State of the LCS: The Bottom 5
The LCS 2022 Summer Split kicks off on Friday, June 17th at 2:30 PM with the reigning champs Evil Geniuses facing off against a revamped Cloud9. Albeit, Cloud9 will be playing with a Frankenstein roster due to visa issues and COVID. Darshan, k1ng and Destiny are expected to be starting in place of Fudge, Berserker and Zven respectively.
This summer split should be a good one, as I think the LCS looks more contentious than ever and extremely unpredictable. Right now, these five teams are what I believe to be a the lower half of the ladder before the start of the summer split.
DISCLAIMER: This list is NOT put into any particular order!!
Dignitas
Top: Gamsu
Jungle: River
Mid: Blue
ADC: Neo
Support: Biofrost
Dignitas made a much needed upgrade in the top lane by replacing FakeGod with Gamsu. Since coming back from the Overwatch League and Korean military service, Gamsu’s spent time with 100 Thieves on their Academy and Amateur squads respectively. I wouldn’t personally say that Gamsu’s going to be a world beater or a dominant force to push Dignitas up the standings, but he is is a bigger brand player for a relatively lackluster team. The rest of the roster remains the same and will probably revolve around River and Biofrost linking up once again. Neo has been the weakest player aside from FakeGod, and is probably on their way off of Dignitas after Summer Split. My expectations for this team are bottom two and missing out on playoffs.
Golden Guardians
Top: Licorice
Jungle: Pridestalkr
Mid: Ablazeolive
ADC: Stixxay
Support: Olleh
The Golden Guardians keep rubber banding for me. One day they’re investing into promising talents and bringing in quality, young imported players… And then the next they bring in Stixxay to play ADC for them. Stixxay’s been coaching GGS for the past split, but with Lost’s departure he’s had to step back into a starting position. Hopefully Olleh and Stixxay can pair up nicely, as it seemed that Lost and Olleh were just never on the same page. As for the rest of the team, Licorice seems fairly washed up at this point and the mid-jungle duo of Ablazeolive-Pridestalkr should be the focal point of this team. Pridestalkr’s unique champion pool allowed for stylistically different comps from the other LCS teams, and I hope we can continue to see that this summer. I would expect this team to miss out on playoffs, but could also seem them clock in as high as the 6th seed.
Immortals
Top: Revenge
Jungle: Kenvi
Mid: PowerOfEvil
ADC: Lost
Support: Ignar
Immortals made my favorite roster move this mini offseason by breaking the bank and finally getting Kenvi out of Academy jail. Kenvi’s been dominating the Academy scene for the past few years and looks like the next GOAT of the LCS. IMT also went out and picked up Ignar, who was ranked highly on the Korean solo queue ladder, and Lost, who’s familiar with PowerofEvil and still a stable presence. This entire roster hinges on POE’s performance this summer, and I believe after a disappointing Spring, he’ll be back in form. Revenge looks to be the most promising native talent currently playing in LCS and has high carry potential every single game, expect a lot of top side 3v3 plays with this monster trio of Revenge-Kenvi-PowerofEvil.
CLG
Top: Dhokla
Jungle: Contractz
Mid: Palafox
ADC: Luger
Support: Poome
CLG didn’t make any flashy moves aside from promoting Dhokla from Academy to the starting roster. This is awesome, as it’s been nearly three years since we saw Big Dhokes on the LCS stage. He’s a vastly different player from what he was before, improving his champion pool by a wider margin. Through strong performances in Academy and smurfing in Champions Queue, Dhokla without a doubt deserves the start. This means Jenkins is headed back to Academy, but I could see him working his way back into the LCS on a different team. Luger and Poome are still the main emphasis of this team, but Palafox’s emergence in the latter half of the split gives me hope that this team can play spoiler for the top of the table. Contractz, to me at least, was the weakest player on the roster and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he got replaced after Spring. Instead, CLG decided to role with him for another split, which is fine because of the synergy he’s built up with Palafox. CLG’s got a ton of promise, and they’ve begun to invest hard into native talents making me a huge fan of their future and potential.
TSM
Top: Huni
Jungle: Spica
Mid: Maple
ADC: Tactical
Support: Shenyi & Mia
TSM is the most unpredictable team this upcoming Summer, as we still don’t know if it’s still a dumpster fire behind the scenes. They still have 2021 Summer Split MVP Spica on the roster (for how much longer though??), who could have a bounce back and lead the charge for TSM again. Huni’s been disappointing to me and TSM has a potential super star on their Academy squad, Soul. I could totally see Soul getting the job by the end of Summer, or for sure by the start of next year. Tactical and Shenyi became a stronger duo late into Spring, and I hope they can continue to build on that momentum. That could be interrupted by the signing of Mia, a Korean import who paired up with Bvoy in the LLA on Estral Esports in Spring. Mia is strong mechanically and has a great map sense, and it was reported that he and Shenyi would be competing for the starting support position. The biggest signing TSM made was bringing in PCS and LMS legend Maple, who had a rather disappointing Spring with Anyone’s Legend (the LPL’s 13th place team). Maple may look like a shell of his former self, but the mid pool in LCS is so weak that I could see him dominating versus weaker players. All in all, TSM prospectively looks very middling and not strong enough to contend with the top teams.
