The third week of the North American League Championship Series (NA LCS) has come to a close, and with it comes an updated edition of GAMURS’s power rankings.
The points for these power rankings will be calculated based on the rankings submitted by any of the GAMURS staff members. These staff members were asked to rank the 10 teams in order from best to worst, with No. 1 being the best and No. 10 being the worst. Points will be rewarded to mirror a team’s ranking; for example, the first place team will receive 10 points, while the 10th place team will receive one point.
After every week of action, we will be releasing another power rankings article where the teams will either move up or down based on how they perform in their matches, so don’t forget to check back here each week for the latest power rankings.
Now, without ado, here are the power rankings for the second week of the NA LCS.
NA LCS Power Rankings – Week 4 (Summer Split 2016)
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Team SoloMid (77 total points – 7 first place votes): No change
- Top – Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell
- Jungle – Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen
- Mid – Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg
- ADC – Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng
- Support – Vincent “Biofrost” Wang
- Coach – Parth “Parthenaan” Naidu
Another week, another two wins and another moment on top of our power rankings.
Defeating yet another top-tier North American team in Cloud9 2-1 and taking down NRG eSports 2-0, TSM look absolutely unstoppable. Their last real challenge of the first half of the Summer Split comes up this week, as they take on the Cinderella of the NA LCS: Team EnVyUs. Stopping TSM currently seems like an insurmountable task, but EnVyUs won’t back down from a challenge.
2. Team EnVyUs (69 total points – 1 first place vote): +1
- Top – Shin “Seraph” Woo-yeong
- Jungle – Kim “Procxin” Se-young
- Mid – Noh “Ninja” Geon-woo
- ADC – Benjamin “LOD” deMunck
- Support – Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent
- Coach – Lee “Miracle” Hyeon-beom
Speaking of EnVyUs, here they are at No. 2. Defeating Counter Logic Gaming 2-1 and falling to to Immortals 2-0 last week, we see EnVyUs as a top team in the league.
How did EnVyUs lost to Immortals, yet jump them in our rankings? That’s a hard question for one person to answer really, since this is a full staff vote. When it comes down to it, though, both map losses for EnVyUs against Immortals were caused by minor errors and EnVyUs easily could have won the series. So regardless of their loss, our staff has EnVyUs as the better team. This week is a tough one for the team though, as they have to face Cloud9 and TSM. Their spot, and record, could take a fall.
3. Immortals (67 total points): -1
- Top – Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon
- Jungle – Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin
- Mid – Eugene “Pobelter” Park
- ADC – Jason “WildTurtle” Tran
- Support – Adrian “Adrian” Ma
- Coach – Dylan Falco
After defeating EnVyUs and Echo Fox 2-0, you’d think Immortals would have stayed No. 2 in our rankings. Alas, they oddly fell to the No. 3 spot.
It’s a bit weird, but it’s not crazy to still think EnVyUs could be better than Immortals. Yes, Immortals won their match 2-0, but as stated above, the games were ridiculously close. Really it would make sense to have Immortals at No. 2 or have these teams in a tie, but this is what happened. Regardless, this team is full of talent and being No. 3 in these rankings is certainly not a bad thing right now with how talented the NA LCS is.
4. Cloud9 (59 total points): No change
- Top – Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong
- Jungle – William “Meteos” Hartman
- Mid – Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen
- ADC – Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi
- Support – Michael “Bunny FuFuu” Kurylo and Andy “Smoothie” Ta
- Coach – Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu
Last week, Cloud9 fell 2-1 to TSM and defeated Apex Gaming by the same scoreline, and they stay at No. 4 in our rankings.
Nothing from Cloud9 was a surprise. They should have fell to TSM, and they did. They should have beat Apex, and they did. The rotating supports are both doing a moderate job when they’re in, each showing flashes of both brilliance and… well, not brilliance. I can’t help but think that choosing one player and developing their synergy would be more beneficial to the team in the long run, but right now what they’re doing is working just fine.
5. Apex Gaming (44 total points): No change
- Top – Jeon “Ray” Ji-won
- Jungle – Lee “Shrimp” Byeong-hoon
- Mid – Jang “Keane” Lae-young
- ADC – Apollo “Apollo” Price
- Support – Alex “Xpecial” Chu
- Coach – Brandon “Saintvicious” DiMarco
Apex defeated Phoenix1 2-1 and fell 2-1 to Cloud9, and that was enough to keep them at No. 5 in our rankings.
The surprise factor is gone, and Apex is not any better than they were week one. Teams know what to expect when facing Apex now, and they need to change their style or they will not beat the best teams in this league. This is certainly a top lane meta, and Ray is starting to look like one of the best in NA, but complete reliance on one player is never advisable. Still, their performance this week was solid enough to net them a win and take a map off of Cloud9.
6. Team Liquid (39 total points): +2
- Top – Samson “Lourlo” Jackson
- Jungle – Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett
- Mid – Kim “Fenix” Jae-hoon
- ADC – Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin
- Support – Matthew “Matt” Elento
- Coach – Choi “Locodoco” Yoon-sub
Team Liquid started the season 0-3, and now they’re 3-3. Defeating Phoenix1 2-0 and NRG 2-1 last week moved Liquid up to No. 6 in our rankings.
Piglet, the former World Champion, decided he needed a break this week and opted to play for Liquid’s Challenger roster. In his place, Jovani “fabbbyyy” Guillen of the Liquid Challenger roster performed admirably. Many from the Liquid organization wanted to make it clear that this is not a permanent move, and that both players wanted this to happen for last week. We should expect Piglet to be back in action this week when Liquid takes on Apex and Immortals.
7. Counter Logic Gaming (37 total points): -1
- Top – Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaha
- Jungle – Jake “Xmithie” Puchero
- Mid – Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun
- ADC – Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes
- Support – Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black
- Coach – Tony “Zikzlol” Gray
Another week, another shaky performance from CLG, but they look slightly better. Still, defeating Echo Fox 2-0 and falling 2-1 to EnVyUs sees CLG drop a spot in our rankings.
At this point, beating Echo Fox means next to nothing, as that squad is struggling and can’t seem to make anything work. Taking a map off of EnVyUs was impressive, but these are the defending champions we’re talking about here. It shouldn’t even be an issue, despite EnVyUs’s impressive play so far this split, for CLG to go out and beat that team. They seem to be improving, though, and they’ll put themselves to the test this week against Immortals and Phoenix1.
8. NRG eSports (19 total points): -1
- Top – Diego “Quas” Ruiz
- Jungle – Lucas “Santorin” Tao Kilmer Larsen
- Mid – Lee “GBM” Chang-seok
- ADC – Oh “Ohq” Gyu-min
- Support – Alan “KiWiKiD” Nguyen
- Coach – Tadayoshi “Hermit” Littleton
This was a bit of an ugly week for NRG, as they fell 2-1 to Liquid and 2-0 to TSM.
What did I say last week? NRG could only get better? Well, maybe I was wrong. No snap judgements here, but their play against Liquid and TSM was just not pretty to watch. Can they improve and get that synergy that everyone hopes they can have? Certainly. The question is, though, will they? That, I do not know.
9. Echo Fox (17 total points): No change
- Top – Park “kfo” Jeong-hun
- Jungle – Anthony “Hard” Barkhovtsev
- Mid – Henrik “Froggen” Hansen
- ADC – Yuri “KEITH” Jew
- Support – Terry “BIG” Chuong
- Coach – Currently unknown
Losing 2-0 to both CLG and Immortals, Echo Fox is having a rough time.
Little-to-no improvement is being shown here, but no one on the outside can really pinpoint an exact problem that is giving Echo Fox all of its issues. Their teamwork just seems non-existent, Keith’s off-season form is nowhere to be found, and it’s just bad all around. This week, Echo Fox parted ways with coach David “Cop” Roberson and have yet to announce his replacement as of the publishing time of this article. Something had to change, and Echo Fox management decided it was the coach. Only time will tell if they were right.
10. Pheonix1 (12 total points): No change
- Top – Derek “zig” Shao
- Jungle – Kevin “Zentinel” Pires (this week will be Rami “Inori” Charagh)
- Mid – Choi “Pirean” Jun-sik
- ADC – Brandon “Mash” Phan
- Support – Austin “Gate” Yu
- Coach – Charlie “Charlie” Lipsie
Still without a series win and still in last place, Phoenix1 dropped 2-0 to Liquid and 2-1 to Apex last week.
Again Phoenix1 took a team to a third game, this week Apex, but again they could not close the series with a win. The 2-0 loss to Liquid doesn’t look great for them either. Now that Inori is free of complications, he will be taking Zentinel’s place in the starting lineup. Hopefully for Phoenix1, he can provide the spark they currently need.
What do you think about our Power Rankings for this week? Are there any teams that you would rank higher or lower? Let us know by commenting below or tweeting us @GAMURScom.
Spencer Hester can be contacted by email at Hester.eSports@gmail.com or on Twitter – @SpenceGAMURS.
