The LMS Spring Split for League of Legends is under way, with teams from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao battling it out for the opportunity to go to the World Championships. ahq, eXtreme Gamers, Flash Wolves, J Team, Hong Kong Esports, Machi 17, Fireball and Wayi Spider make up the eight teams who are challenging.
Flash Wolves look strong
As expected, Flash Wolves have shown themselves to be the best team in the LMS during the first two weeks of the 2017 Spring Split.
Their opening match was their closest series so far as they took on fellow fancied team ahq in a slugfest. The third game in the best-of-three series was a compelling affair after it appeared as though ahq had completely out-drafted the Flash Wolves. Arguably in every role (except maybe Top lane) ahq drafted a higher priority champion, yet Flash Wolves still found a way to win.
Using Lee Sin’s strong early game to buffer Ezreal and Ryze’s weaknesses, Flash Wolves slowly built a three thousand gold lead while also taking down the middle inhibitor. At the 26-minute mark ahq made a crucial mistake as they attempted to dive (taking out a champion under an enemy turret) Maple’s Ryze. Not only did Maple not fall, Flash Wolves then closed in and picked up an ace (where all five members of ahq were killed), allowing Flash Wolves to push down the mid for the 27-minute win.
After their series success against ahq, Flash Wolves continued their run of solid play by defeating both J Team and Machi 2-0. Interestingly, in their second game against Machi, Flash Wolves allowed Jayce through pick and bans in order to counter-pick him with the rarely seen Kled. This was the cleanest game of them all for Flash Wolves, as they finished off Machi in 30 minutes with a 24 to 4 kill score.
ahq bounce back
ahq look to be the second-best team in the LMS, despite clearly being in the shadow of Flash Wolves. They have shown promise in their two series so far, with ahq having been the only team to take a game off Flash Wolves, while also sweeping bottom team Machi 2-0. They did not find it easy to beat Machi in their first game of the series, but after picking up two kills, ahq pulled off a risky Baron Nashor (a neutral objective), allowing them to snowball the game and win.
Hong Kong Esports still unbeaten
The only other undefeated team in the LMS after two weeks is Hong Kong Esports, although this comes off the back of an incredibly odd series against Fireball.
The first two games between HKE and FB were fairly straightforward as Fireball were rampant in the first before a game two that was eerily similar to the third game between FW and ahq. Fireball completely dominated the pick and ban phase in theory, but once again the team with the sub-par draft on paper pulled off the victory, leading to an odd game three.
In the third game, Hong Kong Esports selected Rek’sai with the first pick while Fireball ran out of time before selecting a champion. This meant they were given a random champion and it was one of the worst in the entire game; Heimerdinger.
*This is not uncommon as in the LCK Summer Split, Teemo was accidentally picked numerous times due to teams running out of time.
Fireball were forced to use Heimerdinger and predictably it went incredibly poorly as not only did the Heimer (which they decided to use in the Top lane) end with just 1 kill, 1 assist and 6 deaths, but in total Hong Kong Esports won the match 21-4 in 28 minutes to take the series.
In conclusion then, Flash Wolves and ahq look to be the class of the field in the early going and on initial form there seems little to indicate that the other teams will challenge them.
