The first game of Week 8 started with our first look at compLexity's new Mid Laner pr0lly. Right from champ select he made a noticeable impact as he busted out Ziggs for the first time in the NA LCS. The game itself got off to a fast paced start as CLG tried to catch an invading coL off guard by engaging on them from the bush behind Red buff. CLG severely underestimated the level one AoE damage of coL and the three Fortitude Elixir advantage and lost out on the trade only picking up one kill for four deaths. After picking up yet another kill on HotshotGG, coL had a commanding 2K gold lead at three minutes into the game. coL spent a lot of time trying to shut down Hotshot as they managed to kill him four times in lane, including a tower dive that started to go horribly wrong but was salvaged into a one for one trade after a beautiful double Flash from Nickwu and Lautemortis to dodge a Final Spark from Lux. Even though CLG kept the game going longer than it probably had any right to, they just couldn't surmount the early lead coL had established. Even Hotshot sneaking into coL's base and farming two waves at once wasn't enough to distract them from their actual goals. One failed team fight while trying to defend their base was the final straw that broke CLG's back as coL as able to clean-up and take the Nexus.



In yet another LCS debut, Daydreamin made his first appearance with Good Game University in the Support position. After Bloodwater departed for Vulcun, GGU didn't have much time to find a replacement but were able to settle on Daydreamin picking him up from Dignitas' B Team. Fans of Nyjacky were treated to a rare occurrence, him actually playing his favorite champion Veigar. Mirroring the coL v CLG match, this game also started off with a full 5 v 5 team fight where GGU seemed to gain an advantage, but Curse was able to turn it around when a respawned Saintvicious joined the fight for the second time wrapping it up with three kills for two deaths in favor of Curse. Nyjacky made a huge impact on GGU's builds through the early and mid game as his insane burst forced three members to build early MR to deal with his damage. This proved to be a worthy investment as these defensive stats helped keep GGU alive longer in a fight over Dragon in which they were able to just pick up the ace with Daydreamin being the only surviving player after picking up four kills over the course of the fight. The game would stall out until the next Dragon where GGU won another trade three for two with Daydreamin picking up yet another double kill. But as a result of GGU backing after winning the fight, Curse picked up an uncontested Dragon cutting the gold lead down to 3K. GGU was firmly in the driver's seat until a perfectly placed Event Horizen from Nyjacky locked almost all of the member of GGU in place allowing for a full channel Bullet Time to melt their health bars with Curse picking up four kills for free. On the back of this GGU was able to rush to Baron and pick it up before Curse could respond, but lost two members on the retreat. The next Baron would be the ultimate downfall of GGU as Nintendudex blindly ran towards the pit looking to get the steal, but Curse has already taken Baron for themselves and turned and blew up Nintendudex. They then chased down Jintae getting a huge numbers advantage and they forced their way into GGU's base to take the victory.



With the third game of the day, we had a third team playing with a different roster than the previous week. This time LCS veteran Bloodwater played his inaugural game as Support for Vulcun. Vulcun was able to eek out a small lead through the early stages of the game by picking up first blood, a tower, and out farming almost all of TSM's lanes even though TSM picked up the first Dragon. Vulcun utilized the global presence of Karthus very well as they timed their aggression with the Requiem cooldown and were able to pick up several easy kills. They would further their lead when TSM made an attempt at Dragon. Vulcun engaged on them perfectly with Tristana abusing her range and Karthus positinging right in the middle of TSM picking up an ace while Sycho Sid never even had to leave Top lane. From there they were able to transition to an uncontested Baron which they picked up at 17 minutes into the game. TSM never recovered from this deficit. Even though they were able to pick off members of Vulcun as they tried to force their way into the base, the gold and level lead was too far in Vulcun's favor. TSM put forth a great effort but simply crumbled during the defense of their base and allowed Vulcun to win the final team fight and win the game.



Coming off of their win earlier in the day, compLexity was hoping they could use this momentum to carry themselves over Team MRN. pr0lly would again go against the grain in champ select picking up Jarvan. And while Mid lane Jarvan is not unheard of, little did anyone know he'd be building Jarvan full AD instead of the usual tanky build. MRN tried to gain an early advantage by stealing coL's blue, but a nicely aimed Death Sentence from M eye A sniped out ClakeyD leading to first blood and setting him immensely far behind. Even when MRN was able to catch out brunch Ü with a scary combination of Unstoppable Force and Agony's Embrace, the rest of coL were far enough ahead they kept the trade even at two for two. MRN started to slowly claw their way back into the game off the back of not just one, but two triple kills from Nientonsoh. But greed would get the better of MRN as they tried too hard to force down coL's Mid base turret and lost two members in the retreat allowing coL to pick up a free Baron. Not to be outdone in the greed game, coL would also give up two free kills trying to take down one of MRN's towers and shifted the momentum of the game back into MRN's favor. In the final fight Nien got caught out of position early and was blown up, but coL wasted so many cooldowns securing the kill that MRN was able to re-engage, blowing up the members of coL, picking up an ace, and moving right into coL's base for the win.




This game opened up with a scary team composition for TSM - a classic “dive-buddies” composition of Shen and Nocturne, backed up by Karthus’s global damage and Draven’s beautiful face. It was clear what they wanted to do: Annihilate Kog’maw. Right from level 1, TSM took the game by a stranglehold when Nyjacky turned the corner up TSM’s wraith ramp and ran into all 5 TSM members. He didn’t even attempt to flash away from Nocturne’s fear tether. TSM extended their lead when SaintVicious flashed towards Thresh and Draven, but they turned the aggression against him despite the 3v2, and a patient hook secured the kill on him. Shortly after, Reginald’s Karthus came to the rescue to take out both Cop and Elementz, who had been finishing off WildTurtle. The rest of the game continued like this: Curse would occasionally pick up a kill, but rarely without great cost in the form of their lives or map objectives. After a midgame where TSM hunted down Curse in their own jungle and destroyed them with Death Sentences and Spinning Axes, TSM secured several dragons, a Baron, and a finally Curse’s nexus at 31:15 with a score of 19-8, 10 turrets to 1.



We saw this game open up with another interesting team comp: pr0lly picked Annie - the Dark Child’s first appearance in the LCS. A recurring theme this week, this game also began with a level 1 accident. Xmithie didn’t have vision around the corner and got caught at his own wraith ramp by compLexity, taunted by Shadow Dash, slowed by Varus, and finally killed with only 1 flash and 2 ignites burnt for coL. Laute started counterjungling as Shen because he was so ahead of Xmithie. Karthus tries to even the score, using his Flash and Ignite summoners against Annie while hers were still on cooldown, killing Annie but losing enough health that Shen could flash-taunt him and pick up the revenge kill. Before Manclouds flash returns, pr0lly returns a kill on him, surviving the return damage from Karthus and Hecarim thanks to Shen ult, and Shen finishes off Hecarim as well. Meanwhile, on a remote island top lane, Darius dunked Vladimir. Complexity takes mid turret and pr0lly recalls with low health, but coL tried to take Dragon anyway, and Vulcun’s Miss Fortune got a clean Bullet Time across their team, picked up a kill and allowed his team to pick up a second kill and the dragon. Complexity extended their lead with a well-coordinated tower dive in bot lane, facilitated by Annie with Stand United on her, and picked up 2 kills and the bottom outer turret. Meanwhile, Darius dunked Vladimir again, and took the final outer turret. Vulcun tried to find a comeback when they initiated a good fight in mid lane, getting 3 kills but losing Vladimir to greed. However, they couldn’t take the mid turret due to low health, no minions, and Darius arriving. Vulcun tried to stay in the game through kill trading, but they fell further behind as Complexity eventually turned kill trades further in their favor, took baron, dove middle for a 3-for-0 trade with amazing AOE CC and burst, and Vulcun could no longer win kill trades even when complexity went too deep when they dove bot inhibitor turret, and they finally lost the game at 35 minutes.

MRN’s team comp this game was a hard engage comp based around Diana and Miss Fortune. GGU had a more defensive long range composition involving Karthus, Rumble, and Thresh, with amazing zone potential. GGU started the game with a bot lane manhunt at level 1, but Nientonsoh backed off before a hook passed through the area he had been standing. GGU sent Jintae to 1v2 bottom lane as Karthus and put Thresh and Caitlyn in mid against Diana, but the first action happened top when Megazero got aggressive on Zionspartan before placing his ward. Zion baited him close to the river brush, from which NintendudeX’s Nocturne pounced on him for a straightforward first blood. The teams traded mid for bottom turret at six minutes in, but GGU’s mid turret kill was more impactful than MRN’s bottom turret; a minute later GGU stole MRN’s blue as well. At 10 minutes, GGU exercised their composition’s ability to threaten a team from a long distance; they picked up dragon quickly and used Wall of Pain and Death Sentence to discourage any kind of engage from MRN. The game remained around 1k gold apart until the next dragon, GGU again secured the dragon swiftly, but MRN is much closer this time and the teams fight a bloody fight. Many members are left low on GGU, but they escape with a 2 for 2 trade and a 2k gold advantage.

MRN tried to take back the game with the hard engages that their composition was based on, but they lost a 4v4 fight mid 0-2, which turned into 1-4 when Megazero finally showed up but couldn’t clean up the low health members of GGU. From this point forward, MRN couldn’t control the tempo of the game anymore, and even when they finally were able to take dragon, they lost middle inner turret for it. The game would be sealed by GGU as they pressured the inhibitors. First they forced a favorable kill trade and took bottom inhibitor, then DontMashMe picked up a Quadra Kill at the middle inhibitor, ending the game.

Curse came into this match as the only team that hasn’t dropped a game to a bottom 4 team. They went with a reset-heavy composition, with Voyboy on Katarina and Nyjacky on Kha’zix. Vulcun’s composition also featured assassination: Mancloud on zed, but was relatively standard beyond that. Vulcun’s blue invasion was successful level 1, but Curse realized what was happening, and with more teammates on the bottom side of the map, they stole Vulcun’s blue back after SaintVicious took his redbuff. The early 1v2 lane swaps completely favored Curse. SaintVicious was able to apply enough pressure top to keep Voyboy safe, while Cop and Elementz took Vulcun’s bottom turret by the 6 minute mark. Shortly after, Curse would use vision advantage and numbers advantage to easily secure Dragon. The game went bloodless until Vulcun orchestrated a clean dive in middle on Volibear, taking no losses. They still couldn’t take an objective however, and when dragon respawned at 14 minutes, they had to contest it despite a huge vision disadvantage. The Equalizer was misplaced and barely did damage to CRS, was even helping Volibear to finish off dragon, while Chains of Corruption hit home, but with no combo to back it up. Vulcun were subsequently annihilated when Cop’s Bloodthirter-powered bullets sliced through their whole team, killed Xmithie, and Voyboy got the reset! (But cop got the kills.) Curse mopped up the rest of the game, and SaintVicious taught Mancloud, Never mess with a bear.

No one expected to be surprised eight weeks into the NA LCS. The teams were established, their stars familiar, their tendencies and playstyles and faults apparent to fans and competitors. Then the roster changes came, bringing a wild Turtle to TSM along with newfound confidence and strength. The following week brought even more changes to the NA scene as players left teams behind to find new homes among the LCS challengers. Yet expectations were for a normal week of the LCS, one with the same strong, entertaining champions as the last. We were wrong. One new player did not merely bring a new name to his lineup, but selected unorthodox and unforeseen Champions to his mid lane. Moreover, his play was aggressive, instinctive, and refreshing, bringing new excitement (and skill) to compLexity's games. For a novelty and cockiness that brought a refreshing thrill to the eleventh hour of the NA Spring Season, TL's Player of the Week is pr0lly.

It's difficult to be aware of stasis until something new comes along. When coL picked the unpicked, unbanned Ziggs for their newest member against CLG, the match was already off to an intriguing and exciting start. Yet when a pincer teamfight broke out before minions spawned, pr0lly not only survived, but coordinated successfully with his teammates for a flashy and impressive double kill (and two assists). His harmonization with his new team became clearer in another five minutes, when he successfully employed Ziggs' ult to great effect on Doublelift. Even when his teammates struggled to bring down the master of distraction, HotshotGG, pr0lly utilized Ziggs' skills wisely to finally bring CLG's captain down. Though compLexity barely eked out the win in the end, pr0lly's first game on the LCS stage showed NA's audience the power of an unconventional Champion and made the first LCS NA Ziggs' pick a win. He was not done yet.

Next he brought a mid-lane Jarvan to the table. While neither a rare pick nor a mid lane innovation, Jarvan had only roamed the jungle so far in the NA LCS. Defying NA convention, pr0lly brought the frequent pick to the mid lane and showed his opponents the AD burst of which the flexible Champion is capable. Though compLexity were unable to score a win against their opponents, pr0lly still made impressive plays both in 1v1 and teamfight situations.

Yet the final game demonstrated pr0lly's unpredictable and flashy style the best due to his play on Annie, another previously unpicked or banned Champion. Despite a doubt-instilling early death, pr0lly managed to out-CS mandatorycloud's Karthus (a feat in itself) before going hard on Vulcun's mid laner (notice the missing Flash/Ignite/Tibbers) and helping to bait a second kill with the timely aid of Lautemortis. It quickly became clear that the Annie/Shen ultimate initiation wombo combo was compLexity's core strategy throughout the game, as pr0lly fiercely and fearlessly dove his opponents (along with Lautemortis) again and again to great effect. Even non-wombo combo fights, pr0lly still delivered incredible burst and fortuitous survivability. When Vulcun's Nexus fell, pr0llly was not just a crucial part of compLexity's second 2-1 LCS week, but also responsible for bring two new (and currently undefeated) Champions into the NA LCS. pr0lly's entrance to the LCS brought a new face, new Champions, and new fun to the LCS in Week 8, earning him TL's Player of the Week.

Two weeks remain in the LCS Spring Season and the race for the top three slots is down to the wire. Curse, Dignitas, and TSM are neck-in-neck on the podium and there are no more bye weeks remaining, so the competition will be fiercer than ever. Any of these teams could be tied by the end of Week 9's matches, a frightening prospect for any team as another Super Week bloodbath looms on the horizon. The two most important matches for will be Dignitas vs CLG and Curse vs TSM, each of which holds a large influence over the Week 9 standings. For the other LCS teams, every remaining match is a chance to crawl a little further away from the seventh and eighth positions. MRN will attempt to survive on top of the heap, while GGU and coL need to take advantage of Vulcun's bye to put themselves in a better position before the final week. Regardless of the results, the stakes of the penultimate Spring Season week are the highest they've ever been and should provide us with some of the best games to date. Don't miss it.



Curse faces off against Team MRN in the first game of Week 9 and try to defend their title as the only team to not drop a game to one of the bottom four teams. As of late they've lost to CLG and TSM but continue to prevent defeat from the lower positioned teams. Some of their laning has been sloppy the past couple weeks, but they are usually able to make up for this in the team fight phase. Even in their victory over Good Game University Voyboy wasn't playing up to his usual level. MRN's best best for victory lies with Nientonsoh in the Bot lane. Cop is an incredibly solid ADC, often picking up kills and evading death with only a sliver of health. That said, his laning is solid but not flashy, if Nien and Heartbeat can time some early aggression they can pick up an early kill on Cop or Elementz and hopefully snowball that into victory.


After a bye week Dignitas looks to make another run at the number one position. In their first game of the week they play the fledgeling CLG who managed to lose their only game of Week 9. Like every team Dignitas always has be be mindful of Doublelift. Winning lane is one thing, but Dignitas can also easily abuse CLG when Doublelift is off free farming in side lanes. They can move around the map picking off other members of CLG and making plays if Doublelift's whereabouts are known. CLG will greatly increase their chances of victory if they can avoid a horrendous level 1 team fight as they did against compLexity. Although, Dignitas had their own poor level 1 against Curse in Week 8, so this game may be decided in the end by who has the least horrible level one presence.


After a hot Week 8 compLexity have to face off against the number one team in the LCS. The addition of pr0lly has seemed to breath new life into the team. One has to wonder if he will continue to break out new champs or if he will eventually adopt a more standard roster. His impact in their Week 8 games was palpable and making sure he continues this should be the main goal of coL. Curse should know that coL are putting a lot of eggs in the pr0lly basket and adjust accordingly. That said, they need to be sure not to ignore Nickwu in the Top lane as before the arrival of pr0lly he was often the major contributor to coL's limited success.


In the final game of day one we are treated to a Week 8 rematch. GGU had a pretty dominating performance so they are looking to recreate this success. They did a good job of shutting down MegaZero in the Top lane and overall had superior team fight presence. They created numerous pick opportunities on MRN's team members and often caught people out before they could fight a full five on five fight. MRN needs to avoid GGU's early game pressure if they want to pick up the win this time around. GGU already made it known they are keen on shutting down MegaZero, so MRN can abuse this if they know Nien and Heartbeat will be relatively ignored in the Bot lane.



While this fight might look very one-sided, it’s not impossible. Dignitas dropped a game to compLexity, it’s possible for GGU to also upset them with careful preparation and clean play. Against the well-rounded lineup of Dignitas they may find their best opportunity to be playing standard and trying to not let the lanes of Dignitas snowball out of control - something they’re very good at doing. Dignitas, on the other hand, can’t afford to lose this game if they want to hold onto their Top 2 seed against TSM. We might see some newly prepared strategies here, but it’s also possible Dignitas is going to save its secret weapons for more formidable opponents.


This is an important opportunity for MRN; a win here could be what they need to finally cause a week 10 break the top-four/bottom-four barrier. Furthermore, they need every win they can get to secure their slot in the playoffs against possible hot streaks from coL or GGU. On the other hand, CLG is looking to defend their pride more than a playoff spot. After weeks of mixed performances, they’ve left fans and detractors alike wondering just how far they have fallen. They need to prove to themselves and their fans that their players and their style of play are still strong and consistent.


Both these teams are in a ‘now or never’ situation. If they can perform well this week, they can break into the playoffs. Perform poorly, and it’s possible they can’t even get in if they go 5-0 next week. Both teams have relatively new lineups, coL with the flashy pr0lly in mid and GGU with solid, if not as flashy, Daydreamin on support. If GGU can control the mid lane, it’s very possible they can get pr0lly to commit some follies and have the game blow up in his face. Complexity will want to play to their newfound aggression to dictate the game, they seem content with brawly bloodbaths, but it’s important they don’t get outbrawled by a team playing more safely.


This is TSM’s only match this week, and though they aren’t reputed for careful preparation, it’s what they will need if they wish to repeat their Week 8 win against Curse. TSM is trying to pull themselves into the top 2, and this is their last match against CRS, one of the two obstacles between themselves and the coveted Playoffs round 1 bye. Curse has been looking shaky in scrims lately, and it’s possible TSM can find a weakness to exploit. For Curse, they’re best off doing what they do best - get in the driver’s seat and control the tempo of the game. They have new options open to them with recent patches, such as SV playing as “Newdyr” and Voyboy has been spotted on Fizz. Perhaps they can break out an interesting new composition or strategy and catch TSM’s “We play what is tried and true” off guard.