Welcome to Whose Lane Is It Anyway where the picks don’t matter and there are no points, like a secret confession tossed into the Twitch chat abyss. League of Legends has changed rather drastically since the Spring Split — so while the teams themselves are filled with mostly the same faces, the new champion diversity should pave way for an exciting and unpredictable Summer Split. Here’s the first 10 thoughts of the summer, and as a reminder, these teams are listed in alphanumerical order — this is not a power ranking!

[2-0] Huni goes where he pleases

Remember the Worlds Finals last year when Huni picked Yasuo and all of us thought he was trolling? “Classic Huni! What a goofball!” we said. Turns out Huni traveled into the future and of 14 million possible outcomes, that was the only way forward for the pathfinder to truly enter the meta. Huni was merely practicing for today — and look, FOX looks scary and unpredictable while SKT is struggling. This meta is perfect for eccentric players (Huni, Dardoch) so long as they have accommodating teammates (Altec), and FOX seems to be a step ahead of the game when it comes to placing their star player (Huni) in the most advantageous situation possible. They know to avoid the types of games where someone like Faker is playing Taric in mid lane (even typing that out makes me want to puke). This willingness to adapt makes FOX one of the most exciting teams to watch this split — like driving in China, the lanes are mere suggestions.

[2-0] Earning the starting Grig

On the other end of 2-0 spectrum is TSM, who stuck to the ADC meta. Their big surprise this week was playing Grig instead of MikeYeung— something we’re sure to see more of in the coming weeks considering Grig’s performance. My favorite thing from them, though, is seeing Bjergsen on Irelia. He entered the pro-scene on the back of his prowess on assassins — particularly Zed — and as always it’s good to see him on a playmaker. For example, a fight which breaks out at the 12 minute mark in their match against FlyQuest ends when Bjergsen makes a hyper aggressive play over a wall that baits all of FLY into staying, which results in all of their deaths at the cost of Bjergsen’s. I loved seeing that — that’s the kind of play he’s criticized for not making on the international stage.

[1-1] The Replacements

Have you ever looked up the accounts of everyone on your champ select, found that a couple of them are very clearly smurfs, and then got excited for a likely win only for someone to dodge at the last second? That’s how C9 fans felt when they learned that Jensen, Smoothie, and Sneaky were benched (seemingly for motivational issues) last week. That’s not to say Goldenglue, Keith, or Zeyzalare bad players — even if their reputations aren’t great — the sum of the parts is sometimes great. And apparently the academy team was doing much better in scrims, so that makes me wonder if they’ll revert this week or promote Shiro and Blaber (C9A’s Top and Jungle) so we can see the full academy team in action. I’d personally like to see the whole academy squad get a chance together, but it’s hard to imagine talents like Jensen, Smoothie, and Sneaky will remain on the bench for too long.

[1-1] An unfavorable meta?

Clutch last split was one of the teams I trusted the most to make it to late game (though they didn’t always win there) — they weren’t super flashy, but they weren’t likely to just get steamrolled either. A lot of that is because the consistency of Febiven and LirA provide a ton of map control from the mid and jungle positions — the two roles that exert the most pressure early. Playing for late game so much, though, theoretically leaves them in a worse spot in a faster-paced meta full of uncertain elements. The 1-1 week featured a clean win over a zombie C9 lineup, and an unfortunate game server crash in the FOX matchup left them with a loss. If game times continue to shrink, then what used to be the mid-late game may now become the late game, and maybe they can navigate towards that end instead. Maybe they can take a page from the Moreyball playbook to strike early and often.

[1-1] Back and to the left

Considering their matchups this past week (100 and TSM), CLG fans are probably happy to walk away with a 1-1 record. They could have won the TSM game as well — so this bodes well for a team that missed the playoffs for the first time in four years last split. It looks like they may be finally figuring out the post-Aphromoo life. Or maybe they go on to lose the next 10 games in a row — who can really say? I barely understood who CLG was after 18 games last split, let alone 2 games this one. More importantly, though, Darshan was recently voted President of the NA LCS Player’s Association (kudos and well-deserved), which means someone better dive in front of him the next time he’s targeted by a Cait ult. And if the bullet still goes through, then that will confirm the two shooter theory.

[1-1] No shot caller, no problem?

On the one hand, they lost to OPT again (0-3 overall this year), but on the other, they beat Team Liquid (they’re actually 2-1 overall against TL this year). Maybe GGS is just extra motivated to beat TL since three of their players are ex-TL — like when you dress nicely if you know an ex will be at the same party as you. The trick for GGS management going forward is to convince their players every other team is Liquid. This win over TL was propelled by Contractz, who had one of his strongest games yet as the GGS jungler. He’ll need to play like this all split if the Guardians are to make it to Oracle Arena — their organization’s home turf. The loss of Hai will force this team to level up their individual agency — which is a good thing if they’re capable, and, well, bad if they’re not.

[1-1] Building blocks for the green wall

OpTic didn’t have the cleanest week, but they still managed to secure a win against GGS — right now it seems like they’re playing more to minimize mistakes than to make plays. I think that’s fine — you need a stable foundation before you can jump, but they need to start jumping quickly if they still harbor hopes of a Worlds appearance. The Summer Split isn’t the time to be learning, even if they’ve got a couple of young players. Dhokla might be served cold, but he’s going to start feeling the heat if he doesn’t pick up his performance — though I suspect he’ll get a few weeks as the starter considering how patient OPT was with Zig last split. Thus far in the LCS, OpTic’s green wall is more of a lean wall right now — this roster’s got a lot of work ahead of them.

[1-1] Liquid Lax

I think Liquid has a tendency to underestimate opponents more than anyone else in the league — probably a bit of this is Doublelift rubbing off on the team. But the roster is full of veterans who’ve been around the block and back and around again and back again, especially in NA. Repeating as champions is notoriously difficult in any sport, and one of the struggles a team must overcome is motivation. Liquid might feel like they don’t have much to prove in NA anymore — after tasting international competition, I imagine it’s hard to not look ahead to Worlds. This meta will be interesting for them, though — TL relied a lot on Doublelift en route to and through MSI, and with ADCs nerfed, it remains to be seen if he can influence the game as heavily on other types of champions. But as an OG Season 1 player — from before ADCs became standard — I imagine he’ll be fine in the long run.

[0-2] Putting the 0 in 100

If you’ve got 99 problems and a thief ain’t one, then let me introduce you to the 100 Thieves, so you, too, can have 100 problems. This team looked lackadaisical over the first week of play — maybe they’re still gearing up for the split or maybe they’re having trouble adjusting to the meta. Part of the difficulty of Best of 1s is it’s too early to truly make any sort of sweeping claims about a team. But 100 had rough stretches last split as well before carrying a massive win streak all the way to the #1 seed. And on paper, this team should have what it takes to regain their footing (if one can even say they’ve lost their footing): Meteos is well-known for his efficient jungle routes, which is great in a meta that’s more punishing on early ganks, and they should be able to flex Ssumday around the map like FOX is doing. Aphromoo can also provide a lot of roaming support if they figure out what kind of champion to leave Cody Sun on an island with. So while they’re not 100% in form, I don’t think this is at all indicative of their level of play.

[0-2] Looking to the sky to save me

WildTurtle didn’t play a single game of ADC this weekend, which makes a lot of sense considering he was very good at solo queue before role selection and has played mid competitively before. FLY ultimately got stomped in both games, but I think it’s a good sign they’re willing to make adjustments in this meta. FLY also has made the most changes to their starting roster over the offseason, so they need some time to adjust to each other on the stage. I think having a week stowed away will be more beneficial to this team than any other team in the league, but that also means they’ll need to fly soon. It’s like when chicks are finally booted from their nest — somewhere in the sky is the path to Worlds, and everything below is another long, doubt-filled offseason.