[NA LCS] Spring 2014 Playoffs - Page 120

It's because without Bjergsen, the rest of TSM stepped up to play and it was clearly evident. The overall level of play was much greater then than it is now. With Bjergsen back in mid, it seems as though TSM basically just coasts and does dumb shit without anyone keeping them in line. Let's be honest, Turtle flash valks into fights, Dyrus TPs into 2 people top just to die for the 3rd time in 2 minutes, etc.

The rest of TSM is awfully mediocre, even by NA standards. Dyrus is legitimately just a feeder who only shits on Nientonsoh because that guy is bad too. OddOne is pretty mediocre and is pretty much only clearly better than NintendudeX aka 31 minute Feral Flare stacker. Turtle's been playing much worse this split than last split, which amounts to a lot, because Turtle used to put his shit team on his back and make plays while snowballing bot lane. A lot of it can be attributed to Xpecial playing new shit he doesn't look comfortable on (Morgana, Karma, etc) and getting caught a lot.

Aside from Bjergsen, everyone else on TSM is very mediocre even by NA standards. Their shotcalling is also very suspect (Just look at how they played against CLG in Game 1 with their poke comp. TSM started basically every dragon without poking and legit just got obliterated when they could have just taken their time to poke). TSM basically can play one style, and play that style very well. But once you throw them off their game, mix in some lane swaps and fast tower pushing, and it becomes chaos because they don't know what to do. Just look at their last game vs C9 where they got their 1v1 top and 2v2 bot and got outclassed in lanes and in the jungle. It's clear that TSM is very mediocre when playing from behind and really rely on that early game snowballing from dominant lanes or getting carried by Bjergsen.

In terms of positional ranking in NA, here's pretty much what I believe the hierarchy to be:

Top: Balls > Quas = Zion > Nien = Dyrus > Cruzer = Innox = Benny (These guys blow)

In top lane, Balls is clearly the best player in NA. I don't think anyone can refute how much work he puts in for C9. Quas and ZionSpartan are the cornerstones of their teams and when they win, these guys will carry the game. Nien and Dyrus are basically on the same level below them because 1) they rarely have a huge impact on the game and 2) are prone to contributing negatively to the team. Nien and Dyrus are both legitimate feeders who will at times feed nonstop and contribute nothing to the team. If I had to take one over the other, I'd take Dyrus over Nien because his TP timings are better. Dyrus' champ pool is sort of questionable, and Nien just hasn't gotten better at top lane since he started for CLG.

Jungle: Meteos > Dexter > OddOne = Crumbz > IWD = Xmithie > Snoopeh > NintendudeX

Pretty clear order of hierarchy here. Meteos is undisputed as the jungler who has the most impact on games. When you watch C9 games, this guy is basically everywhere. Dexter comes second because he has the ability to carry games unlike the rest of the junglers in NA, but is prone to tilting and making really poor decisions at times. OddOne does nothing, as does Crumbz, but they do what their teams need and are usually solid. IWD is generally the same as the previous two, but he's prone to doing more dumb shit like nonstop feeding because he only has one gear (GO GO GO). Xmithie's return to the jungle has been fairly lackluster. Doesn't seem like this new pool of junglers fits his style. Snoopeh does nothing and usually feeds, but he's still better than 31 minute Feral Flare stacker and biggest LCS feeder NintendudeX.

Mid: Bjergsen > Shiphtur = Hai > Link > Mancloud > Pobelter = Dig's Mid Laner > Voyboy

Pretty clear here. Bjergsen is a god, and Shiphtur is in what we'd like to call LCS ELO Hell. The one thing I'd like to point out about Shiphtur is that despite his great scores, it seems as though when he plays he has no trust in his teammates (Let's be real I wouldn't trust NintendudeX either) and isn't able to relay his advantages mid into overall wins. His play style revolves a lot around solo kills after roaming to pick up kills top with Zion, but it's very rarely portrayed into huge teamfight wins. Very solo queue mentality IMO. Hai is super solid, and usually has great impact on the game alongside Meteos for Cloud 9. Link never does anything, which is why he's a tier lower than the previously mentioned mids, but he's typically a solid farmer and doesn't feed. I still think Mancloud on the right champ pool is still a great farmer, but he just doesn't have the impact he had last season. Pobelter feeds every other game, and Dig's mid laner is also a useless feeder, but they're still better than the ultimate LCS shitter Voyboy. Voyboy is the definition of useless and is the reason why Nidalee hasn't been butchered by Riot. Because he manages to take pretty much any champion and have 0 impact on the game while losing in farm and feeding.

AD: Doublelift > Sneaky > Imaqtpie > Wildturtle > Cop > Wizfujin > Yellowpete > Zuna

Double's only rated higher because his team prioritizes his farm higher than C9 prioritizes farm onto Sneaky. I'm pretty certain if Sneaky was given highest farm allocation on his team, he'd be just as good as Double. Both are solid players that teamfight well with great positioning. After Sneaky it gets tricky because last split Turtle would have been easily #1 or 2, but this split he's been super mediocre, even playing borderline god awful in some games. His positioning and teamfight decision making is terrible (Valk Flash in??). Imaqtpie is prone to the same dumb shit (Tunnel visioning kills and wasting flashes to KS), and this guy is the definition of greedy as fuck (Often going off to farm when there are objectives that can be taken), but when it comes down to teamfights his positioning is often very solid with minimal peel from the often dead from initiating Kiwikid. After the top 4, the level of ADs in NA falls off a ton. Cop is miles ahead of the 3 shitters below, but he still does nothing in a game. You can funnel 400 CS onto Cop and he'll still manage to not output damage in fights. Wizfujin is trash, but his competition at the bottom are Yellowpete (lol) and Zuna (bigger lol). Wiz's Lucian is passable and he usually teamfights fairly well, but for some reason this guy is always down like 100 CS. Yellowpete blows in laning phase and is merely passable in teamfights because he's usually running away and not outputting damage. Zuna is Zuna. Blows at every aspect of the game except feeding.

Support: Aphromoo > LemonNation > Xpecial > Kiwikid > Sheep = Krepo > Daydreamin > Bunnyfufuu

Aphro is basically a god. This guy is so versatile and makes so many plays regardless of what champ he's on. He has the rare ability to carry a game from the support role. He rarely misses skillshots and doesn't get caught that many times. LemonNation is a close second because he simply plays so solid. Lemon's got this ability to make big plays and is a super good at obtaining map vision for Cloud 9. Xpecial would be rated higher if he didn't play like a giant pussy. I feel like his decline is a reason why WildTurtle has looked so awful this split. TSM's bot duo used to be the best in NA, but now they're super mediocre because Xpecial isn't making plays anymore and not manning up. He's been caught more often this split than last and doesn't look comfortable on certain champs (Morgana comes to mind). Kiwikid fits what Dignitas needs from their support, a guy who will YOLO in to initiate fights because Cruzer blows at top lane. The roaming support style allows Qtpie to get ahead from taking full creep EXP and also looks to help their relatively weak mid lane while allowing Crumbz to farm and power up from the jungle. He is prone to feeding a lot due to sometimes being massively underleveled and too YOLO. Sheep's been a super solid pickup for XDG, but let's be real here. It's hard to look good with Zuna as your AD. Krepo feeds a lot and is prone to missing a lot of skillshots, but he's still better than Daydreamin because when you watch a Coast game, how many times do you hear Daydreamin's name? None, because he does nothing in a game. Bunnyfufuu has a 1 champion pool of Thresh. Ban this guy out and he's very useless.

With the meta swapping to a 4v0 double tower push in most games, you can tell who teams trust with their farm. Double and Qtpie will always get their team's farm while ZionSpartan will always get Coast's farm. The game revolves around managing creep waves to pressure objectives. But at the end of the day, usually teams with the better jungler will almost always prevail because they're able to have so much impact on the game. Just take a look at the difference between CLG with Dexter jungling and CLG without Dexter jungling last split. He's able to make plays around the map and parlay them into objectives for his team.

This week, I expect the following to happen in Up/Downs:

Coast will handily beat Complexity Black 3-0. Their solo laners are a liability against ZionSpartan and Shiphtur, and Brokenshard is not good enough to capitalize on playing against the worst jungler in LCS. Complexity is also highly mediocre at objective based play, but they do teamfight decently given that they aren't too far behind from laning phase.

EG will beat C9 Tempest 3-1. C9T's solo laners are highly suspect, and I expect the good Snoopeh to show up for relegation matches. Bischu is a one trick pony mid and if C9T's bot lane gets shut down, they have 0 shot at winning the series. I think these two teams are close in skill level, but I do think come crunch time, the experience of the Euro Trio will help propel EG to a birth in the Spring Split. C9T is probably the best challenger team in terms of objective based play, as they seem very well versed in the tower pushing and rotational game. However, their individual lack of skill will lose them this series.

LMQ will beat XDG 3-1. If you look at how XDG has been playing, they're very solid sometimes and very poor in other games. Last split, XDG won because they were able to turn the early game advantage they accrued with Xmithie's jungling into a snowball win by getting Mancloud fed. Mancloud hasn't shown the ability to carry games this split, but he does farm rather well. Xmithie also doesn't look comfortable in this jungle meta, and XDG as a whole doesn't seem that great with the 4v0 tower pushing meta. I wouldn't be surprised to see LMQ force XDG into standard lanes to capitalize on the weaknesses of their laners. Mid should be a farmfest with XWX and ManCloud who are both very competent farmers. Top will be jungler dependent. Ackerman 1v1 will abuse Benny, but he has been camped a lot in Challenger Series and can also be prone to feeding a bit. Bot will abuse Zuna and Sheep 2v2 because Vasilii is by far better than Zuna. If Ackerman gets camped top, LMQ's bot lane will get fed and carry the game. The correct strategy has to be to target Vasilii and Mor and get Zuna going if possible. This series will be won or lost by Xmithie's decision making. If he's able to 1) Shut down Vasilii or 2) Get ManCloud somehow fed, they will have a good shot at winning. LMQ has plenty of LAN experience and will not crumble under pressure. Ackerman is rock solid as their top laner from Royal Club, and all of them have plenty of experience playing in LPL against teams such as World Elite and OMG. If the worlds ManCloud shows up to play, XDG will have a shot at winning, otherwise he'll be praying for Dignitas to pick him up for next split.