2020 LoL Championship Series Spring

25 January, 2020 - N/A Los Angeles, United States

The League of Legends Championship Series is the premier circuit in North America, with the competition featuring some of the most recognized brands within western esports.

Each season comes with a separate prize pool as well as qualifying spots for international events including the Mid Season Invitational and Worlds.

Preview

The 2020 LCS Spring Split is finally here, and there's quite a lot to break down. If things pan out as expected, 2020 is bound to entertain us beyond measure. It won't bring any exciting new narratives, but will instead build upon existing ones in unexpected and fascinating ways. Overall, there's a lot to like, and a lot to get excited for. 

North America, as a region, didn't change much over the course of the off-season. That's both good and bad, depending on what you expect from the LCS. If it's entertainment, then you’re not going to be disappointed. If it’s top-tier play and stellar macro you’re after, you’ll have to temper your expectations. Those elements of play won’t be absent, but you’ll see them only from a handful of teams that are competing. The LCS is still heavily segmented when it comes to its ten permanent partners and their overall power level. And again, if you liked that aspect of the region before, you won’t notice much of a change.

If, on the other hand, you wanted the region to be a bit more competitive across the board, if you wanted to see some new faces and challengers pop up, then you’re bound to get disappointed. Be that as it may, there are many capable contenders who’ll compete at the highest of levels which is more than enough reason to tune in and watch the action unfold.

The teams at the top will remain there, that’s almost a given at this point. There’s a very obvious cream of the croup, and it consists of — at best — five teams. And even the teams in that “S tier” can be further separated and slotted into their of their own. The other half of the region is far less capable, although they could still surprise us over the next couple of weeks.

As far as the LCS goes, most of it boils down to financial status. The teams at the top have the most money to spend and are therefore capable of bringing over the best and most talented players. The organizations that aren’t as lucky have to make due with what’s left. That’s why there’s such a huge chasm between the top and the bottom. 

Despite this, even the “worst” teams in the region have something going for them and are more than capable of surprising us (some more than others, of course). 

With that out of the way, let’s focus a bit more on the challengers who’ll compete over the next couple of months! To make things a bit easier, we’ll categorize the ten LCS teams into tiers, from S to C.

Finally, before we delve any deeper, have in mind that this is just a preliminary power ranking. There are so many nuances and question marks hanging in the air that it’s truly impossible to predict anything with absolute confidence. We know who’s the best, but as we go lower into the standings things get a lot more complicated and layered. Because of this, take everything with reserve and know that these things change and fluctuate on a weekly basis as teams develop synergy and acclimate to the meta.

With that out of the way, let's focus on the ten permanent LCS partners and their chances of finding success:

The Teams

1. Team Liquid — The defending champions are entering 2020 even stronger than last year. That’s frankly, a frightening notion. The idea that they’re going to be even stronger this time around. With Broxah by their side, they’re bound to once again dominate over their opposition, but they might need a bit of time to acclimate to an entirely different jungler. With the legendary Dane leading the charge, you can expect to see a more proactive Team Liquid in 2020. They should be much more aggressive and willing to fight whenever it’s called for. 

They’re the best and most sound North American team at the moment and they’re not going to pull any punches once they step foot on the LCS stage. If there’s one possible problem with Liquid, it is the fact that they’re entering 2020 after winning everything they could on home soil. With four consecutive LCS titles behind their belt (a record), one has to wonder whether they still have the drive to compete and tryhard as much as they did in the past. There’s just not much to fight for any longer which could become a problem in the long run.

2. Team SoloMid — The perennial North American titans are entering the 2020 season with a ton of momentum. After a fairly tumultuous 2019, they made all the right changes to their starting roster to actually stand a chance of dethroning Team Liquid. With Dardoch, Kobbe, and Biofrost within their line-up, they’re bound to leave a mark sooner or later. They’re packed with so much talent and aggression that it’s hard seeing them being any lower than second place, given that they synergize in the right way. 

They’re all seasoned veterans, and yet their play hasn’t deteriorated in the slightest. Team SoloMid is hungry to get back to their winning ways, and they actually have all the right tools at their disposal to make a spectacular run. 

Will it be enough to take Liquid down, however? 

3. Evil Geniuses — The age-old North American organization is making a grand return to the LCS, and they’re doing so in style. They’re not here to participate, but rather to take over. This might sound overly dramatic and theatrical, but it’s hard to explain the amount of momentum that EG has behind their backs. They’ve made all the right moves in an attempt to dominate straight out the gates and they actually stand a solid chance of leaving a mark.

One quick look at their starting line-up is all you need to be impressed. Cloud9 Academy top laner Kumo perhaps stands out as the only weak link, although it’s important to remember that Kumo played out of his mind back when he subbed in for Licorice. He traded heavy blows with a couple of LCS mainstays and it was those couple of performances that got him picked up by such a stellar organization. 

The rest of the team is talented beyond belief. 2019 Summer Split MVP Svenskeren is coming in hot from Cloud9 and he’ll be accompanied by none other than Team Vitality’s Jiizuke who’s moving across the pond to compete in North America. The “Italian Stallion” will be looking to get back to form after an underwhelming season. EG’s bottom lane is also stacked talent-wise: former two-time World Championship winner Bang (of SKT T1 fame) and Cloud9’s Zeyzal. 

This is a bona fide powerhouse in the making, and watching them develop and challenge the LCS pantheon will be extremely exciting. 

Obviously, we’re only rating them based off of the team’s predicted power, but there’s no reason why they couldn’t reach the very top of North America with a line-up this stacked. 

4. Cloud9 — At number four we have none other than Cloud9. Now, saying just how good they are at this point in time is downright impossible. On the one hand, they should be every bit as capable as they were in 2019, seeing how they didn’t downgrade much. On the other, they won’t be as dangerous. It feels like this incarnation of C9 has a lower skill ceiling. That, in itself, doesn’t mean they won’t leave a mark or that they won’t be able to compete with the best teams in the region. On the contrary. 

They’re definitely going to compete for a Top 3 spot fairly quickly, but the loss of Svenskeren, Sneaky, and Zeyzal will affect their play more than most people realize. Despite this, Zven and Vulcan are more than worthy of replacing the former C9 bottom lane duo, and Blaber certainly showed a ton of promise as well. 

There are a couple of question marks overall, but they should not be underestimated going forward. Cloud9 might not look particularly good early on, but with time they’re bound to once again become one of the best teams in the region. 

5. Counter Logic Gaming — Will 2020 be the year when the faithful are rewarded? No one’s quite sure, but Counter Logic Gaming certainly has a lot of promise. Now, they are by no means a world-class roster, but they’re definitely capable of trading heavy blows with the best the LCS has to offer. They’ve essentially upgraded during the off-season and should be able to continue building on their stellar foundation from 2019.

Whether or not they’ll leave much of a mark in the grand scheme of things still remains to be seen, but they’re a lock for the playoffs for sure. Finally, they shouldn’t skip much of a beat early on into the season. They did change, but not in a monumental way, so they could have an upper hand in the opening weeks of the Spring Split. 

The Fight for the Last Playoff Spot

Next up, we have three talented teams that may or may not end up performing up to expectations. Some are expected to perform at a very high level (100 Thieves, primarily), some to fluctuate and hover in the middle of the standings (FlyQuest), and some have polarized and divided the community when it came to predicting their overall strength and potential (Team Dignitas). 

Regardless of how things ultimately resolve, all three teams are highly capable and should be able to quickly grow into well-rounded, mid-tier contenders. That said, there’s just a single playoff spot left, so the fight in the middle is bound to be incredibly fierce.

6. 100 Thieves — There’s a lot to like with the updated 100 Thieves roster, but until we see their mid lane import in action, we’re going to be reserved. Generally speaking, they have more than enough firepower to not only lock down a playoff spot but also challenge anyone above them, but most of it will hinge around their synergy and how well ry0ma holds up against the mid lane titans in North America.

If he’s able to compete, then Ssumday, Meteos, and Cody Sun won’t have much of a problem hardcarrying the team over the finish line. Stunt is also somewhat of a question mark — we’ve seen him play in the LCS before and, while he’s certainly solid, he’s not exactly the kind of player who’ll blow you away with spectacular plays and laning.

Overall, they’re a very solid line-up with a ton of potential, and we can’t wait to see them back in action. The return of 100 Thieves has been long awaited. 

7. Team Dignitas — Without a doubt the hardest team to read right now. In many ways, this Dignitas line-up feels like a strange combination of Echo Fox and Clutch Gaming, and not necessarily in a good sense. They’re not bad, but they’ll either dominate more than anyone could have ever anticipated, or implode beyond measure.

On the one hand, they have the likes of Huni, Froggen, and Aphromoo. Those are staple names in the LCS and two-thirds of them actually had a very solid season last year. On the other, they have Grig and Jonhsun, a seasoned player who has yet to prove his worth and an up-and-coming talent that’s entering the 2020 season with a ton of hype. That’s a confusing mix of players, but there’s potential as well.

The comparison with Echo Fox is a good one, because this line-up will either soar high or fail to mount an offensive altogether. Sometimes they’ll accomplish both over the course of a single week. The former is more likely than the latter, but they’re still a huge question mark. 

Regardless, they’re far more capable and dangerous than the community gives them credit for.

8. FlyQuest — The 2019 Spring Split playoff contenders had a fairly fascinating 2019. They started off in spectacular fashion, but then declined in a confusingly short amount of time. They were fantastic in Spring, and downright abysmal in Summer, even though nothing really changed. They still had the same line-up, the meta didn’t shift considerably, and they were still trying the same stuff out and yet it no longer worked.

As time went on, they failed to adapt, and the rest is history. 2020 will, then, grant FlyQuest yet another chance at redemption, and if their two off-season pick-ups are any indication, they’re going to succeed sooner rather than later. PowerOfEvil and IgNar (former teammates back in their Misfits Gaming days) are the perfect players for this aggressive, skirmish-oriented FlyQuest line-up, and they’re bound to elevate the team in new and exciting ways. They’re always willing to throw down regardless of the state of the game, and seeing how FlyQuest thrive in those hectic five-on-five team fights, they’ll now have more tools to work with than ever before.

Overall, there’s a lot to like with FlyQuest’s current line-up. They might not dominate per se, but they should not be underestimated. They have multiple seasoned veterans and no glaring weakness so reaching playoffs is definitely within the realm of possibility. 

Bottom-Tier

Finally, we have two teams that are almost guaranteed to finish at the very bottom of the standings. Frankly, they lack the talent and the firepower which are necessary to compete at the highest of levels. They might be a bit better than most expect, but they’re not going to reach the playoffs, that’s for certain.

9. Immortals — When you start looking at the IMT roster, things start great: sOAZ and Xmithie. Those two names are more than enough to get us excited. Two veterans of the game, and yet they’re every bit as capable as they were in the past. But everyone else is, for lack of a better term, underwhelming. 

This is a baffling mishmash of players and it’s not going to do much, if anything at all. While Zaboutine doesn’t get nearly as much credit as he deserves, he’ll face an uphill battle from the moment his team steps foot on stage. That said, we already mentioned their stellar two-man core, and if they upgrade between Spring and Summer, Immortals might be able to accomplish something. But that’s a big “if.” 

10. Golden Guardians — Finally, we have the Golden Guardians. If you thought Immortals was a puzzling ragtag group of players, wait ‘till you see this. Hauntzer and Goldenglue are perhaps the only standout players worthy of mentioning from the GGS line-up. And even the two of them are by no means League of Legends behemoths at this point in time. It’s simply hard to conceive of a scenario in which the Golden Guardians dominate, or are even slightly competitive against any of the teams listed above.

They bring nothing to the table and they don’t have any one strength that they can focus on and build upon. Confusing, underwhelming, and perhaps above all: underpowered.

Verdict

Watching the ten LCS permanent partners duke it out over the next couple of months will be an absolute must. While the second half of the standings might not be particularly enticing, the first couple of teams are more than worthy of our time and undivided attention. 

Finally, if you're looking to bet on the LCS, make sure to watch as many games as possible in order to pick up on the many layers and nuances that will start to pop-up over the coming weeks. Teams often have rough starts to the season, and this Spring Split should be no exception, especially considering just how different the entire LCS landscape looks when compared to 2019. 

Tournament Format

Group Stage:

Double round robin with Best-of-One matches. The top six teams qualify for the seasons playoffs.

Playoffs:

Double elimination bracket with Best-of-Five matches. The top two teams of the season are seeded directly into the upper bracket finals. The third seed chooses whether they play either the fifth or sixth seed, with the fourth seed facing the leftover seed.

Winner qualifies for the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational.