I have put together a quick analysis of this crazy off-season for the North American League of Legends Championship Series. The newly franchised NALCS introduced a number of new organizations to League of Legends and more players homeless without a team. This ranking will provide a brief overview of each teams’ off-season moves and a predicted ranking for this upcoming split.

10. OpTic Gaming

OpTic Gaming, one of the largest North American esports organizations, was accepted into the franchised league for the foreseeable future of the NALCS. A team that is sure to have one of the largest fan bases (shoutout to the #GREENWALL) and the worst preseason ranking. OpTic Gaming picked up the following players during the offseason:

Top: Derek “zig” Shao
Jungle: Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham
Mid: Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage
ADC: Noh “Arrow” Dong-hyeon
Support: Daerek “LemonNation” Hart

It may be surprising why OpTic Gaming is rated so lowly with this amount of household and veteran names on their roster. This prediction is based around the lack of a strong support staff (minus Romain!) and underwhelming recent performances from their players. All of the starters on the roster were on bottom half rosters last split and unimpressive on an individual level (minus PO€). The majority of the players have not played with each other and will be in a growth period throughout the split that can result in a handful of early losses. I do expect the team to grow and climb the ranking for next split but for now, in a stacked LCS, OpTic Gaming will be a low-tier team.

9. FlyQuest

A newly rebranded FlyQuest has entered the fray looking to repeat some of the success they had in their first split of the NALCS in 2017. FlyQuest ended up with a very different roster to their 2017 roster releasing everyone except lovable AD carry Jason “WildTurtle” Tran. The new FlyQuest roster is the following:

Top: Lee “Flame” Ho-jong
Jungle: Andy “AnDa” Hoang
Mid: Song “Fly” Yong-jun
ADC: Jason “WildTurtle” Tran
Support: William “Stunt” Chen

I am a big fan of this roster. I believe FlyQuest will be an amazing team… eventually. Like with many of the newer rosters, FlyQuest will have a number of communication problems early on because of language differences and new teammates. AnDa is rumored to be the next upcoming superstar rookie jungler but will take time to adapt fully to the competitive scene. The addition of Jung “RapidStar” Min-sung from SK Telecom T1 as strategic coach is a massive acquisition that flew under the radar and will help the develop of the team. FlyQuest will do amazing things; just not this split.

8. Golden Guardians

The takeover of the NALCS by teams from the National Basketball Association starts on this list with Golden Guardians. The Golden Guardians are operated and owned by the controlling head of the Golden State Warriors. The Golden Guardians stated they are committed to developing talent for the region and are proudly displaying their 100% North American roster. The Golden Guardians are the only team without an import in their starting roster and consists of the following players:

Top: Samson “Lourlo” Jackson
Jungle: Juan “Contractz” Arturo Garcia
Mid: Hai “Hai” Lam
ADC: Matthew “Deftly” Chen
Support: Matthew “Matt” Elento

This full American roster has already accumulated a number of doubters and it’s not too surprising why. Lourlo and Matt come from the clown fiesta that was 2017 Team Liquid and rookie AD carry Deftly is not exciting many fans. I do believe the strong communication and core members in Hai and Contractz will surprise a lot of viewers and keep them above the lowest tier of teams for this split.

7. Clutch Gaming

Clutch Gaming, a new esports organization built and ran by the heads of NBA team Houston Rockets, is the third new franchised team added to the league. Clutch Gaming came into the off-season and played a relatively safe and calculated game with their acquisitions.

Top: Colin “Solo” Earnest
Jungle: Nam “LirA” Tae-yoo
Mid: Fabian “Febiven” Diepstraten
ADC: Apollo “Apollo” Price
Support: Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent

Clutch Gaming picked up the core players from denied franchise applicant Team EnVyUs and improved upon it. Team EnVyUs was a consistent middle-of-the-pack team and overall I do not see the new interaction of this roster to perform any different in the new landscape of the NA LCS.

6. Echo Fox

Echo Fox makes a return to the NA LCS and with major roster moves. The consistent bottom of the table placings from Echo Fox since their inception in the NA LCS prompted Rick and the rest of Echo Fox management to make major changes. A completely revamped and very exciting roster was announced by Echo Fox.

Top: Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon
Jungle: Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett
Mid: Kim “FeniX” Jae-hun
ADC: Johnny “Altec” Ru
Support: Adrian “Adrian” Ma

This roster is one of the most exciting this preseason with the re-import of world finalist Huni back to the North American LCS and accumulation of experienced household names. The biggest question marks of the team fall to former teammates in FeniX and Dardoch. FeniX has been in the challenger scene for the past year without much success and the age-old story of Dardoch’s attitude problems resulting in his dismissal on four different occasions. The lack of a strong support staff lowers my hopes more to control and direct this roster to greatness.

5. 100 Thieves

The Cleveland Cavilers’ owners, like many other NBA team owners, showed interested in the future of League of Legends esports and applied for a permanent spot in the NALCS. Riot accepted their application and 100 Thieves, with esports celebrity Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag at the head, was born. Nadeshot, clueless to the League of Legends scene, did his homework and put together a great roster:

Top: Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho
Jungle: William “Meteos” Hartman
Mid: Yoo “Ryu” Sang-wook
ADC: Cody “Cody Sun” Sun
Support: Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black

After a successful few years at H2k, Neil “pr0lly” Hammad returns to North America to lead the 100 Thieves. pr0lly will be able to turn this roster into a playoff competing team will the high degree of players of the roster. There are a few worries I have with the team going into the split that could make this ranking generous. Ryu and Meteos, both within the last year, have had motivation problems and if they return, could lead to the downfall of the team.

4. Cloud 9

Cloud 9 returns to North America from Worlds with the best performance from a North American team this year. Unfortunately, the off-season did not treat Cloud 9 favorable, losing three of their players: World champion Impact, flex top laner Ray, and NA jungler Contractz. Cloud 9 enters the season with the following roster:

Top: Eric “Licorice” Ritchie
Jungle: Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen
Mid: Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen
ADC: Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi
Support: Andy “Smoothie” Ta

An unproven top laner in Licorice and solid, but unappreciated jungler Svenskeren joins the roster to many fans disapproval. The downgrades of the two positions will not be able to keep up with the star-studded rosters that belong to a few teams. Cloud 9 will remain a top 5 team but will not be dominant like they have shown before.

3. Counter Logic Gaming

Counter Logic Gaming returns to NALCS with a new roster for the first time in two years. The departure of Zaqueri “aphromoo” Black shocked CLG fans across the globe and left many without hope for the future. I do not think they can be further from the truth; the acquisition of two new players is making CLG’s future bright.

Top: Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaya
Jungle: Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin
Mid: Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun
ADC: Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes
Support: Vincent “Biofrost” Wang

A lot of fans are convinced Reignover’s poor performances on Team Liquid resulted from his current skill level. The entirety of Team Liquid last season was an interesting experiment and I believe Reignover can return back to form. The loss of aphromoo may lead many to believe that the void of his presence as support and shotcaller severly downgrades the capability of the team, but the pick-up of Biofrost is far from that belief. Biofrost has won every split playoffs he has participated in and let’s see if he can have similar results on a different team.

2. Team Liquid

Team Liquid, one of the worst performing teams from the 2017 season, returns to the NALCS near the top of the power ranking. Team Liquid won the off-season by a landslide and the power of Steve put together a superstar roster.

Top: Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong
Jungle: Jake “Xmithie” Puchero
Mid: Eugune “Pobelter” Park
ADC: Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng
Support: Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung

The core of second place Immortals returns under a new organization with major improvements. Impact from Cloud 9 and Doublelift from TSM left their longtime homes to join this “superteam”. It is hard to believe that a roster with history and improvements would struggle to stay in the top 3 of the standing and anything less would be a catastrophic failure.

1. TSM

The most dominant team in the history of the North American League Championship Series and it doesn’t seem like TSM can be stopped this upcoming split. TSM started the off-season by keeping franchise player Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and top laner Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell. They proceeded to make major roster changes in the off-season getting rid of fan favorites Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Vincent “Biofrost” Wang and veteran jungler Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen. While a jungle replacement was foreseen for fans and staff alike, the removal of the lovable bot lane was a controversy among fans.

Top: Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell
Jungle: Mike “MikeYeung” Yeung
Mid: Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg
ADC: Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen
Support: Alfonso “mithy” Aguirre Rodríguez

The addition of Europe’s strongest bot lane in Zven and mithy, in my mind, will be an overall improvement in the bottom lane. To complete the roster, upcoming jungler in MikeYeung, previously of Phoenix1, was signed. The roster is undoubtedly strong but the final piece to push TSM to the number one spot is the addition of Kim “”SSONG” Sang-soo as head coach. SSONG was able to turn a 7th place Immortals into a NALCS finalist. He is, in my opinion, the most important of all TSM’s roster changes. It is hard to bet against the 6-time NA LCS champions.