Team Liquid 1u3l35
- Top: Impact
- Jungle: Xmithie
- Mid: Jensen
- Bottom: Doublelift
- : CoreJJ
Coming off of a rather amazing domestic split by winning back to back NA championships, Team Liquid decided to replace pieces of their roster after being exposed and dropping out of groups at the World Championships. Those pieces dropped were their Olleh and Mid laner Pobelter and were replaced with former world champion CoreJJ and standout NA Mid laner Jensen. So far the team has not faced too many struggles by just having lane for lane stronger players than their opponents and having very few issues closing out games by playing a very standard style. Currently the team is looking at the possibility of a 18-0 season and there are few teams in their current form who look like they can take them down.
Cloud 9 s4e3n
- Top: Licorice
- Jungle: Svenskeren
- Mid: Nisqy
- Bottom: Sneaky
- : Zeyzal
Rather the opposite story from Team Liquid, Cloud 9 are coming off of a rather tragic start of summer split to a near cinderella story to make it to the finals in playoffs to worlds only to fall short at the Semi finals to the world finalist Fnatic. There is only one change this split for this team and it was moving Jensen to Team Liquid and bringing in fromer Splyce Mid laner Nisqy. Currently the team has seen some mixed success mostly due to Nisqy trying to find his place in the league amongst other top talent mid laners and Sneaky putting on several amazing carry performances on Ezreal. As of right now, both Cloud 9 and Team Liquid look like they’re a cut above the rest and look like front runners for the NA championship this year.
100 Thieves 4i392w
- Top: SSumday
- Jungle: AnDa
- Mid: Huhi
- Bottom: Bang
- : Aphromoo
This year much like the other teams there are a new faces for the squad while keeping core pieces of what made 100 thieves a strong domestic team that made several runs for the NA championship. Off of a rocky worlds performance, 100 thieves replaced their Mid and Bot with former CLG mid in Huhi and possible one of the most notable roster moves in NA in former SKT and 2 time world championship in Bang. Despite a rather slow start from the squad, we are now seeing what Bang brings to the table as a world class ADC showcasing why he should have more eyes on him. For the other new member, Huhi was heavily criticized and is possibly rated as one of the weakest mids in the league. In his past few games he has been stepping up and even making some game winning engages which helps make up for his other shortcomings such as laning. The team is known for dragging out games, but so far they’ve shown week to week improvements and is team to not count out.
CLG 5u3b6q
- Top: Darshan
- Jungle: Wiggly
- Mid: PowerofEvil
- Bottom : Stixxay
- : Biofrost
Continuing the trend, CLG made a few swap outs on their main squad and even making use of their Academy team trying to find their winning formula. Running a rookie jungler in Wiggley and obtaining former OpTic Mid in PowerofEvil, experimenting in the first few weeks may have costed the team a few losses, but now they are on a surge in their past few games to help tie them for 3rd place. Now the real test for the team will be continuing to find victories when we are now in a league were the competition has made several upgrades and week by week will only get stronger.
Echo Fox 1q56y
- Top: Solo
- Jungle: Rush
- Mid: Fenix
- Bottom: Apollo
- : Hakuho
Another interesting squad coming into this year was Echo Fox’s 3 man g of former Clutch Gaming players in Solo, Apollo and Hakuho and bringing in their old Mid in Fenix and former NA star jungler and sub jungler for KT Rolster in Rush. Currently in a 4 way tie for third, Echo Fox shows they can compete if they show up on the game day to play, but the rock for this team is their bot lane and whereas the other sides of map can either put on stellar performances or fizzle out depending on who they’re playing.
FlyQuest 5qe3e
- Top: V1per
- Jungle: Santorin
- Mid: Pobelter
- Bottom: WildTurtle
- : JayJ
Keeping with the trend, there was some shuffles in FlyQuest and now they have a new mid and top laner with former Team Liquid mid laner Pobelter manning the midlane and an rookie talent top laner in V1per. Thus far, on paper the team looks rather weak compared to the other notable names on the other teams, FlyQuest have taken games with a decent early game and snowballing typically through WildTurtle and even a few games through Pobelter with several solid performances through Santorin.
TSM 5v4t2v
- Top: BrokenBlade
- Jungle: Akkadian
- Mid: Bjergsen
- Bottom: Zven
- : Smoothie
TSM this year has decided much like their previous years to revamp their roster completely around their star players. The only returning this year is Zven and Bjergsen while all other roles were exchanged for BrokenBlade, and up and coming talent from Turkey, Akkadian who is currently filling in for Grig in the jungle and former Echo Fox and Cloud 9 in Smoothie. Currently the team has been noted for their early game aggression, but unfortunately that aggression doesn’t always translate to wins, but they are looking to keep a strong and stable early game to put a few more wins on the board.
Golden Guardians 3485r
- Top: Hauntzer
- Jungle: Contractz
- Mid: Froggen
- Bottom: Deftly
- : Olleh
Golden Gaurdians after two back to back 10th place finishes decided to field a completely new roster while only keeping their Bottom in Deftly and Jungler Contractz. Fan favourite Froggen returns along with Haunzter from TSM and Olleh from Team Liquid. With a strong team on paper and question mark around how Froggen would perform, the team out the gates looked rather week and was looking to potentially repeat past splits despite a new team but in the past week they are on an upswing and looking to climb their way out of the 4 way tie for last place. Eyes have been on Froggen since he does not perform well on the traditional meta mid laners but has been finding huge success on his pocket picks.
Clutch Gaming 3s3r1g
- Top: Huni
- Jungle: Lira
- Mid: Damonte
- Bottom: Piglet
- : Vulcan
Discussed before was the 3 man swap of Clutch to Echo Fox roster move and out of the move, Clutch received mid laner Damonte and Top Huni while rounding out the team with returning Jungler in Lira and with bot lane of veteran Piglet and rookie Vulcan. Despite a good week 1, the team is currently in a slump after losing 4 in a row. Several like Piglet and Huni are leading for death in their roles, so they are looking to play a bit more safe going into the oncoming weeks.
OpTic Gaming 4j5538
- Top: Dhokla
- Jungle: Meteos
- Mid: Crown
- Bottom: Arrow
- : Big
OpTic had an interesting start by needing to shuffle players around due to visa issues, but now their full roster has been decided. The only issue so far is that their sub in roster of the first week performed much better than what they have as the main roster. Crown has been finding success, but most games beyond the first week have been pretty one sided and OpTic need to kick it into gear or shuffle until they find success like they had previously.
