The LCS Season 5 Thread

[Duilliath]

To be honest, I don't think Elements is in their element. (Couldn't resist.)

The entire current meta is about midgame power spiking.

Elements just is all about passive gameplay until you're farmed up in late game. It's CLG.EU all over again, but we're a couple seasons later by now.

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H2K actually really impressed me. Very nice pressure play.

[Deleted]

H2K game was really nice to watch, close game untill the end and some new picks come to play.
Looking forward to Roccat vs SK

[esoterickk]

To be honest, I don't think Elements is in their element. (Couldn't resist.)

The entire current meta is about midgame power spiking.

Elements just is all about passive gameplay until you're farmed up in late game. It's CLG.EU all over again, but we're a couple seasons later by now.

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H2K actually really impressed me. Very nice pressure play.

I've honestly never felt impressed by Alliance/Elements. As you said, it feels they've just adopted the farm/late-game mentality and hope that Shook/Froggen/Tabbz (at the time) had good games. They never seemed like some amazing team or unstoppable force with decisive calls + amazing understanding of the game, just a better team in what was a very mediocre EU at the time of S4.

It's a massive circlejerk I know, but Wickd really doesn't belong on any team aiming to be the best. Shook ended up being pretty overrated (consistency? nerves? I don't know) and Nyph I haven't seen enough to comment on and for some reason I always merge him and nRated to be the same person >.> I think that Tabzz probably balanced the team out more too, makes it hard when your carries all have passive play-styles which Rekkles is the king of.

I have a feeling that SK/ROC are really going to step it up this season, their new rosters could be very promising. Fnatic was a nice surprise, but it's 1 game so far too early to jump on anything. UoL has promise also for a newly qualified team; they did decently at IEM and stomped today, although it was against Gambit who are generally inconsistent. Would like to see more of them. I didn't see the CW/H2k/MYM/Giants games so couldn't really comment.

But overall I just feel that Alliance/Elements aren't going to be the top team this split unless they make some changes. It's far too early to tell, and I'm not only basing this off the one game they played - but personally feel they've never been as impressive as everyone made them out to be. Could be wrong on some things as I didn't focus hugely on EU LCS last year, but just my general feeling whenever I saw Alliance.

Out of them all though, I think SK looks to be the most promising; both on paper and in practice after their first game. Fredy/Sven/Forgiven are all really strong in their positions compared to the rest of the region, however Fox/nRated I don't know enough to comment on.

[Deleted]

Do to a seriously unfornutate sleep cycle i wasnt able to watch the games last night but i'l get to it in around 1 hour from now. I seriously cant wait to check out how the new roosters look.

#hype

After a quick look at the teams:

A lot of NA teams that i've never seen before. They look really interesting. I've been a TSM fan cus of Bjergsen but i'm not 100% sure if i'l root for them this year.

Team impulse seems scary.

I hope CLG does well. I allways liked doublelift.

Without knowing the strenght of all the teams my money is on C9 in the NA.

In the EU: I'm just Elements all the way

[Faltemer]

I only really watched the H2kgame, and while their early game was super nice. They ended up with a really good start to mid game that went downhill fast. They made no attempts at picks and once they got all but 1 turret down outside of CW's base they just sort of walked around aimlessly and even let CW do the exact rotations they had just done.

I only occasionally catch a EU/other LCS game focusing mainly on the NA, which is shaping up to be very interesting this split. I could see a lot of teams being really good and a lot of teams being really bad. Only expecting C9 to stay in the 1-2 spot and TSM to stay top 4 minimum.

The new playoff system seems neat, although i don't get a lot of their choices. The point system seems great but shorter splits, with less games just seems counterproductive to me considering we just had a huge break from a sport that can mostly go without breaks at all and should. They need to have two distinct splits, with a month at most breaks inbetween I would argue. Design the splits to show over a large period who plays better. Again, this is a sport that can facilitate that, and to move to a more football level of games a season is ridiculous.

-I am to understand now there will be a spring and summer split (And that's it.) consisting of 18 games by each team per split and playoffs.
-And when they say first place team of summer split, do they mean the team that won the playoffs then? I assume then there won't be spring playoffs because what would that establish.
-Points are given by your ranking at the end of split, right?

Really think they have some decent ideas but are moving in the wrong direction. They also have a product that they want to continually develop but seem unaware of what makes the product work better. They have large breaks between games with literally no content for seemingly no reason. Throw on highlights, or some more discussion by casters/analysts or something. Hell even putting on commercials would be better then having 5-10 minute breaks between matches where it is a screen with just the schedule on there.

[Deleted]

Dear lord shook plays like crap :/

[Anium]

I was pretty disapppointed with GMB play last night, Niq was just getting outplayed, caught far too many stuns, diamond was irrelevant, caught out far too much. Bah, form hasn't improved, i like the new ad p1noy is decent.
Fnatic impressed me most last night, and that hurts to say...

[Duilliath]

I was pretty disapppointed with GMB play last night, Niq was just getting outplayed, caught far too many stuns, diamond was irrelevant, caught out far too much. Bah, form hasn't improved, i like the new ad p1noy is decent.
Fnatic impressed me most last night, and that hurts to say...

Diamond was making sure Cacho wasn't brutally murdered in the top lane match up. Unfortunately, there was nothing to counter gank as Kikis didn't bother with top.

Fnatic looked sharp.

H2K looked promising. If they can keep up what they did at the beginning of the game and convert that into proper play to close out the game they'll be very strong. The start looked very organised.

UoL will hopefully be a lot of fun to watch.

Much as I love Gambit, they don't look strong at the moment.

[Deleted]

gotta admit, SK looks solid atm, very controlled in their game.

Looking forward to elements vs UOL, since UOL played a very nice game yesterday, i hope this is going to be a exciting game.

edit.: Giants are looking really good, very aggressive play from them. I wonder though how they'll handle if they don't get their Jax top.

[4KhazModan]

TSM wonnored.

Granted, J4 would have been a better pick than Elise for Meteos, but that doesn't discount TSM's play. They just played the fights so well and went after tower after tower. Hai and Balls were more or less non-existent. Night and day compared to their IEM San Jose showing. REally put to rest the questions people had about them. Wildturtle's positioning and team fighting was fantastic, Santorin showed he is more than capable of stepping up on the big stage, and Bjergsen bounced back after IEM as well, showing that he is still the Bjergerking. I know this is only one game, but it was probably the only matchup where TSM was considered the underdogs. There are plenty more games to go in the season, but this was a strong start.

[Deleted]

Honestly, you're putting to much praise to TSM when C9 just outright played it wrong.

[Thallidomaniac]

My goodness, Coast again finds new and creative ways to lose the game. Going for Baron while having an exposed inhibitor? Against DIG nonetheless?

[4KhazModan]

DIG looked weak that game, especially that team fight mid, they jumped in before Sivir was even there, and by the time she did show up, Crumbzz and Shiftur had already used everything they had

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Aaand C9 starts the season 0-2. Ok then.

[Soulstrike]

Damn i invested my fantasy league on C9 and meteos and they played poorly :/

[Thallidomaniac]

Aaand C9 starts the season 0-2. Ok then.

TSM also falls to T8. The NA LCS has gone full EU LCS. Top teams losing, bottom teams winning.

[SUH]

Santoriums chin...is so intense..

[4KhazModan]

Santoriums chin...is so intense..

[Toxigen]

Let's face it, Wickd is the problem with Elements, not the meta.

He's washed up and horribly mediocre. They'll still win EU LCS though because the rest of the team is that good.

[Duilliath]

Wickd is the least of Elements' problems. Though that doesn't mean he's a small problem.

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On the topic of small problems: P&B. Man, Giants have zero clue how to do that part. How on earth do you just donate the top 3 power picks, including the most powerful jungler to UoL?

And now that Gambit has a coach, the fun is gone even more. Bog standard team setup which they don't actually know how to play.

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Hm. If Elements has this much trouble with CW, I really wouldn't consider them for the top positions in EU.

[Anium]

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And now that Gambit has a coach, the fun is gone even more. Bog standard team setup which they don't actually know how to play.

Watching their games now is pretty boring, the play is all very tentative, I want the see hero, kill hero atttude back! Not a good start to the lcs for them