LCS Season is soon upon us! With the amount of content coming out ranking our 10 LCS teams in terms of how strong they would be compared to the rest of the league, I decided to go a different route. Everyone doing those types of power rankings are waaay more well equipped and knowledgeable than I am for that type of content and as such, I instead will judge them from what I do best as a fan, watching and memeing their games from Twitch chat.
That’s right, as you probably guessed from the title, this will be a power ranking on how entertaining I find our LCS teams will be in the 2020 spring split. So sit back, relax, bring out your arsenal of Pogchamps and ResidentSleepers, and see where your favorite team lands on my rankings.
The Criteria
Our 10 LCS teams will be ranked in order to the criteria that I find brings an important factor to how I view pro League of Legends games.
- Highlight Reel Factor: 5 points
One of the most important factors in my League viewing experience, how often does the team find itself on highlight reels? Do the players have that pop off factor when they play LCS games? Do they pull the trigger on big engages or flashy plays? Pentakills and Baron steals? These are the things that bring the hype to teams and cause people to tune in to watch League of Legends. - Notable and Enjoyable Personalities: 5 points
Does your team have players that make me wanna be their fan, and thus a fan of their team? Be it whether they’re well-spoken, joke around a lot, or just carry that infectious smile, one person can really get someone invested in a team. - Winning: 5 points
Winning is fun. I don’t think anyone will disagree with me there. - Memeability: 5 points
This is big. This is what this whole ranking revolves around. Hype plays are fun, and the players bring a human aspect to a spectator sport where you just watch a screen and animated characters move around an animated map in a competitive fashion, but the memes are here to make us laugh and bond. Collective random chants of TSM in stadiums, all the different versions of the G2 perkz poem made by everyone and anyone, finding the easiest pun to make about a player doing poorly (Cody Done, Missqy, MLXD) or well (Hitsqy, that Wildturtle girth spam, Big Dixxay) just make the viewing experience that much more fun, and if your team or its personalities bring that to the table, then even the losingest of teams will be entertaining to watch.
Without further ado, here are our LCS teams:
Power Rankings:
- Immortals
Highlights: 2/5
Personalities: 2/5
Winning: 1/5
Memeability: 1/5
Total: 7/20
This team just doesn’t scream fun. While it has its share of long-standing League personalities in Xmithie and SoAZ, they’re not exactly the most entertaining ones out there. With an unknown in Eika, and an Altec-Hakuho botlane, there really isn’t much going for them in the win department and the in meme department either outside of the SoAZ Dog champ meme in 2017 and Xmithie’s Sejuani ults. Hopefully they’ll create their own entertaining moments when spring split starts.
Player to watch: Hakuho - Golden Guardians
Highlights: 2/5
Personalities: 3/5,
Winning: 1/5
Memeability: 5/5
Total: 11/20
Are the Golden Guardians gonna be a winning team? Probably not. But damn if this team won’t be entertaining to watch as a dude who loves his memes. You got G6 Greyson “GoldenGlue” Gilmer on Golden Guardians, the GG spam whenever they play a game, Keith McBrief lane swapping to support (he has hands), FBI open bot, and so much more. I think the potential is limitless for this team. I’m talking about the memes of course, all those memes.
Player to watch: Closer
- Dignitas
Highlights:3/5
Personalities: 3/5,
Winning: 2/5
Memeability: 4/5
Total: 12/20
Will Dig ever not be entertaining? Their entire brand is a walking meme at this point. You got the long standing tradition of the Dig baron and the glorious Dignitas-Renegades game (if you’re new to LCS, you really have to look that up) as walking proof of that. The roster will be able to win some games, with Froggen, Grig, Aphromoo and a Soloq prodigy in Johnsun playing, just not as hype. But if you add Huni to the mix, one of the more explosive and more outgoing players, you got yourself quite possibly an entertaining organization.
Player to watch: Johnsun
- 100 Thieves
Highlights: 4/5
Personalities: 4/5
Winning: 3/5
Memeability: 2/5
Total: 13/20
This is where the ranking for me gets a bit harder, because all of the next couple of teams seem pretty close to me. Winning potential for the next 4 teams would be roughly the same, and as such they have the ability to overtake each other as the split goes on.
This team is an example of branding gone right. Merch is fire, content is good and as such it really makes the personalities on the team stand out and more memorable. Ssumday will be Ssumday, Meteos is one of the most well-spoken players in the league, and Cody Sun had the entire league rooting for him when he came back and popped off on Clutch last year. In terms of memes however, I don’t see a lot coming out from this team.
Player to watch: Cody Sun
- FlyQuest
Highlights: 4/5
Personalities: 3/5,
Winning: 3/5
Memeability: 3/5
Total: 13/20
Come See The Turtle of Enormous Girth!
When you have one of the best Riven players in NA, and actually does pick her on stage, you’re never gonna be short on highlight reel potential. The rest of the team doesn’t lack that playmaking potential either. Wildturtle will make plays and flash forward himself if he thinks that there’s an opportunity to, plus he makes some really good content with Flyquest. PoE’s Orianna can absolutely pop off with a 4 man shockwave at any time and Ignar hopefully can bring back the magic he had against SKT in 2017.
Player to watch: V1per
- CLG
Highlights: 4/5
Personalities: 3/5,
Winning: 3/5
Memeability: 3/5
Total: 13/20
CLG would be our average joe in this scenario. You have the good old CLG heart attacks along with that CLG faith (I never doubted them!) backed by the Big Dixxay, but thats about it. The rest of the roster seems like they’re head down, bring their lunch pail to work kind of guys. Not that there’s any thing wrong with that, as it can contribute to winning culture, just that it’s too quiet for my liking. Stixxay in particular, has one of my favorite highlights in League ever and that’s some extra points in the highlight department.
Player to watch: Stixxay (I mean seriously, look at that highlight)
- TSM
Highlights: 4/5
Personalities: 3/5,
Winning: 4/5
Memeability: 2/5
Total: 13/20
TSM! TSM! TSM!
You can’t escape the TSM brand. Even when they’re not at worlds you still hear these chants as a tribute to that everlasting meme. Aside from that, you really don’t have much else in the meme department, as Zven left and his baron int last spring finals was probably the newest meme to come from this team. Plus, this team just seemed so taxing to watch last year. With all the internal problems that was being speculated and the TSM jungle echo chamber, it gets really tiring to hear over and over again and that’s why I can’t justify placing them top 3. The changes they made to their roster gives me hope that they can return to the TSM of old however. Let’s hope Dardoch is the person who can breathe some new life into this team.
Player to watch: Dardoch
- Evil Geniuses
Highlights: 4/5
Personalities: 4/5,
Winning: 3/5
Memeability: 3/5
Total: 14/20
You can’t add an LCS MVP to your team and not expect a highlight reel coming from that man, especially when 2 of his teammates has played with him on C9 last season so hopefully there’s some synergy there. His 2 other teammates aren’t shying away from the big stage either, as Jizuke is super aggressive to match Svenskeren and Bang isn’t a 2 time worlds winner for nothing. The memeability of this team is higher than I would like mainly because I’m hoping some of that C9 flair rubs off on this team, and their marketing and branding is reminiscent of how 100 Thieves came into the league, and I’m excited to see what this team can become.
Player to watch: Svenskeren
- Cloud 9
Highlights: 4/5
Personalities: 4/5,
Winning: 5/5
Memeability: 4/5
Total: 17/20
C9 made a living off of being hyper aggressive during the year 2019. This team isn’t afraid to pull the trigger, and you shouldn’t expect anything less this year with the textbook definition of hyper agressive in Blaber finally becoming the permanent starting jungler for C9. Backing him up in his wacky engages will be Licorice and Nisqy, all of whom are very capable of creating their own highlights, whether it be stealing the Baron with an Ornn auto or 1v9ing team Liquid with their Irelia. We don’t know how well this team will do in the meme department however with the loss of Sneaky (Miss you Snackers </3), but you still have coach Reapered who never misses a beat when it comes to flaming his own team.
Player to watch: Blaber
- Team Liquid
Highlights: 5/5
Personalities: 5/5
Winning: 5/5
Memeability: 4/5
Was there every any doubt who’d be on the top of this list? What else does this roster need? Highlights? Check, as every single player on this team can produce those. Personalities? Doublelift will never pass up the opportunity to talk smack or pay respect, Impact is a meme lord, CoreJJ is a Dig veteran with entertaining games when he and DL duo queue, and Jensen and Broxah are entertaining in their own right. Winning? I dunno, does 4 straight LCS titles do it for you? I guess the only thing you can knock on them for are the memes, as there is some fatigue from winning everything you can think of in NA which makes them kind of boring at times. Other than that, they tick off every box in my watchability categories and deserve 1st place in my power rankings.
Player to watch: CoreJJ
That about wraps it up for me. If you agree or disagree with my rankings feel free to comment below! And if you think I missed out on some entertaining players or aspects about your favorite team don’t hesitate to tell me.
TLDR:
10) Immortals
9) Golden Guardians
8) Dignitas
7) 100 Thieves
6) FlyQuest
5) CLG
4) TSM
3) EG
2) C9
1) TL
League Match History 