Way back in January, I put out a pair of articles previewing the NA LCS Spring split. I ranked all 10 teams from weakest to strongest, based on what I thought of their offseason moves and the potential strength of their new rosters.
After a two-and-a-half month regular season, including an array of roster changes and substitutions, it’s time to look back at those preseason rankings as a way to remind ourselves of the expectations we held and to dissect some of the unexpected outcomes. We also get to see how accurate I was with my predictions, so that’s fun!
Let’s kick things off with the team I, and the rest of the world, predicted for a 10th-place finish.
For years, Europe has been known as a Mid lane Mecca, home to multiple world class talents and a horde of young up-and-comers continually challenging to become the next xPeke or Froggen. The 2016 Spring split has seen some power shifts in the Mid lane talent pool, with Froggen leaving for North America and xPeke stepping back, temporarily it seems, into more of a management role. Who has come in to fill the void?
Yesterday I released my NA LCS Mid Laner Power Rankings, and today I’ve done the same thing for the European LCS, putting all 10 starting Mids in order based on how they’ve performed this split.
At the center of the map, two isolated 1v1 duelists square off in a battle for lane dominance, probing for openings to either all-in for the glorious solo kill, or shove the wave and disappear into the fog of war to roam to their side laners’ aid. The Mid lane is a crucial battleground on Summoner’s Rift, and has always been the home of some of the world’s most talented LoL players.
This split the North American LCS has fielded perhaps its strongest ever crop of Mids, with the addition of big-name imports like Froggen and GBM and the growth of holdovers like Jensen, Fenix, and Pobelter. Who’s really the best Mid in NA, though? And how does everyone else stack up behind them? That’s what we’re going to explore here, in a full 1 to 10 ranking of NA LCS Mids.
