New Nadir for Western Regions: North America’s Struggling League of Legends Teams
It’s no secret that North America has its fair share of struggling League of Legends teams. As we head into week seven of the LCS, a total of seven teams have records below .500. If this trend continues, it will surpass the European record of six teams with subpar records at the end of the 2018 Spring Split.
The LCS Rankings: A Wild Ride After the Top Three
What does this mean for the LCS this year? Well, after the top three teams, the rankings become quite unpredictable. Our voters have done their best to rank each team from one to ten points. Let’s take a look at the rankings:
| Rank | Team | Points |
| 1) | Team Liquid | 40 |
| 2) | Cloud9 | 36 |
| 3) | TSM | 32 |
| 4) | Golden Guardians | 28 |
| 5) | OpTic Gaming | 23 |
| 6) | FlyQuest | 20 |
| 7) | Clutch Gaming | 13 |
| 8) | CLG | 12 |
| 9) | 100 Thieves | 11 |
| 10) | Echo Fox | 5 |
Unsurprisingly, there isn’t much agreement after the fourth-ranked Golden Guardians. Let’s delve into each team’s performance so far.
What are we doing?: FlyQuest, Clutch, 100 Thieves, CLG, Echo Fox
Let’s start with FlyQuest, Clutch, 100 Thieves, CLG, and Echo Fox. We predicted that Echo Fox would struggle this season, and despite their early success, the team has hit a rough patch. They benched their jungler Rush and are now directionless. It seems our prediction was right.
However, we can’t be right all the time. Although we ranked CLG in the middle tier, they managed to defeat a struggling FlyQuest squad. Speaking of FlyQuest, they have lost four consecutive games, and their performance leaves much to be desired. As for Clutch and 100 Thieves, their recent match was lackluster, with neither team showing much motivation to win. It appears that 100 Thieves’ mid laner, Huhi, may be the first casualty.
Interestingly, despite the struggles of these five teams, one of them will still make it to the playoffs. The real question is, which team will it be?
Signs of Life: Golden Guardians, OpTic Gaming
Golden Guardians and OpTic Gaming seem to be moving in the right direction. They did what was expected of them last week, defeating lower-ranked teams and losing to those above them. However, if they want to have a winning record for the split, they will eventually need to secure victories against the stronger teams. They have put themselves in this situation, after all.
Top Three: Liquid, C9, TSM
The top three positions remain unchanged for the second week in a row. TSM, in particular, is closing in on C9 due to their strong early game and surprising performance from their top laner Neeko. As for Team Liquid, while they are the favorites to make it to MSI, they still need to work on warding. Despite having a world champion support player in CoreJJ, warding seems to be a challenge for them. This is an issue we have been highlighting for NA teams for a while now.
All photos via Riot Games.
Related keywords: North America, League of Legends, Western regions, LCS, struggling teams, rankings, Team Liquid, Cloud9, TSM, Golden Guardians, OpTic Gaming, FlyQuest, Clutch Gaming, CLG, 100 Thieves, Echo Fox.