To summarize things as quickly as possible, the fifth week of competitive LEC play was absolute insanity, and that might even be an understatement. We’ve seen shocking inconsistency from basically every team that’s competing, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Losing always jumpstarts growth, and it’s better to fail now than in the playoffs further down the road.

Let’s take a closer look at how each team is doing after the first half of the split!

First — G2 Esports (9W-1L)

For all the hype that was built around this incredible G2 line-up, nine wins in a row feels almost pedestrian. After outclassing Misfits on Friday, they were unable to keep their win streak alive against Origen. Are they still the best team in the region? Absolutely! There’s no doubt about it. They’re the most flexible, capable, and even crazy. But then again, their tendency to go for bad drafts and fool around on the Rift is a concrete problem.

Origen was the better team on the day, but then again, G2 drafted the worst team comp imaginable, and it was almost insulting. A blind pick Pyke, along with a Sylas in the top lane (with a zero percent win rate in the region) is just asking for a loss against a highly-synergized Origen line-up.

This negligible snafu shouldn’t hit them too hard, but they seriously need to step up with their drafts in order to remain at the very top of the region.

Two-Way Tie for Second — Schalke 04 & Team Vitality (7W-3L)

Next up we have a two-way tie for second between Schalke 04 and Team Vitality. Last week was a perfect example of their strengths, but also innate weaknesses. Vitality was arguably the bigger offender seeing how they were completely demolished by SK Gaming on Friday only to bounce back and outclass Schalke just a day afterward.

They’re an incredibly talented bunch, that’s for sure, but they’re still as volatile as ever, and that might become a huge problem sooner rather than later. Schalke, on the other hand, had a 1W-1L week mainly because they were up against Rogue on Friday. They aren’t looking as good, and it’s hard to pinpoint why. They were noticeably out of sync against Vitality, and they made egregious errors on an individual level almost non-stop. It was a strange sight for sure, mainly because we’re used to seeing clean play from the boys in white and blue. They have a tough schedule for week six, which could allow Vitality to take sole possession of second place.

Tied for Fourth — Origen (6W-4L)

What a surprising and highly commendable turn-around from Origen. To say that they’ve stepped up over the last couple of weeks would be an understatement. They’re on a five-game win streak, and they’ve taken down the who’s who of the LEC, excluding Team Vitality. They’re all playing some top-tier League of Legends, both individually as well as a five-man unit. Jonas “Kold” Andersen has been playing out of his mind, and their bottom lane has been doing a ton of heavy lifting as well.

It’s hard predicting how high this Origen line-up will eventually go. They’re definitely in the running for the playoffs right now, but we still don’t have a big enough sample size to judge them fully. They are, however, predicted as a top three team right now, and that’s a fair assessment.

While their win over G2 Esports does have a small asterisk by its side, they were still incredibly clean and dominant in their execution. They’re playing like a well-oiled machine, and they could be able to lock down a spot right behind G2 Esports when all is said and done.

Tied for Fourth — Splyce (6W-4L)

Splyce has settled down into their perennial gatekeeper status, and that’s a pretty big letdown. For all of their short-lived flashes of brilliance, they had immediate moments of painful mediocrity. They’re one-dimensional, slow, and unwilling to fight early on. They’re a worthy adversary, but far from an unbeatable one.

The talent within their roster is downright fantastic, but they’re just not using it fully. They’re strong enough to make any game highly competitive, but not to take down the upper echelon of the region. They will remain a dark horse, and they could do some damage when the playoffs come around, but that’s still more than a month away.

Sixth — SK Gaming (5W-5L)

With a clean win over Vitality and Fnatic last week, SK managed to cement their status as a worthy contender. They’re in sync, they’re aggressive, and they’re highly capable, and it seems that the change in the head coach position allowed them to flourish and start playing on a much higher level. There are some questions that have been raised, such as if they are able to keep winning? How high can they climb? They have Misfits Gaming and Schalke 04 up this week, and they could, in theory, end up with yet another stellar week and improve to seven wins and five losses.

Reaching the playoffs right off the bat would be a seismic achievement for this SK line-up. They have won a couple of games, made some big statements, and they’ve attained more success in their inaugural LEC split than many ever thought they could. The 9.3 meta shift is heavily favoring their players, and if they keep playing at such a high level, they could even overtake teams like Splyce and Schalke.

Seventh — Misfits Gaming (4W-6L)

Even though things aren’t dire just yet, you could argue that the current Misfits line-up basically imploded after just a week of play — their four-game losing streak attests to the fact. To make matters even worse, they managed to lose to the (statistically) worst team in the region last Saturday. Losing to the likes of G2 Esports or Vitality is one thing, but dropping a game to Rogue is something that a top-tier team simply cannot afford.

They’re currently sitting outside of the top six, and it’s hard to see over whom they could get a win in the coming weeks. Perhaps Excel Esports or Fnatic, but even those matches are up in the air seeing how Misfits aren’t playing at a particularly high level right now.

They have the talent and the coaching staff, but things just aren’t clicking, and time is of the essence. They need to step up and start playing as a cohesive five-man unit as soon as possible if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Eighth — Fnatic (3W-7L)

How the mighty have fallen. Fnatic is showing signs of life, which is great, but perhaps it’s a bit too late. Missing out on the playoffs is a very palpable reality for Fnatic right now. We’re entering the sixth week of competitive play, and they don’t even have five wins on the board.

They’re just not playing good League of Legends right now, and they’re completely out of sync with one another even though they have retained five out of seven players. They could potentially get a few wins in the coming weeks, but don’t expect them to reach their former heights any time soon.

Ninth — exceL Esports (2W-8L)

After a solid first couple of weeks, exceL has quickly fallen back into bottom-tier status. They’re good, but not great, and in the ultra-competitive LEC landscape, being “good” doesn’t mean much. They’re far from a bad team and, in fact, they have the potential to play much better than you’d ever expect them to, but it’s just not enough.

Looking forward, they could potentially upset, but they shouldn’t be able to reach a higher spot in the standings.

Tenth — Rogue (1W-9L)

Rogue’s winless drought was brought to an end last week as they were able to completely outclass and decimate Misfits Gaming. It was a shocking sight, to be quite frank — Rogue was rarely (if ever) this cohesive and aggressive. Their veteran jungler Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek was constantly applying pressure, ganking, counter-ganking, and his unexpected Pantheon pick completely threw Misfits off.

They’re still at the bottom of the standings, but at least their hard work is paying off. They have Excel Esports and Splyce lined up for this week, and they could, in theory, perhaps even end up with three wins on the board if they’re able to maintain this level of play.