A Bit of Insight into the NA LCS Rookies

In this article I’m going to take a closer look at the teams that made their debuts in the NA LCS Summer Split and give you a bit of my insight on their performance in the Championship Series. In North America, after Summer Promotion matches, the scene welcomed Cloud 9 (formerly Quantic Gaming) and Velocity eSports. The interesting fact is the huge gap in the standings that separates these two teams, as Cloud 9 is currently in the lead, and it looks like none of the teams can take their lead away, while Velocity is closing the NA group. Let’s take a look at the rookies of the North American League of Legends Championship Series.

Cloud 9 HyperX

C9’s Line Up:

Solo Laners:
One could say that Balls is a top laner and Hai a mid laner of the team, but with the current play style, it is hard to attach one certain lane or role to the name. Flexibility is the key and Cloud 9 has used it to surprise their opposing teams with picks like Karthus mid from Balls, who typically plays top lane, and so it did so far throughout the LCS matches.

An “Balls” Le

So far Balls’ most picked champion in the LCS is Rumble. He picked him in 6 games, and has a 100% win ratio on him. Hai has called him the most mechanically skilled player on his team, which was proven in the last game against TSM, where he used Rumble’s Danger Zone potential to the maximum and got a kill on Dyrus despite the jungler’s presence in the lane.

Hai “Hai” Lam

Hai is C9’s captain and solo laner. Many times was placed in the 2v1 lanes, managing to do great. In the LCS, his most picked champion is Zed. He won 5 out of the 6 games he played him. It seems Hai prefers AD champions, as he picked them in 11 of 17 games played in the series so far. He has impressed viewers with with Kha’zix, Jayce and already mentioned Zed.

Jungler:

Will "Meteos” Hartman

His most played champion in the LCS is Nasus. He played 7 games with him and won every one of them. Not even Dignitas' double buff steal at the beginning of the match could stop him, as he managed to turn it around and help Sneaky and LemonNation take down the first tower in 4th minute of the game and finish up with the score of 1/0/7.  Meteos is also known for wreaking havoc in enemy ranks with his Zac.  After 6 weeks, he is at the top of KDA table with ratio of 10.8.

Duo Laners:

Marksman - Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi

Sneaky caused a lot of devastation with his most played champion, Draven. He won all 6 games he picked him. In the game against Velocity eSports definitely surprised the audience and viewers with the Jayce pick. Recently, accompanied by the lane mate, LemonNation, showing the power of Ashe and Zyra combo. They use these champions potential to engage and disengage fights to its fullest. One of those could be seen in the game against TSM in week 6, where with the help of Meteos’ Nasus, they melted TheOddOne and Xpecial protecting their own tower with the chained crowd control of Zyra’s Grasping Roots and Stranglethorns, as well as Ashe’s Enchanted Crystal Arrow.

Support – Daerek “LemonNation” Hart

LemonNation was the only one to stay with Hai after departure of former teammates Wildturtle, Nientosh and Yazuki. Hai praises him as a good researcher for the team. In the LCS his most picked champion is Thresh. He won all the 6 games he played with him. He recently showed full potential of Zyra, in the games against TSM where he went 1/1/13 and Curse, ending up with the score of 4/0/9.

Cloud 9 may definitely be called the black horse of the NA LCS Summer Split with the record of 15 wins and only 2 loses. After surprisingly not qualifying for the Spring Split and drastic changes in the roster, Hai and LemonNation managed to complete new line up that literary rolled over their opponents in the Summer Promotion tournament, defeating Team Astral Poke 2:0 in Challenger Matches and later compLexity Gaming 3:0 in Promotion Matches.

 Coming into the Summer Split as a fresh team, they definitely shocked everyone after a crushing opening in Week 1, winning 5 out of 5 games, defeating Spring Split Champions, Team SoloMid, as well as second and fourth place of the last split, Team Coast and Curse Gaming. In the second and third week of the LCS, as Cloud 9 picked two loses in their games, many people were convinced that this will be the downfall of the team, and from now on C9 will finally slow down. As hopeful as it could be to many teams of the LCS, Hai and friends refused to bring the pace down and won all of their next 7 games, winning memorable game against Team Vulcun despite being over ten thousand gold behind.

Characterized by the bold in-game moves and aggressive play style, the team made Summoner’s Rift their ground on which they do not stop to dominate. So far, there is no exaggeration in saying that the team is the most solid contender for the Champion title of the split. Cloud 9 seems confident and with firm steps is walking to grab #1 seed in the playoffs.

Velocity eSports

Velocity's Line Up:

Solo Laners:

Cristian “Cris” Rosales

Cris’ most played champion is Kennen. He won 2 out of 5 games played him in the LCS. He performed very well against CLG, ending up 5/1/6 and later a bit worse performance by him, in the win against Curse, where he finished the game with the score 3/7/13. He wasn’t in the team line up for the last two wins in the week 6, as he was swapped by Vileroze, who came back after a week break.

Joseph “Vileroze” Bourassa (Update: he left the team today)

Vileroze was present in the team line up for all the four victories Velocity managed to pick so far in the Summer Split. Last week’s two, were picked up with Shen, on which he managed to accumulate the total of 4 kills, 2 deaths and 28 assists. Another two wins were grabbed by using his most played LCS champion, Kayle. He picked her six times.

Tyler “ecco” Spesick

Ecco is the player that brought Velocity the experience of the Spring Split, where he participated with team MRN. After his joining, Velocity managed to break their losing streak and finally picked up two victories. Ecco contributed greatly to the wins as he went 9/2/19 in both of the victories. In the two weeks he performed in the LCS, ecco picked variety of AP champions, with Twisted Fate being the only one locked in more than once.

Jungler:

Andrew “Nk Inc” Erickson

Nk Inc played with the team all 17 of their games so far. From the picks in the LCS, one could say that he plays a large variety of junglers, as he picked the total of 10 champions, Lee Sin being the most played. His Lee Sin was picked in the past two wins of week 6, same as Vileroze’s Shen.

Duo Laners:

Marksman - Ainslie “frommaplestreet” Wyllie

Frommaplestreet is known for his Draven plays, but in the LCS, his statistics as him do not impress. In six games played with him, only one win fell into Velocity player’s pocket. Strongly criticized and performing under the great pressure from the community, he showed the viewers outstanding performances in the last two games, securing the total of 22 kills, 3 deaths and 10 assists. Also, I cannot forget to mention that he’s the brother of the current TSM jungler, TheOddOne.

Support - Evan “Evaniskus” Stevens

Evaniskus is regarded to be the leading voice of the team and a player with a very good knowledge about the game. So far his most picked champion in the LCS is Thresh, but he only grabbed one win in the week 6 of the LCS. The rest of his three wins were picked on Zyra. He ended up last week’s performance going 1/3/22.

Velocity is the team closing the standings in the NA LoL Championship Series. With 6 weeks in, they are sitting on 4 wins and 13 lost games. Formed after the original lineup left the Dirt Nap Gaming organization, Velocity eSports, began their Summer Promotion Tournament with the 2:1 win against The Salad Bar. The team had to struggle much more than Cloud 9 in the Promotion Matches, as they faced off against the surprise of the Spring Split, Team MRN. The game ended up 3:2 in the favor of Velocity and after exhausting match; they could celebrate the joining into the ranks of LCS.

Although in the opening game they had defeated Counter Logic Gaming, the rest of the matches in the first week were lost, and the team had to take place at the bottom of the table along Curse Gaming. Every week brought only more despair for the team. Despite grabbing one win in the week three of LCS, more defeats followed. By the end of week 5, Velocity still hung onto the bottom of the standings with the record of 2 wins and 13 loses. At this point there seemed to be no escape from the degradation out of the series, but the spark of hope burst in the darkness of bottom LCS’ table.

In last two weeks the line up of the team faced some changes. First off, Vileroze, one of the solo laners, didn’t participate in the week 5 of LCS and was substituted by ecco, former MRN player. In week 6, Vileroze came back to the team, but swapped other solo laner of Velocity, Cris. After all the changes, the team managed to pick up two wins in the already mentioned week 6 of the LCS. They won 2 out of 2 games, gaining another victory over CLG and surprisingly stopping the double-ad composition of Vulcun TechBargains. The presence of ecco was definitely one of the factors that enabled the team to grab the victories. Despite sitting in the last place, Velocity eSports with the wins against second and third team in the standings, and acquiring ecco, is now definitely looking to catch up with the rest of the teams.