Blog: My Opinion On the Allstars of NA LCS Summer Split

Disclaimer: this article represents the opinion of the writer but not that of Team Dignitas.

The time of the allstar voting during the spring split was one of much excitement for pro players and fans alike. It was a means to congratulate the best players in our region for their play that went above and beyond statistics such as KDA and GPM. My aim in this article is to do something similar for the summer split, to call out the best of the best performances in a role-by-role MVP. Every person in this list is an inspiration and has much to teach professionals and amateurs alike.

 

Top Lane: Balls

This is probably the least contestable choice across roles. In a recent Riot video many pros said Balls was their choice for season MVP. He seems to have mastered the current top lane meta more than any of his counterparts. Balls prefers ap damage dealers, usually with devastating ultimates. He picks up many kills, rarely loses lane, and when he does he manages to find his way back through team fighting. His mechanics and split-second decision making are world class, something that can be most easily seen when he plays Rumble.

However, none of these have won him the top lane MVP. What has is his map awareness. Despite being in the top lane, on the far side from dragon and hence most of the early game action, he is never missing when Cloud 9 is making their patented early-mid game team plays. C9 is a dragon-addicted team and many other teams have to concede dragons because their top laner is in lane without a teleport or global, but C9 never faces this problem because of Balls's map awareness. He never uses teleport but is always with his team to make plays, yet he never seems to fall behind in farm. Like the rest of Cloud 9, he has signature champions: Rumble, Ryze, Kennen, Elise. The most banned champion against C9 is Balls's Rumble.

 

Mid Lane: Mancloud

No other individual is as responsible for Vulcun's strong showing this split than their ap carry Mancloud. He is by far the most mechanically adept mid in NA, having never lost a 1v1 lane and seems almost impossible to shut down even by camping or 1v2s. He has also shown that he is impossible to ban out with his huge champion pool; he is currently tied for the most champions played this split with Voyboy and Nien. He has proven himself to be the key component of Vulcun's notoriously dangerous versatility in champion select and the variety in team compositions that follow. Kobe even said multiple times this split that seeing what Mancloud picks and how Mancloud plays is the biggest indicator to figure out how Vulcun is going to play.

A great example of Mancloud's mechanics and versatility is his pick up of mid lane Ezreal which was popularized in Korea. An example of his potential on this champion is in Vulcun's superweek game against TSM, which was an extremely tight affair and although Vulcun had superior control, TSM thought they had a window back in it when they picked up Sycho Sid unanswered at the 43 minute mark.

However, as TSM had to go back to defend a freshly respawned inhibitor from super minions, Zuna, BloodWater and Xmithie took the opportunity to start a 3 man baron. Knowing that TSM would catch on, Mancloud went all the way to the mid inhib turret and kited back slowing down TSM exponentially as they charged towards Baron. His kiting and mechanics were so efficient that Vulcun managed to kill baron before TSM even reached which let them win a 4v5 teamfight immediately afterward 4 for 0.

 

Jungle: Meteos

EU's Diamond is world-known for his innovative champion choices, and it is said that the next jungler to be permabanned and eventually nerfed is the jungler Diamond currently favors. Diamond himself often says that innovation is the most important quality for a jungler; undoubtedly predictability makes for poor ganks and map pressure. In this, counterintuitively to some people, Meteos shines.

The reason it may be counterintuitive is that Cloud 9 has been criticized for spamming a small group of particular champions, in fact, they have the least number of champions picked this split. Meteos is no exception to this rule, his jungle choices are extremely predictable. However, it is not in his champion choices that he innovates, but in his game strategy.

Meteos was an early adapter of the 3 minute 3v1 tower push. The reason for this is that mid-game is C9's strongest time because of their superior objective control and team coordination. By taking down a tower at 4 minutes, Meteos helps quickly destroy the early game before more gank-heavy junglers can use a longer laning phase to build advantages over him. Early on in the split this strat took so many teams by surprise and they had no idea how to deal with it.

In one game Team Dignitas used a Blitzcrank in mid lane to steal both buffs from Meteos in the early game gifting Crumbzz the jungler advantage of dreams. However, Meteos responded by simply joining his 2v1 lane until they got down the tower which ended the early game and nullified Crumbzz's early advantage.

The early tower strat also always puts C9 on the front foot and their advantage solidifies as they go for dragon soon afterward and usually succeed. Cloud 9 slightly fall off late game as objective control becomes less important but as most of their games are won in mid-game this is rarely an issue. Though not concentrating on ganks, Meteos shows the most game-control of any LCS jungler and is the most critical piece of the C9 jigsaw.

 

ADC: Doublelift

At once the hardest and easiest decision to make for this list. Doublelift is in one way like the Diamondprox of NA, if you make a top-5 team, its only natural that he’s in it. It has been that way for a long time. But that is exactly why choosing Doublelift as the best ADC NA is also so difficult, because with his consistent godlike reputation remains a consistent meta-game that at least slightly stagnates the growth of both Double and CLG.

LemonNation controversially stated earlier on in the summer split that the current meta-game did not favor the marksmen getting all the farm and carrying the game; instead, because mid and late-game come much faster in the new meta, the solo laners are much more reliable “carries” than the marksman. It’s hard to argue with this statement, marksmen only really become the most important role of the team in the late game, and it is becoming more and more rare for games to be even enough to be won or lost at that stage. Hence Doublelift’s dominance and team-carry status could paradoxically be holding his team back even as it boosts it forward because of his skill.

And that skill is nothing to be skimmed over. Doublelift’s mechanics and map awareness have been an inspiration for marksmen for several years and even now he may be one of the few players in NA who can truly be called world class. The video below is just one example of his outstanding mechanics.

 CLG were heavily criticized for their monocarry gameplay which focused on 4 members protecting Doublelift, but his skill is so critical to his team that in the Allstar tournament the NA allstars ended up doing the very same thing with 4 allstars, because Doublelift is just that good. The reason I have chosen him despite the fallbacks is because Doublelift is not doomed to the fate of the old meta, and always has the opportunity to adapt. I’m going out on a limb here to say that his personality may be an obstacle to change, as he is continuously attributing poor play to a personal slump instead of a changing meta that does not favor his style.

 

Support: Bloodwater

This is probably the most controversial of my picks but I stand strongly by it. Bloodwater is the glue that holds Vulcun’s team strategies together and is one of the strongest forces in their teamfight heavy mid-late game style of play. However, other supports such as Patoy and LemonNation can claim equal or superior team fighting prowess and Xpecial can easily claim superior mechanics.

The reason then that I have chosen to endorse Bloodwater as the best support NA is his completely superor warding. A glance at the minimap at around 30 mins into any Vulcun game will tell the story. When Vulcun is ahead the enemy jungle is littered with wards, green and pink, allowing splitpushes, picks and superior lane rotations for the Vulcun team. I would in fact credit Bloodwater’s warding as the #1 reason that Vulcun doesn’t lose its grasp on a lead. When they are equal, Bloodwater's warding helps Vulcun get the lead as the river and areas middle of the map are completely covered for Vulcun's vision.

 

Conclusion

I hope you guys enjoyed this list. This goes unsaid but such a list is partially flawed in its very essence, and the most successful teams care less about whether their players are the best on an individual level and more about how they would fit into their style. This kind of list also creates unsung heroes, players who play a particular style to do the best for their team but which is less impressive when compared to others in their role. The best example of this is C9 Sneaky, an incredible marskman who has made a big impact on the NA scene. C9's style has shifted him to a more utility role especially in comparison to his counterpart Doublelift and comparing their skill and influence is almost impossible. Please do let me know your thoughts in the comments.