With the completion of the Summer Split, the bulk of Riot's new competitive format is complete allowing us to take a retrospective look at the results from both regular seasons. Compared to the Spring Split, the NA LCS's Summer was one of extremes, whether those extremes were at the top, bottom, or middle of the pack. Summer's highs were higher, lows lower, and closes were far closer than the competition mere months before.

When the WildTurtle-led TSM topped the charts in the Spring, their dominance appeared absolute, yet their 75% win rate pales in comparison to the top team of the Summer Split: Cloud 9. With an 89% win rate, C9 leaves little room for improvement in Season 4 unless Riot increases the number of games per split. Though the second place Team Curse had a long hold on the NA standings in the Spring Split, they were outclassed by Summer's runners-up, Vulcun, by a single win. This huge second place finish shows that Vulcun has not only eclipsed their 5th place origins from the prior split, but even gone so far as to best last split's second place finishers, an impressive feat considering Curse's long history in the NA LoL scene. This further highlights just how much success C9 saw in this season: they far outpaced all teams in both splits, including the previously immaculate* TSM. It's similarly amazing remembering that the team that denied Cloud 9 entry to the Spring Split was its least successful team, compLexity Gaming.

Spring Split's greatest competition occurred at the top of the charts, yet it was the middle where Summer's closest standings resided. As close as some of the Spring scores became, none were as close as Summer's, where three teams ended their splits at 13-15. The Summer split began in the same way, with no clear breakout for second place until Vulcun emerged from the pack and excelled past the teams that would remain in the 50% win rate block. Instead, the biggest names of the Spring Split (and Season 2 beforehand) sat in this region: TSM, Curse, Dignitas, and CLG. Interestingly enough, these four teams merely moved down two places in the standing to make way for C9 and Vulcun, going from 1-4 to 3-6. This suggests that the overall skills of the teams remained roughly the same, while the top two saw large leaps in their power (or at least were more skilled at the "take objectives, play aggressive" metagame that is currently most effective). The teams' matchups and tendencies stayed mostly similar between the splits as well with most matchups only varying by one game for any given team with one notable exception. In the Spring, TSM had a 3-1 record against CLG, but were 0-4 against them in the Summer. However, because CLG's pattern of losing to the bottom tier teams (much like the Spring Split), they remained at the bottom of the middle of the pack.

Last Split, compLexity stood at the very bottom of the standings with a 9-19 split, which led to their inevitable relegation and resounding criticism of their overall play. Yet this split the SEVENTH place team matched their record: Team Coast, the second place finishers from the Spring Playoffs ended their Summer with the same record as a team two places under them in the Spring Split. It should be noted, however, that Coast went from a 39% win rate in the Spring Split to a second place finish in the Spring Playoffs, so if they were able to make the Summer Playoffs it's not inconceivable that they could repeat that feat. Unfortunately for Coast, the changes in advancement for the Summer Split put them into relegation along with Velocity. Unfortunately for Velocity they took the NA LCS record of most losses from their coL predecessors, rounding out the split with 23 losses and with only a single matchup above 1-3 (against CLG).

With the stark contrasts of the Summer Split out of the way, we now proceed to the playoffs where much of the disparate results will disappear. With CST and VES heading to relegation, the first bracket of the playoffs will be cutthroat (yet familiar) competition before the first-round winners find themselves faced once again with the extraordinary skill of the two teams that dominated the regular season. That being said, the winningest teams of last season found the Playoffs extremely tough. Perhaps LCS history will repeat itself in the final major NA event in Season 3.





Graphics courtesy of Leaguepedia

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Bans:       

15        Dig        88.3
vs.
29        Crs        92.0

Bans:       

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After Team Coast lost their match earlier in the day, all eyes were on Curse to see if they could pick up a win against Dignitas and obtain 6th place outright, avoiding guaranteed relegation. This game was also important for Digntias as they were in series contention for 3rd place and the tight standings meant any win could help them gain a higher seed in the playoffs.

The game got off to a passive start, but Curse struck first securing first blood off of a Death Sentence from EDward which set up an easy Chains of Corruption for Cop blowing up Patoy with ease. Dignitas made some good moves around the map and with a four man dive on the Bot lane turret they picked up two free kills and a tower. Curse answered by picking up Top and Mid outer turrets evening up the gold. Dignitas tried to recreate their tower dive success several minutes later, but a five man Chains of Corruption spread across the whole team and locked them down under turret leading to an ace for Curse. Curse was able to snowball this advantage and took control of the game for a long while. However, this would not last.

For once it seemed like Baron would actually help Dignitas. Curse tunnel visioned hard on the neutral objective despite several failed attempts to take it. Digntias used this to their advantage with Scarra constantly split pushing and applying pressure on Curse's base. This allowed him to farm up and get to the point where he could 1v1 Voyboy on Kennen who Curse always left to defend the base due to his Teleport. Curse's lack of engage came back to haunt them as they couldn't force any fights on Dignitas. Luckily for them, Curse was able to get off a good engage in their own base with a Death Sentence from EDward and the rest of Curse flashing in and cleaning up the ensuing fight, putting Dignitas on their heels. With death timers above 70 seconds Curse made a dangerous gambit and pushed straight into Dignitas' base face tanking the turrets. Dignitas did their best to stop Curse, but a Teleport/Lich Bane Auto Attack onto the Nexus from Voyboy sealed the win for Curse.

Quarter finals

It's one of the longest lasting rivalries in the history of competitive League of Legends. Although both teams have undergone their share of changes through the years, it's hard to find a match up steeped in nearly as much history. While Team SoloMid only won one more game during Week 9, their morale coming into the playoffs should be higher than Counter Logic Gaming. CLG only won two games, against the lowest ranked teams, and dropped their tie breaker match against Digntias falling all the way down to 6th place. This is quite the fall considering there was a point in the split where they had a decent hold on 3rd place. To get the upper hand on TSM, CLG will have to prevent them from obtaining their comfort champs. Karthus and Jayce has been top pick priorities for TSM and their win rate with them proves they are worthy of a ban or pick. Still, TSM has backups like Kassadin and Rumble, so CLG has to be ready to react to these picks. As for TSM, the general rule of focusing on shutting down Doublelift applies as usual. Although, this depends a lot on CLG's picks. Shutting down a four protect one comp isn't too hard in the current meta, but TSM needs to be careful they don't tunnel vision too hard on Doublelift as both Nien and Link have shown their ability to carry several times throughout the season.


While they don't have quite the rabid fanbases of CLG and TSM, both Curse and Dignitas have their share of history in competitive League of Legends. Although, not all positive history as we come up on the one year anniversary of the Grand Final Game 1 ARAM at MLG Summer. In the LCS both teams have had rather inconsistent runs. They have had their moments in the spotlight but have also had their share of woes. Despite being on the bubble and having the potential to not even qualify for playoffs, Curse turned in an impressive 4-1 Super Week performance and due to their head-to-head record against CLG and Dignitas found themselves in 4th place. With Curse's better record against Dignitas than TSM, this seeding benefits them greatly. Dignitas has had their share of issues in the Summer Split, most notably with Solo laner KiWiKiD taking home the auspicious title of most deaths of the split. Dignitas can't be counted out though, if either Scarra or imaqtpie get rolling they could easily carry them to victory over Curse. The winner of this match will likely come down to who plays the smarter game of LoL and doesn't needlessly throw away advantages.

Semi finals

Cloud 9 took the LCS by storm. They crushed the competition in their promotion games and a lot of buzz developed around the team. Many debates were had about whether or not they could live up to the colossal hype that was built up and boy did they deliver. Only dropping three games in the regular season Cloud 9 has set an incredibly high bar for the top team of future seasons. Regardless of who they face, Cloud 9 is the favorite to win. Even when they get behind in the early game they have proven they can outplay their enemy and win team fights despite being behind in gold. They are not without their weaknesses though. Cloud 9's level one moves have been suspect and several disastrous level one engagements can be attributed to their few losses. Also important to note is this is the first time this team will be playing BO3s against other LCS teams. Both Curse and Dignitas have much more experience in this scenario, so they have an edge on C9 in that regard. Still, due to their consistency. C9 isn't likely to choke at this point in the season.


Vulcun had a nice run at the end up of the Spring Split managing to take 3rd place in the playoffs, but they really came into their own in the Summer Split. They started out the season incredibly strong and would have easily garnered more attention had everyone not been caught up in the Cloud 9 hype train. Mancloud can best be described as a beast and his consistently amazing play almost always puts Vulcun in a good spot to win games. Even their weak link, Zuna, has his moments of glory. Many people critique his poor positioning/decision making, but if he's on Tristana or another late game carry he's demonstrated the ability to close out games for his team. Despite playing incredibly well for most of the season, Vulcun can sometimes be their own worst enemy. Zuna isn't the only person on his team who sometimes has bad positioning and several random deaths have cost Vulcun games. With a 2-2 record against both CLG and TSM, Vulcun is far from guaranteed a win, but if they play to their full potential it's going to be hard to take them down.

While there were certainly pros and cons to the whole structure, Riot's first season of the LCS went fairly smooth. Looking at the scene now compared to Season 2, the number of talented teams is higher with less disparity between them. While NA is still behind Korea (and other regions) in terms of overall skill, the LCS helped stop the bleeding a prevented the region from falling completely into obscurity. The question of whether or not Cloud 9 can take down top KR teams still remains to be seen, but it's a pretty safe statement to say NA is in a better state now than it was last year.