You know that scene in Anchorman where all the different news crews gather for a neighborhood brawl? They’re carrying all sorts of weapons, and it features cameos from a lot of famous faces. That’s what the playoff race is coming down to in the last few weeks of the regular season, and TSM is Ron Burgundy? The same triumvirate of teams that finished atop the Spring Split appear to be separating from the pack once again with Team Liquid leading the way. And with the meta reverting back to one similar to spring, I think we’ll continue to see them at the top. Here’s 10 thoughts going into Week 8!

[10-4] Entering another wet season

Xmithie is the name of the top that spins forever at the end of Inception because he’s untiltable. TL is riding the longest win streak in the NA LCS at five games, and it’s coming just as we approach playoffs. The meta is also about to re-enter a phase that’s more favorable to ADCs, which was what favored this squad the most earlier in the year. They’re at their best when Doublelift and Olleh can win early and then rotate into other lanes to let TL enter the mid game with a significant advantage. So it’s hard to imagine them faltering down the stretch. They’ve also all but secured their playoff berth at this point, but if they can go ahead and clinch a bye, then they’ll have essentially punched their ticket to Worlds (on points), which would be a first in the organization’s long history. Their pieces are just all clicking at the right time — and with no true weakness on the map, a superstar in Doublelift, Pobelter’s “Press R” strategy, and with Xmithie’s dad cheering them on, they are easily the favorite to repeat as NA LCS champions.

[9-5] Ssumday Fighter V

I think this team is actually a lot like Team Liquid — they win when their bot lane pops off, and their mid and jungle combo is fairly supportive and more focused on helping side lanes than in winning through mid. The difference is I think the TL bot lane is slightly stronger, and the 100 top lane is slightly stronger. So going into the last couple weeks of the regular season, the thing that would really help this team is for them to continue to refine the split-pushing strategy that has taken NA by storm again. That means putting Ssumday — arguably the best player in the league this split — on something that can just go win the game by itself. I think he’s a great player even on tanks, but to me this team’s ceiling is when Ssumday is playing a carry. That’s true now, and it will be true at Worlds if they make it there. So I recommend sticking him on M. Bison for the true 1v1 prowess.

[9-5] Lost and found

Not since 2004 when Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 crashed onto a deserted island have we seen a better debut from Lost. The situation is certainly favorable for him — he has a lane dominant support (and once MVP candidate) in Smoothie to help him through the early game, and he has stars on the other side of the map to ensure he won’t be pressured in fights. That’s always been Huni’s biggest strength — he’s the best magnet for attention, and he seems to divert so much threat away from his carries. That’s great for not just Lost, but also Damonte — they’re able to see the game unfold in front of them instead of being the hard carries for the team. That’s going to slightly shift with the new patch, but so far Lost seems more than capable of playing his part. It’s pretty unusual for there to be an import from the OPL, and maybe that’s actually just another indictment against natural NA talent, but I think it’s really cool to see.

[7-7] Zilean main btw

Sneaky: let me play we can win

Reapered: no we need to try new people

Sneaky, in cosplay: nice to meet you!

So, C9 is actually about to accidentally win the NA LCS Summer Split, huh? This feels like one of the most on-brand things that’s happened to this organization in a while. After rattling off four straight wins to climb out of last place, they suddenly look like a top tier team again. And that’s with Jensen becoming a Zilean one-trick-pony. They said OTPs would never succeed in pro play, and here is Jensen proving them all wrong. Everyone on this team is stepping up, though — it’s not just Licorice trying to carry all the groceries up the stairs on one trip anymore. C9 does have a pretty tough schedule to close out the season, though, as they still have to play against 100 and TL. They’re definitely not in the clear just yet when it comes to playoffs, but they’ve got to be feeling pretty good about their form (or maybe forms [plural] is more apt for Sneaky) lately.

[7-7] A beautiful butterfly

In A Bug’s Life there’s a big green caterpillar named Heimlich that eventually turns into a butterfly, but he can still barely fly. That’s kind of what FLY feels like right now — they’ve made the metamorphosis, but taking flight is still proving to be a bit of a struggle. Their 0-2 weekend wasn’t awful by any stretch of the imagination — both of those games could have swung in their favor, but they didn’t and that’s the reality for this squad right now. They’ve still got to work out their mid game pressure in particular — I think they have a tendency to get sloppy with the kinds of plays they’ll choose to make. It’s good to be proactive, but in their case, maybe they could benefit from chilling out and taking it a bit slower from time to time, too. I do think that’s a lot easier than being a passive team that needs to learn how to be proactive, though, so I feel like they’re in a good position to make a playoff push.

[7-7] Yorick Mori

Was that the last time we’ll see Yorick in pro play? Does the champion actually even exist, or was it all an… OpTical illusion? Can any of you prove to me that Yorick is an actual champion that people actually play? I suspect not. OPT currently holds the last playoff spot, and one scenario I’ve seen presented is that PowerOfEvil continues the whole “Bjergsen rival” motif by denying TSM the spot. However, not only does OPT still have to play TSM in Week 9, they also have the top three teams in the league — TL, 100, and FOX — on their schedule. It’s a brutal gauntlet, and it makes it difficult for me to envision them emerging from that with a playoff spot in hand. For them, though, it doesn’t really matter — if they can’t beat any of those teams now, then they’re not going to stand a chance come playoffs anyway. It might be a nice meme for fans if they can deny TSM a playoff spot, but it’s ultimately nothing more than petty consolation. They’ll need to continue refining their split push style if they hope to have a clear identity going forward.

[6-8] Nay life

Any team: let’s split and see other people

TSM: no don’t go

Any team: it’s too late — we’re taking that with us

TSM: taking what?

Any team: your nexus lol

Split-pushers have devastated TSM on multiple occasions this summer. Sometimes they feel like a robot that short-circuits if you try to give it more than one command. I’m just so honestly perplexed by this team — on paper I really thought they had a shot at being the greatest team the NA LCS has ever seen this year. And I guess if they end up making it to Worlds and making a deep run, that could still happen, but it seems they’ve got a lot of inherent issues with their team identity. It’s kind of crazy to think about TSM missing the playoffs altogether, but the honest truth is they’ve looked like a middling team at best this split. They haven’t turned it on like they did at the end of the Spring Split, and they haven’t really shown the kind of bay life swagger that propelled them to fame in the first place. My earliest memories of TSM are watching Regi flash forward on Karthus or Turtle flashing forward or Dyrus running it down top with no care in the world (but still dominating). This TSM is such a far departure from that — they just don’t really have an identity. Maybe C9’s blueprint of sticking Jensen on supportive champions is the way to go? It’s hard to say — I still think they’ll ultimately grab a playoff spot, but they seem so far away from their ceiling.

[5-9] Band-aid solution

Clutch parted ways with Head Coach David Lim last week in one of a handful of coaching changes this split — I’m glad that coaches have such an active presence on teams that they can be held responsible, but I also hope it’s not just a band-aid fix. In traditional sports as well it’s easy for fans to blast a coach without having full context into what they do behind the scenes — something like 90% of coaching happens on scrim days and practices. We aren’t privy to the work they actually put in. But this is a CG team that was one game away from the Spring Finals, and between roster shuffles and generally lackadaisical games, they now look like one of the least promising teams. They don’t have the young talent that might inspire hope like other struggling teams — they just look like they never really figured out how to play the meta this split. Maybe that changes as we revert back to a more ADC-focused meta again, but it’s probably a little too late in the season for them to recover. And it’s hard exactly to say what went wrong, which means they may be in for a long offseason.

[5-9] Quiet days

I guess I helped place a major curse on them by raising expectations so high earlier in the split. But they’re not like the Cleveland Browns or anything of that nature. It’s not completely hopeless. They maybe had the strongest 0-6 run ever, which is maybe worse in a way but at least it’s entertaining? You could pretty much tune into any CLG game from the past few weeks and flip it to 25 minutes, and it would look like they still have a good shot at winning the game. For whatever reason, though, they’ve just been super sloppy at closing out games — this is where long-time fans will come to miss the veteran presence of a shot caller like Aphromoo. It seems they just couldn’t find an adequate replacement for his voice throughout this year, and that should be their point of focus in the offseason. The firing of Head Coach Zikz will also feel like another end to an era — he’s been with CLG for as long as I can remember, and without him, a new kind of quiet will permeate the CLG camp.

[5-9] Bad coin flips

Being known as a coin flip player isn’t really a good thing — sure, when you land on heads a few times in a row, you feel great. That’s gambling. That’s why it’s so addictive. But the coin always evens out. And here we are with Mickey and GGS — their high-flying style has grinded to a halt. GGS rode a wave of success in the middle of the split thanks to their Talon and Heimerdinger combo, but since Talon’s been nerfed and Heimer has been banned, they just haven’t found another formula for success. What made Talon and Heimer so good was they could both accelerate the early game and provide a ton of map pressure — this freed up Contractz to do as he pleased. Without that, though, their map has been clamped up a bit more and you’re starting to see Contractz struggle. There’s still clearly talent on this roster, but they may ultimately finish in a similar spot as their Spring Split. Maybe their coaching shuffle — bringing in Inero as a consultant in particular — can help provide a new spark for this team to make a final push, if not for playoffs, then to prove to themselves that they’ve truly gotten better this split.