The North American League of Legends Championship is coming down to the wire, with the top dogs struggling as the middle of the pack teams make a late surge.
Echo Fox feeling the pressure
Currently sitting in joint first place with Cloud9 on 11-5 are Echo Fox, a team trending downwards with three losses in four including a defeat at the hands of last place Golden Guardians.
Echo Fox’s pre-season predictions have essentially been spot on; with the team front running to great success early on, yet finding themselves unable to pull out of a slump once the losses began.
The Bottom lane of Altec and Adrian has continued to be the target of opposing teams as they look to snowball from the clear weaknesses here.
Initially an MVP candidate, Huni has recently struggled to coordinate his team in the mid game, time and time again being in the wrong place when a fight suddenly breaks out.
The talent is still there and they do have a good chance of securing at least one win this week with FlyQuest on the schedule alongside the red hot 100 Thieves.
Echo Fox will need to stem the bleeding Bottom lane though and let the star pieces of Huni and Dardoch carry them through if they are to halt their downward spiral.
CLG could still miss out
Arguably the hottest team in the league right now are seventh-placed Counter Logic Gaming (7-9), who have continued their incredible end of season surge towards the play-offs.
Unfortunately for CLG, the likelihood they will finish inside the top six is low given they are two games outside the final play-off spot, but this is the team no one wants to face should they manage to squeeze in.
Everything appears to be clicking for CLG now, initially one of the favourites to win the entire league after they acquired Reignover in the off-season.
The formula of focusing on putting Stixxay ahead while leaving the likes of Darshan in a Tank match-up Top lane have done wonders during their winning streak of four games which includes victories over probable play-off teams Echo Fox, Cloud9 and Team Liquid.
This week does bring a new patch but the changes are not as significant as the previous update, so CLG will be looking to continue their momentum against OpTic Gaming and TSM. The OpTic match-up should be fairly one-sided in favour of CLG given OpTic’s continued struggles, but the match against TSM is a real 50-50 at this point. They’re in sixth so winning this is crucial.
TSM hitting their stride
Along with CLG, Team SoloMid are the other team currently on a tear and have been winners in five of their last six.
TSM are incredibly similar to CLG, struggling early on to live up to pre-season hype before finding their footing in the middle of the season. Jungler MikeYeung in particular appears to be settling into his role within the team.
TSM should be able to secure a play-off place with a win over Golden Guardians, but should they fall in that match-up, which is possible given the Guardians have had more life in recent weeks, their clash against CLG to close out the year becomes a very intriguing affair.
100 Thieves one to watch
The team to watch this week is 100 Thieves, who currently sit one game off first place with two play-off teams on the schedule.
100 Thieves have won six of seven, emerging as one of the most consistent sides in the league with talent across the board. One of the teams willing to take risks in the pick and ban phase, such as picking the first Darius in the NA LCS in years this past week, this squad looks ready to take on their final pre-play-off tests against Clutch Gaming, who are tied with them in third, and first-place Echo Fox.
The Bottom lane will continue to be the key for 100 Thieves, with Cody Sun and Aphromoo emerging as legitimate MVP candidates.
Places still to be decided
Six teams will move on to the play-offs and there remains much to be decided in the final week of the Spring Season, not least whether CLG can steal that final place.
