The primary spherical robin of the LCS Spring Cut up has come to a detailed, and every prime League of Legends workforce in North America has performed one another as soon as. And with the primary 4 weeks of play within the books, it’s nonetheless cheap to say virtually each workforce within the league has a shot at making a run towards a excessive playoff seed.
Heading into the second spherical robin, the title chase is heating up, with the highest three groups all being separated by one recreation. Every of these groups may have yet another crack at each other earlier than the common break up involves a detailed on March 17.
Whether or not you completely nailed your preseason energy rankings, or are utterly flabbergasted about some groups’ performances, the primary spherical robin of the Spring Cut up was stuffed with entertaining and intriguing moments. Now we’ve had sufficient time to take a look at the primary half of the break up by a transparent lens, listed here are three of the most important takeaways we had following the primary 4 weeks of the 2023 LCS season.
The “gatekeepers” usually are not who we thought they’d be
Whereas the highest of the LCS is enjoying out as anticipated, the center of the desk has been shaken up to a degree the place one recreation might flip a workforce out of the projected playoff bracket. Fourth by seventh place are at present separated by only one recreation, and the 2 groups that emerged from the mid-pack with a successful report after the primary spherical robin—TSM and Golden Guardians—don’t seem like going away any time quickly.
Followers and analysts alike had the Guardians pegged as one of many worst groups coming into the season, and after happening a four-game shedding streak to open the yr, it regarded as if they might stay as much as that preseason rep. They’ve swung again on a five-game successful streak, beating their closest rivals in TSM, CLG, and 100 Thieves alongside that stretch.
Talking of 100 Thieves, they’ve countered their four-game successful streak with a four-game shedding streak, leaving them in sixth midway by the break up. Any roster that’s nearly as good as 100T’s has no enterprise being getting ready to elimination, however they’ve been far too streaky to name them a severe title contender. Hopefully, the second spherical robin sees them play at a extra constant and predictable tempo.
FlyQuest is so actual
We’re fairly positive everybody anticipated a FlyQuest roster that consisted of a pair of LCS champions, a former league MVP, and two of Korea’s most well-rounded carries would do effectively within the LCS. However the run FlyQuest has been on to start out the 2023 season has surpassed all expectations.
This yr, FlyQuest are the best workforce within the LCS by far, successful eight of their first nine video games and main the league in seven totally different team-wide stat classes, together with dragon management charge, first blood share, and common gold differential, amongst others, in response to League stats website Oracle’s Elixir.
Be mindful FlyQuest has performed all of their video games to this point with a substitute help in Winsome. As soon as their recurrently penciled-in starter Eyla is ready to play following the lifting of visa restrictions, the workforce has the potential to get even higher. FlyQuest will kick off the second spherical robin with video games in opposition to 100 Thieves and DIG this week.
Beef tastes gooooood
99 % of all esports trash speak consists of watered-down, safe-for-Twitter potshots that get used as speaking factors on an analyst desk section to create synthetic hype earlier than probably the most boring match you’ve ever watched. So, when C9 help Zven truly acquired in Liquid ADC Yeon’s face after Friday evening’s recreation—broad-chestedly telling him to “return to Academy” proper to his face—it felt actual, intense, and truly fairly refreshing.
Do I would like this sort of depth week in, week out? Completely not. When everybody tries to behave like the large man on campus, battle will get boring and off. However each every so often, seeing gamers commerce verbal blows is a welcome sight in any sport.
And regardless that Zven apologized to Liquid and Yeon for his handshake-denying, big-leaguing maneuver on Friday (a veteran transfer, by the way in which), each LCS fan goes to have their March 10 rematch circled on the calendar.
