NA LCS Power Rankings: Team SoloMid, Immortals Have Their Eyes on the Byes

We're back with the latest North American League of Legends Championship Series power rankings for the 2017 Summer Split.

We took a break off last week due to Rift Rivals as it would be a bit incomplete to rank the entire NA field when only three teams played.

That said, with Week 6 under our belt, the looming playoff picture is starting to get a bit warped, with teams who are largely considered stalwarts starting to stumble over the final hurdles (or who might not have really been in the race all along).

The Clear Favorites

Riot Games

Coming out of Rift Rivals, a lot of people were left wondering if Team SoloMid was the best Western team in League of Legends right now.

We asked the question last week, ultimately deciding it didn’t matter; TSM, though it seemed to find the form of summers past, wouldn’t care whether or not one mid-split international event gave it the title temporarily. Instead, its eyes were still on coming home, finishing out the split on top and securing that Worlds spot on the back of a dominant playoff run as it is known to do.

And that’s starting to look like the picture again. It’s hard to argue that TSM isn’t currently the best team in the NA LCS. Yes, TSM faced Phoenix1 and Team Liquid—two teams largely at the bottom of our power rankings throughout the Summer Split—but fairly quick 2-0s in both series, on top of that Rift Rivals showing, give us a clear picture of where TSM is currently at.

Riot Games

That said, Immortals aren't far off. With both teams sitting at 9-3, they’re clearly the two top teams in the league, in terms of both standings and form.

Immortals had a big week with an easy win over Echo Fox and a much-needed statement win over Cloud9. Last time we saw Immortals, they had just been handily beaten by Team SoloMid, who left for Berlin leaving people wondering whether or not the Immortals hype train had been derailed.

But it seems that the pieces from the beginning of the season are still there, and when they're operating well—when Olleh is making his plays, Cody Sun is consistently performing and Xmithie is providing the stability for Pobelter and Flame to pop off—Immortals are clearly frightening.

1. TSM (+1)

2. Immortals (-1)

The Contenders

Riot Games

When we talk about “playoff contenders,” we’re often talking about two different things: The teams that can make the semifinals and challenge for a finals spot, and the ones that will drop out of quarterfinals.

Conveniently enough, we find ourselves looking at two potential teams in each category this week.

For the real-deal challengers who can convincingly book a semifinal spot, we have Counter Logic Gaming and Dignitas.

Surprisingly in the last few weeks, Dignitas has emerged as one of the teams looking to contest for the throne. Having made the decision to double down on Shrimp and part ways with Chaser while also bolstering its bot lane with LCS veterans Altec and Adrian, Dignitas looks reborn. Throw in the already massive impact you get from Ssumday, and you have one of the more interesting rosters making a playoff run.

Riot Games

Dignitas could be eyeing that playoff bid itself, sitting one game behind TSM and Immortals with the chance to steal one of their spots as we go into the last three weeks of play.

And that’s where the bigger question mark lies with Dignitas; it had an amazing return to the LCS after a week break. This week it took down CLG, who decided to give Scouting Grounds competitor and LCS rookie jungler Omargod a shot, which is a huge feat and deserves acclaim. But we’re still favoring CLG even if Dignitas took the head-to-head because CLG has shown much more consistency every week.

Dignitas has moments of strength, much like in the beginning of the split. But the challenge going into playoffs is to show that that level can transfer over from series to series and in high-pressure situations. When it comes down to that, in truth, Dignitas is simply new to this position as a dominant LCS team.

3. CLG (no change)

4. Dignitas (+1)

Titans Falling

Riot Games

On the other hand, Cloud9 and Team Envy might be the one-and-done quarterfinalists, the playoff contenders that get a spot but can’t go the distance this split.

Like Dignitas and CLG, the two played in Week 6 with Envy coming out with the win at the end of the day. Envy is beginning to find its stride after a mid-split change in the mid lane. Nisqy is more comfortable with the rest of the unchanged roster, and it showed in its ability to always control and contest against Cloud9, putting together an impressive Game 1 stomp and a composed comeback in Game 2.

Cloud9 is either great in the early game or late game, but never both, as perfectly evidenced in its return to the LCS from Berlin. Many will be quick to say that the team was sick during Rift Rivals and the same issues continued to plague it, which is fair. But, in the same breath, it’s not as though these issues haven’t been apparent from the start of the split; even more problematic, C9’s top laners, Impact and Ray, seem to only get worse as the season goes on.

At the end of the day though, like CLG and Dignitas, we’re going to give C9 the benefit of the doubt for one more week. It needs to be said in the cases of both Counter Logic Gaming and Cloud9 we’re doing that given their stature in the league. The orgs have shown via the banners that adorn the NA LCS studio that these teams are truly NA elite. So, yes, they get excuses and passes because history is valued when looking at the end of the season and potential playoff runs.

Riot Games

But those are finite. Only so many remain and—in cases like Cloud9's—we may be running on fumes soon, just at the time when teams like Team Envy and Dignitas find their footing not just as strong contenders, but usurpers.

5. Cloud9 (-1)

6. Team Envy (no change)

Outside Shots

Riot Games

Out of the three teams returning from Rift Rivals, Phoenix1 had all eyes on it.

It was a good outing for the team no one expected anything from at the event, showing up against some EU LCS teams that many would’ve believed were a significant tier above Phoenix1.

But upon return to home soil, it ended the week with another familiar 0-2. Now, when we look at the whole picture, Phoenix1 probably faced two of the three toughest teams in the league right now in TSM and Dignitas so it’s a scoreline that’s not totally reflective of its play.

Against TSM, P1 was able to carve out some significant leads but mostly crumbled under the Rift Rivals champions’ enormous pressure in late-game team fights. With the Dignitas series, it took Dig to a complete three-game series with a massive Game 2 victory where Phoenix1 was able to display its strengths.

Maybe we’re a bit optimistic, but—despite the gigantic gap in standings—Phoenix1 has the biggest claim to being an outside-shot wildcard in the playoff race. They look the cleanest out of the bottom teams, but they’re not getting the needed (duh) wins to really put the pressure on teams like Cloud9.

7. Phoenix1 (+2)

Hard Stuck

Riot Games

While FlyQuest and Team Liquid have been living in this bottom tier for the entire Summer Split, Echo Fox is new to it.

But, just like the other two, Echo Fox is hard stuck, unable to find anything that works on a weekly level to climb out like Phoenix1 has done.

All three teams know how to get advantages, game wins and series wins, but none of it is ever convincing. None of it ever changes the general consensus that these teams—like a Team Liquid who had two significant early-game leads against TSM—won't consistently perform when it counts.

When Team Liquid has that lead, there’s nothing about the team’s Summer Split this year that convinces you it will close out a game against TSM. When Echo Fox goes up a game against Team Envy, you’re not totally confident that it will end it in the second and close out the series quick. And even in a game between the two worst teams in the league, you’re not entirely sure who wins in the Team Liquid-FlyQuest fiesta.

So yeah, these teams are stuck. Their playoff ambitions are gone, and now they look to play spoilers at best while readying their application for an NA LCS franchise.

8. Echo Fox (-1)

9. FlyQuest (+1)

10. Team Liquid (-2)