The very first week of the Summer Split is officially behind us! Was it exciting? Did the teams improve during the relatively short off-season period? Let’s take a closer look in our 2019 LCS Summer Split week 1 recap!

First of all, if there’s one thing that became apparent after the first two days of competition, it is the fact that not a lot has changed between the two splits. Now, you’re either elated because of the fact or you’re as disappointed as possible. The most recent Spring Split wasn’t bad per se, but it was very much defined by its clown fiestas. There were only a handful of teams which able to maintain a respectable level of play and actually perform at a high enough level. Everyone else, however, was just downright abysmal most of the time.

Many teams tried to play in a completely outdated way, and it showed in the Rift. They were simply unable to throw down with the upper echelon of the LCS and were unwilling to adapt to the 2019 meta — a meta that favors quite a fair bit of craziness and flexibility.

But if a team doesn’t have the depth necessary to flex picks around, then they’re handicapped before they even reach the starting line. To make matters even worse, seeing how most teams underwent immense change between 2018 and 2019, there wasn’t a lot of synergy on display either. In short, the Spring Split didn’t give us a lot of top-notch League of Legends.

Fortunately for North America, such a state of affairs couldn’t stop the champions from pulling off the greatest upset in competitive League history at the most recent Mid-Season Invitational.

The first week of competitive Summer Split play was, in short, pretty much more of the same. A ton of fiestas, a few upsets, and a couple “did this really just happen” moments. It’s not that it wasn’t entertaining, but whenever we saw a clash between two mid-tier teams, they were mostly just running around Summoner’s Rift without any concrete game plan. Watching that for five minutes is okay — it’s acceptable; watching it happen for forty minutes straight is a completely different ordeal.

So without any further ado, let’s start our LCS Summer Split week 1 recap!

The standings after the first week of competitive play

First of all, it’s important to highlight that this has only been the first week, and the sample size that we have is extremely small. The second half of the season has only just begun, so we should take everything with a grain of salt. A team can, by all means, start 0-2 and still reach the top of the standings fairly quickly.

Tied for First — Cloud9, Golden Guardians, OpTic Gaming (2-0)

To start things off, we have a three-way tie for first. While it’s hard to say that these are the three best teams in the region right now, they did showcase a lot of skill in the Summoner’s Rift. They weren’t without fault, that’s for sure, but they found avenues towards victory and got the job done.

Cloud9 looked the best by far, and even though their early game against FlyQuest did leave a lot to be desired, they displayed both ample mechanical prowess as well as great team cohesion. They didn’t make any changes to their starting five-man line-up, and it shows in their play as well. They’re looking to continue building on their Spring Split success and they’re poised to dominate once again.

The Golden Guardians played like a team possessed in their first two outings, and it seems like they’re not looking to mess around — they want to win, and they want to win fast. This is a highly welcomed sign seeing how they’re no longer showing growing pains but have instead been able to immediately start off on the right foot. They took the Spring Split as a learning experience, leveled up as a team, and they’re aiming high this time around.

They were all on the same page, and they played much cleaner and more decisively than before.

That leaves us with OpTic Gaming. Their first two games were both brilliant, crazy, incredibly boring, and uneventful all at the same time. They played two of the most standard games ever, with two completely insane endings. For what it’s worth, they played well, both individually as well as a five-man unit. If anything, they were a bit reserved and unwilling to make the first move, but when push came to shove, they did what they had to and didn’t fail. A 2-0 weekend is a perfect start for the boys in black and green, and it’s fully deserved. That said, better teams should be able to fully exploit their weaknesses.

Even though their play wasn’t exactly clean or spotless, they were all in sync when it mattered the most, and they all followed through on every crazy decision they made in-game. While there’s still a lot to work on, they’re at least looking like a solid mid-tier team that’s growing in the right way.

Tied for Fourth — Counter Logic Gaming, Echo Fox, Team Liquid, Team SoloMid (1-1)

Next up, we have a four-way tie for fourth. This is the “a lot of good, a lot of bad” bunch. Each of these teams had both an exceptional game as well as an abysmal one. They did a lot of stuff right, but were unable to excel in both of their outings.

Counter Logic Gaming looked fantastic overall but were the victims of a bad draft against Team SoloMid on Sunday. They were in-sync, aggressive and willing to throw down at any moment. They were far more cohesive and capable than anyone had expected, and their new top laner Kim “Ruin” Hyeong-min displayed zero hesitation and was one of their best performing members. Counter Logic Gaming are, without a doubt, the team to watch right now, and if they continue building on what they’ve shown last week, they should be a solid playoff contender.

As for Echo Fox, Team Liquid, and Team SoloMid, it’s still too early to judge with confidence. They all had moments of brilliance, but also moments of absolute mediocrity. Echo Fox was able to shine against the defending champions Team Liquid, but we’ll need to see more before fully boarding the hype train.

Team Liquid’s one loss is understandable — they had the least time to prepare and recuperate after the Mid-Season Invitational, so they weren’t playing at their best. Not even close. Still, most people expected them to perhaps lose to Team SoloMid on Saturday and then demolish Echo Fox a day later. Regardless, the outlook is optimistic for the LCS champions. Finally, Team SoloMid was both hot and cold in their first week of Summer Split play. They’re not as aggressive or as confident as everyone thought they would be, but at least we saw Jonathan “Grig” Armao back in action. His one Hecarim game was basically perfect which means that — if he continues playing at such a high level — Team SoloMid will have two highly capable (and stylistically different) junglers to work with.

And at this level of play, that can be an invaluable upper hand.

Tied for Eight — 100 Thieves, Clutch Gaming, FlyQuest (0-2)

Finally, we have a three-way tie for eighth. In other words, we’re looking at the bottom of the standings. Two of these three teams also occupied the bottom rankings when the Spring Split concluded, so the fact that we’re seeing them this low once again shouldn’t come as a surprise.

FlyQuest, however, did have a somewhat tough schedule for week one. Then again, they didn’t exactly look as good as we anticipated, or as good as they should’ve been given their level of play in Spring. Regardless, much like Clutch Gaming, they showed some promise on the Summoner’s Rift. The biggest question at hand is — will it be enough to warrant them receiving a higher spot in the rankings? Only time will tell.

100 Thieves may not be the strongest team, but they seem to be aware of that and working hard to improve

And of course, at the very end, we have none other than 100 Thieves. If we were to judge solely off of their first two games, we’d be forced to say they didn’t improve much from Spring. Sure, it’s still too early to judge, but they looked as mediocre and as ineffective in the current meta as possible. They might improve with time, but don’t expect this team to become a powerhouse any time soon — even though they have ample talent.