It’s a league of parity (or should I say parody?) as just two games separate the top nine teams, and even 10th place Cloud9 is only one game back from that. This is good news if you believe in strength of NA as a region — it means everyone is strong and thus everyone is struggling to climb ahead. But it’s bad news if you don’t have faith in NA, as that means everyone is bad and struggling to adapt to the demanding cadence of recent patches. Where do I stand? Well… why do we gotta label everything anyway. Here’s 10 thoughts going into Week 6!

[6-4] Inconsistent powerhouse

I’ve watched the ending to their match against FLY about 10 times now, and I think if I watch it a couple more times I’ll qualify for a Purple Heart because that truly wounded me. I mean, it’s easy for us to sit here and judge them for making a string of poor snap judgment decisions, but also maybe it’s fine for us to expect pros to make good decisions? If not for that gaffe, this team would be 7-1 since opening this split 0-2, and that would make them the convincing favorite going into the latter half of the split. Look more closely at their games, though, and you’ll see a team that’s scraped by on a few of their wins. That means they’re shaky, yes, but that’s also a testament to their veteran presence — this isn’t a team that crumbles easily under pressure. And with Ssumday putting in an MVP caliber split, they’re probably the favorite at this point (if such a thing exists among this group). That is unless they’re tilted off the face of the earth from the FLY loss — in which case, good night, Mr. Thief.

[6-4] Ain’t no mountain FLY enough

The NA LCS goes low, and FLY goes high. FlyQuest is surprisingly one of the hottest teams in the league right now without any true superstar. In fact, their whole starting lineup toils — at best — in the middle of the pack when you look at individual statistics. Nothing really stands out. But the redeeming quality, it seems, is that none of them are toiling at the bottom, either. And in a league and meta that can sometimes punish a team’s weakest link, it’s maybe a good thing that they’re on the same page. This is a roster with minimal pressure on it to perform as it’s full of guys who are seen as being in the twilight of their careers — this includes Head Coach Saintvicious. Their comps aren’t fancy. They don’t have crazy tricks or omega outplays. There’s just a workman’s type of efficiency here. And if they do get leads, WildTurtle is still a pretty impressive player — you absolutely want a carry who’s willing to carry the team, and there’s never been any doubt as to Turtle’s willingness to try to don that mantle. I wouldn’t call them a scary team necessarily, but they’re feisty, and in the right conditions, that’s effectively the same thing.

[6-4] Dardoch’s team

Graves definitely needed his cigar back so he and Dardoch could burn off some stress for some of the heavy duty work they’ve been putting in this split. FOX seems to have realized that in acquiring Smoothie from Cloud9— this gives them a big playmaker in bot lane, but Lost and Damonte are still largely unproven entities. Luckily there are few junglers in this league more impressive than Dardoch when given a chance to carry — despite what he might say about his willingness to play supportive roles, it’s pretty clear his natural comfort is on more carry-oriented junglers. Especially with Damonte and Lost trying to adjust to the rigors of the LCS, it’s important for FOX to have more capable threats on their team outside of an inconsistent Huni. And with the funnel strategy nerfed out of the game for this coming split, I think we’ll start to see a return to carry junglers who can fill a pseudo-ADC role that’s currently in-and-out of the bot lane meta. Champions like Graves and Kindred will be perfect for Dardoch as he slowly lifts his name into MVP conversations again.

[6-4] Behind the curve and out of sync

TL’s woes with the meta continue as they seem to be a little behind the curve when it comes to flexibility and creativity with champions. That’s not entirely a bad thing, since a lot of the volatility of the regular season is thrown out the window come playoffs, but they’re also just a game away from not even making it. And from a long-term perspective, this team really feels like an “old dogs don’t learn new tricks” kind of roster. It’s creating a lot of space for the hungrier, younger teams like GGS and OPT to come in and make some waves. The game last weekend against C9 also featured Impact getting absolutely manhandled by a new [for this split] Poppy pick, which tells me it caught him off guard. This team functions best when Impact is able to stay at least even — his team-fighting prowess is among the league’s best, but it’s been true for a bit and will continue to be true that his laning phase can sometimes leave us in want of more. TL needs to prioritize setting him up for success if they want to rally this split.

[5-5] Counter logic brand

If you drew a venn diagram for symptoms of pregnancy (nausea, morning sickness, irregular blood flow, a new parasite sharing your life energy) and symptoms of being a CLG fan, you’d find it’s basically a flat circle. Every nine months or so, CLG does something so magical that it makes you feel like all the pain has paid off. That’s what you tell yourself anyway — that come fall, they’ll make Worlds, upset the top Korean seed, and then lose to the Play-in team to be eliminated. But it will be worth it. CLG fans are in for the long haul because they truly believe that pain and suffering makes the good times all the better. I hyped CLG up last week, and some people aptly pointed out that it was a mistake to expect any sort of consistency from this team. But I honestly thought CLG was poised to break away from the pack. Yet here we are. Don’t be surprised to see Huhi playing Ignite Garen or Aatrox or another bruiser mid this week — I think CLG is trying to complete a champion bingo card through him.

[5-5] Raise your dongers

One of my greatest fears in League of Legends is when I’m laning against a Heimerdinger, and my jungler comes to gank him but instead of running away, the Heimer sets down a couple more turrets around him and prepares to fight back. It’s the proverbial mouse in a corner. And it almost never ends well. In a sense, that’s kind of what the Golden Guardians have pulled off in recent weeks — picks like Heimerdinger and Talon mid have elevated them right into the thick of the playoff race when they were expected to be bottom feeders. Mickey’s Talon has been electric, but I’m curious to see what happens in the coming weeks now that that specific Talon build has been nerfed. If teams just ban Heimerdinger, do the Guardians have other tricks up their sleeves? And is it enough to get by with just tricks? I suspect they might regress with this coming patch, but they’ve been one of the best teams when it comes to adaptation this split, so maybe they’ll continue to stay ahead of the curve and prove me wrong.

[5-5] Massive passives

This is how old AIM conversations played out:

Person A: hey

Person B: hey

Person A: what’s up

Person B: n2m u

Person A: not much

Then you would not talk until next time and the conversation would open the same and die the same. TSM is, sometimes, the personification of this type of exchange. I don’t know what the truth is at this point — is TSM actually just sometimes passive to the point of death, or are there legitimate reasons behind it that are further amplified by community perceptions? Probably somewhere in the middle. It’s clear they can be proactive — as we often see when Bjergsen is given an assassin (I think he’s great on literally every style, but damn if his assassin play isn’t a thing of beauty). Like, TSM looked great in vanquishing their Clutch demons last weekend. But what’s kept them toiling in the middle of the pack this entire year seems to be a combination of slow adaptation to meta shifts and indecision in-game. I don’t think they’re sitting there thinking, “Okay guys, let’s just roll over and die so we can get memed by Reddit again.” But they seem to be slow to making snap-second engages, or they’re slow to identifying when a risk is worth taking. I really just want to see a game where they do a bunch of bone-headed aggressive plays — just to shake up their mentality a bit. Maybe Grig will feel comfortable enough to stick his neck out there in the latter half of this split to make more engages and plays for this team. There’s just absolutely no reason for a roster like this to go 4-5 in the first round robin.

[4-6] Too slow for the meta

In Game 7 of the WCF against the Warriors, the Houston Rockets missed 27 straight 3-pointers. I bring that up because missing 27 straight 3-pointers is ridiculous and awful and I still haven’t forgotten, but also because it’s the kind of shooting drought that Clutch seems to be in right now. This team has actually just gone cold in recent weeks especially, but this entire split has felt lackluster compared to the team that pushed 100 to Game 5 in the Semifinals last split. Gone is the magic that let them have a fighting chance in seemingly every game. I think part of that can be attributed to game times being generally shorter and Clutch being generally a team with better late-game prowess last split. But across the board, there are under performances from every player. I expected LirA to be more dominant in this carry-favored meta for junglers, and I expected Hakuho to shine in a meta that allows more freedom to support players (especially with map presence). I think it’s a really bad spot to be in when your team is left dependent on the whims of the patch cycle. They need to figure out how to return to their style before it’s too late — though I am left wondering if there’s a way to truly extend games in this meta so that they can play at their preferred pace.

[4-6] Construction begins

I don’t like seeing any team struggle for a long time — it puts a huge strain on the players’ mental health and is just difficult to watch. But the reverse means the payoff for seeing these same guys finally succeed is very gratifying. OPT enjoyed their first 2-0 weekend in franchise history and are now somehow right in the thick of the playoff race with everyone else. It’s a testament to the volatility of the split, but also to their continued perseverance. I think it’s very easy for a team like this to just roll over and fold it up for the year — there are so many excuses for them that are legitimate that I don’t think they’d even get that much flak for surrendering at 15 every game. But PowerOfEvil really had a strong week as if he personally wants to vindicate his decision to leave Europe, where his former team Misfits only just suffered their first loss of the Summer Split. It looks like construction of the Green Wall may finally be under way — maybe all this Fortnite craze has helped this team learn how to build.

[3-7] Nine rings to man

“I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.” This is what Aragorn told the people of Middle-earth thousands of years ago (the movie is IRL canon) before he led an army to the footsteps of Mordor. I suspect we have now arrived to that day where the courage of men fails (Licorice’s heroics falling short), forsaken friends (Sneaky is the only OG C9 member in the NA LCS), and broken bonds (Smoothie’s reported transfer). C9 is inching closer to the reality of missing Worlds for the first time in franchise history, which is a stark contrast to their Overwatch team making the OW Grand Finals. It’s been a really tough split for fans — between the roster shuffles and the volatile meta, I imagine it’s been a super hectic experience. Blaber got a shot at the main roster last week in their latest shuffle, so at least they’re trying things, but it seems this split might just be a time for them to come to terms with a new identity before 2019. Especially with Smoothie being transferred out — it seems C9 may be poised to enter an entirely new era once again.