they’ve done in years past, but had an uncharacteristic loss versus FlyQuest — not the biggest of concerns.
#3 100 Thieves (+0)
Although this team has remained relatively spot — the same area — on the list thus far, we see this team with higher chances to move down than upwards. Their games are getting longer and longer, and the dominance they once showed on the rift is slowly whittling away. The dives they were known for masterfully executing in the earlier portions of the season are just not there anymore; they haven’t been able to pull them off again. They self-admitted on social media that what made them so strong earlier on is just not strong anymore. You look at the Galio and the Twisted Fates no longer breaking through; these small shifts in the meta have begun to take their toll on this team.
Their side lanes are still amongst the top in the league, but they are no longer taking those advantages and making it a priority — playing through them with dives and the like. Picking Olaf every game and playing off of the passive leads they build themselves won’t do much for them if they aren’t proactive with their leads.
The clean plays are gone; it’s just elongated games now. It can even be seen on their faces after their matches; it once was cheery now it’s dreary. It can all be seen in their face cams post-game.
#4 Dignitas (+0)
By all intents and purposes, this team should’ve gone 3-0 for the week, but blunders in two out of their three games stopped them from doing so. A split call versus 100 Thieves and a poor decision of a team fight versus Counter Logic Gaming was all that made it so. Even then, Dignitas still continue to perform strong. They have been playing team fights very well; Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett continues to prove he’s one of the better junglers in the league with his strong early game and the solo lanes of Max “Soligo” Soong and Aaron “FakeGod” Lee continue to hold their own.
#5 Team Liquid (+0)
Team Liquid still has outstanding early game stats, some of, if not the best in the league. But missed executions in teams fights and randomly getting picked off in the mid-game is not the play. The criticism that Edward “Tactical” Ra has received wasn’t unwarranted, looking at how consistent he was during last year’s Worlds and even during Lock In. But he’s not the only one deserving of it. Lucas “Santorin” Larsen’s Nidalee game was a clear underperformance by him, missing spears on stunned targets. And Barney “Alphari” Morris can no longer bully his lane into a win even he’s on the losing side of a matchup. Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen is also having his fair share of troubles as well.
This is not to say Team Liquid are a horrible team, far from it. This team won Lock In; this team has individually some of the best players across the whole league. It showed with their strong performances against FlyQuest and Immortals. The hangover effects from winning Lock In are clearly there as prior to those solid wins, they fumbled the ball against Team SoloMid.
#6 Evil Geniuses (+0)
There is no more middle of the pack team than this team. Evil Geniuses is clearly better than the teams below them both individually and as a whole. But they are also a step below the teams above them, aside from maybe Dignitas, who is tied with them at the moment. Although ahead of the bottom section of the table, you look at their win against Golden Guardians, and you start to wince a little bit. A lot of their wins as of late could have gone either way. Either a big mistake from the enemy team that allowed them to capitalise — to their credit — or a big play from of their players turned it around for them, allowing them to win.
These wins also came out of the easier part of their schedule — FlyQuest and Golden Guardians.
#7 Immortals (+0)
Another week passes, and our views remain the same. This team still doesn’t have an identity yet. There hasn’t been a steady improvement like FlyQuest’s, or if you wanted to stretch it out a bit, one like Counter Logic Gaming’s. Nor has there been a steady decline. Immortals is just there, just in between the middle of the pack and the lower part of the standings.
#8 FlyQuest (+0)
Overall, this team is steadily improving. Their bottom lane is slowly coming into their own while Brandon Joel “Josedeodo” Villegas is showcasing himself as the strong jungler many thought he was. He just has to calm down a bit during team fights as he goes for a bit too much. The hesitation they showed earlier during Lock In and the first parts of the Spring Split are starting to dissipate as well. And one last thing, don’t sleep on Cristian “Palafox” Palafox.
It was all looking great from there on out for them, until they faced old rivals in Team SoloMid and got smashed.
#10 Golden Guardians (-1)
Even though they are 2-10 like Counter Logic Gaming, this is a very different feel. It’s two wins and a handful of games that could have been wins. As per usual, to be expected from a very young team.
Images via Riot Games