2019 NALCS Summer Split Week Four recap

S. Samek

Here we go with the happenings for week four.

At 2-0 this week we have Team Liquid and 100 Thieves. Liquid is staring to rise the past two weeks sitting on a four game winning streak and first place heading into Rift Rivals week.

100 Thieves owns a three game winning streak and is playing much better with Ryu and Fakegod in the lineup. Yet they still sit in eighth place. However only being a game behind the two teams tied for sixth, it looks like things could be trending up for 100 Thieves.

0-2 records went to Golden Guardians and Flyquest this past week. Flyquest is tumbling down the mountain rapidly having lost five in a row. They don’t look good, escpially have a rough loss to Echo Fox.

The Guardians didn’t fare well against TSM and Liquid. They also have a three game losing streak going and look to be faltering.

The rest of the clump continued to split games. Clutch sits at 4-4 to match Golden Guardians. Optic, Cloud 9, TSM and CLG each have 5-3 records. They just beat each other up and sit in a clump. Echo Fox went 1-1 this week also ,but they sit at 2-6 and just a game out of last place. This was after they won a head to head against last place Flyquest.

Echo Fox isn’t gong to join the clump towards the playoffs, and should be trying to stay out of the basement.

Yet ,we need to see somehing from the top teams. There has to be a contender emerging to face Liquid for the summer split title. It is ripe for the taking too. Yes, Liquid is playing better, but they are stil beatable. Just a couple weeks of 2-0 instead of 1-1 could really go far in giving C9 or TSM a push for the number one seed and a shot at worlds via a title instead of the regional tournament.

CLG and Optic are pretty much trying to play spoiler at this point. They could sneak in and steal the title if underestimated. I thing its unlikely, but they shouldn’t be slept on. They are playoff contendures for sure.

Should be interesting to see what shakes out after the off week of Rift rivals. Check out EU vs. NA if your looking for LCS action this weekend.

2019 NALCS Summer Split week two/three recap

S. Samek

So we missed a week of recap,but i’ll catch up here with week three as well.

Optic continued to surprise everyone by going 2-0 in week two. They beat Flyquest and CLG. Now thats two decent teams, but still not buying the hype.

C9 went 1-1 in week two losing to Golden Guardians and beating Echo Fox. A bit of an upset losing to GG,but not super surprising.

Golden Guardians also had a 1-1 week after losing to Clutch, prior to beating C9. A bit disappointing to have them lose to Clutch,but good to see this team beat an upper tier team like C9.

Team Liquid had a 1-1 week beating 100 Thieves and losing to CLG. It might seem a bit disappointing,but Liquid isn’t out of it yet.

TSM spilt the week with a win over Echo Fox after falling to Flyquest. Probably as expected, yet I feel they are a better team than Flyquest and should beat them most of the time. This just happened to be an unlucky occurrence for TSM.

Flyquest and CLG also had 1-1 weeks, which isn’t surprising for those two teams based on their week two opponents, beating TSM and Liquid respectively.

Echo Fox and 100 Thieves had the worst week with both going 0-2. neither team looked good and sit with one win combined through two weeks of play.

Rounding off our week two recap is Clutch gaming going 2-0. It is a bit surprising they beat both 100 Thieves and Golden Guardians. Yet with 100 Thieves struggling its an opportunity seized for Clutch to pick up a win.

Week three saw the standings tighten up. While it was a log jam during spring for the bottom spots, through three weeks its a crowed top of the standings.

Six teams sport 4-2 records through three weeks. C9, Optic,CLG,Golden Guardians, Team Liquid and TSM all claim to the best record.

Optic finally lost. They got beat by C9 and Liquid. The top tier teams definitely gave Optic a test to see if they are for real this split.

C9 Beat Optic,but lost to TSM. Not super supring sense TSM seems to be getting the best of C9 recently.

Team Liquid went 2-0,but with wins over Flyquest and Optic aren’t the toughest opponents avalible.

TSM went 2-0 with the C9 win and an additional win over Clutch. They are doing what they should be doing and winning games.

CLG picked up a 2-0 weekend by beating Echo Fox and GG. This is a good position to see CLG in as they are winning games like they should and beating some of the higher tier teams. CLG is on the rise.

Golden Guardians and Clutch both picked up a win and a loss during week three. Golden Guardians are still hanging on to a playoff birth,but didn’t look as dominate as they did in the past couple weeks.

Flyquest and Echo Fox had the goose eggs this weekend. Echo Fox is on a down ward trend and if they don’t do something soon they aren’t making playoffs. Same with Flyquest. As CLG , Golden Guardians, Clutch and Optic seem to be playing better they could take over the play off spots Echo Fox and Flyquest had during spring if they don’t improve.

100 Thieves finally got a win on the board. They did beat Echo Fox, so its not a super strong win, yet it is a win never the less. Sometimes its all you need to get something started. If they can add a couple weeks in a row of 2-0 they could start to climb out of last place and maybe steal a playoff spot if a few teams start to falter.

Its a race for the playoffs for sure. Should be interesting to see which teams are for real in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

2019 NALCS Summer Spilt Week one recap

S. Samek

Lets see what happened during week one.

C9, Optic and Golden Guardians had 2-0, undefeated weeks. C9 beating Flyquest and Clutch. Golden Guardians beat Echo Fox and Flyquest. Optic downed 100 Thieves and Clutch. C9 did what they were saposed to so no surprise on the 2-0 week. I don’t find the Golden Guardians at 2-0 a shock either. Optic is a bit of a surprise though. 1-1 would probably be the most probable record for them, based on their opponents for the week. I don’t think Optic continues this winning streak of undefeated weeks, but getting two wins in a week is always welcome.

CLG,TSM, Team Liquid and Echo Fox went 1-1 this week. Liquid losing to Echo Fox is a small upset, but I don’t think Liquid should be fearing for the split. Same with TSM. who lost the rematch from spring finals with Liquid. CLG performed as expected, by beating 100 Thieves and losing to TSM. Echo Fox could be sitting at 0-2, but by beating Liquid they have a nice bonus wins to work with.

100 Thieves, Flyquest and Clutch are left at the bottom at 0-2. Very surprised to see 100 Thieves here. Like I throught they should beat Optic. Flyquest in this postion isn’t a surprise as they lost to C9, a better team and Golden Guardians, who are as good if not better. Clutch could have beaten potentially beaten Optic, but maybe we going to move to Clutch being the worst team in the LCS.

Interesting first week with a couple of interesting stories possibly developing. Stay tuned to see what goes down.

2019 LEC Summer Split Power Rankings

S. Samek

We did NA, now lets do EU. Here are my predictions for the summer split of the LEC, where each team with finish during the regular season.

10.Rogue. they finished last at 2-16 in the spring. So make a total change and flip your roster by using the academy team that dominated. It could work. It could be a disaster. I’m betting its the second one.

9.Excel. 5-13 an din a lot of trouble. They added Hjarnan and Mickey. Good ,to try something less drastic than Rogue’s lineup,but its still not going to be enough to compete even for a playoff spot.

8.SK Gaming. Now this is a team that made the playoffs in spring. Yet i’m not entirely sure this team can keep up. Especially if Misfits come back to life and perform well. Its just a sort of confusing tea in my book. Also to note Sacre is the new staring top laner over Werlyb. Though I will admit a player to watch is Selfmade, he had a strong spring finishing on the second-team all LEC.

7.So4. They could surprise some people like last summer. I don’t know for sure though. Yet keep watching Upset as he rises in the adc rankings for the LEC. The lad took 2nd place all LEC last spilt and could propel So4 to a playoff spot.

6.Misfits. I think this team gets rolling again after a tough spring. Its just hard to not like this more established roster.

5.Vitality. They could contend for a worlds birth. Yet I guess much like Misfits and Splyce its is the roster strong enough to topple the favorites.CABOCHARD was the best top laner in the LEC last Split and should have something to say in favor of a Vitality run towards worlds like last season.

4.Splyce. The Snakes are in for an up hill battle. While good, they might have to stay home from the big stage of the world championship. Kobbe is the leader of this pack and after being named first-team LEC in the spring is the highlight of a strong team. Yet is it enough to over come two other strong teams,or even one other team to get a worlds spot.

3.Origin. They returned to the LEC and found success as runners-up. Nuke Duck continued the success he saw last year and earned a spot on the second -team all LEC. They are deadly, but not G2 ,or Fnatic deadly. You should still see them at worlds though.

2.Fnatic. Watch out for the return of the worlds finalist. They had three members make all LEC in a split that started out aweful, but ended up in a third place finish. They will absolutely give Origin a good fight and deserve a right to try and dethrone G2.

1.G2. Dominate and champions of MSI 2019. They have Caps, the reigning MVP. Jankos and Mikyx join Caps on the all LEC first-team at their respective potions. Wunder was on the second -team. They just have the best lineup in EU right now and should contend for a world title this year, after missing out in semi-finals at last years worlds.

Check out the action starting this weekend.

Mitch Keller Debut

S. Samek

Someone we follow a lot on this blog is Mitch Keller, the at the moment number one ranked prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates Organization.

He has had that title for a while, as he has been rising in the system sense his second round drafting in 2014.

This season through 10 starts hes 5-1 with a 3.40 era in 53 inning pitched. He has struck out 61 and walked 22 with hitters at .253 against him average-wise. Maybe the numbers don’t look dominant, but those are still solid and consistent numbers, plus winning games is always a good thing.

The majors finally called on May 27,2019 against Cincinnati.

The first inning was awful. He gave up six runs. The he shut down the Red for three more innings with seven strikeouts against two walks.

A mixed bag of a start if you ask me. Like the first inning is a very much welcome to the show shelling of a rookie pitcher. Then to shut it down and limit the damage I think shows a real mature approach to bounce back after a slow start. Granted Cincinnati doesn’t have the most dangerous line-up,but does have a hitter friendly yard. Could have been a lot worse with baseballs leaving the yard.

So while the start was ok, it showed Keller still has a bit to improve on. Yet I tdon’t think we have seen the last of him this season. I expect to see him back in September as a call-up.

2019 NALCS Summer Power Rankings

S. Samek

Here it is the return of the LCS for the summer split. Its also the return of Hammer down sports blog.

Anyway lets see where I think each team will finish this split.

10. Optic. Now this team finished tied for 7th last spilt. Yet they don’t look like a put togther roster that can contend for even playoffs. Dardoch, who might be the best talent on this team is splitting time and the rest of the roster is inconsistent at best. I just don’t have much confidence in this team.

9.Clutch. These guys are barely better than Optic. They finished 5-13 last spit and in 9th place. Yet they tired to change it up by moving Cody Sun into the starting roster. While Optic just stuck with the same roster. If a couple other teams get better I can see Optic falling further than Clutch. its just another roster that is inconsistent.

8.Echo Fox. Well its a more consistent, if not star powered roster. They did make the play offs in spring, yet I don’t see that happening. This was the team that benefitted from a couple teams having disastrous splits in spring. Yet if thse two turn it around its Echo Fox sitting out of the playoffs.

7.CLG. This is a team that underperformed in the spring. So they went out and did something about it. Ruin is in to replace Darshan in the top lane. This should be an interesting replacement as Ruin comes over from Turkish league team 1907 Fenerbahçe. It could be similar to TSM and Broken Blade and if thats the case CLG is making playoffs. I Still like how consistent the mid and bot lanes are even with the jungle and top being the question marks. Yet I would rather have this roster than the prior three mentioned teams.

6.100 Thieves. Ouch what a bad spring. Yet I don’t think its going to happen again. 100 sighned Amazing to jungle and called up Soligo from academy to play mid lane. Those were the two most questionable spots on the roster. Yet with top and bot lanes being still solid it might not matter. Just play through the other two lanes and don’t let mid fall too far behind and you have something. This is a playoff team they just have to play like it.

5.Golden Guardians. The team made some moves in the off-season and it payed off. They made the playoffs after back to back last place finishes last season. This is a team looking for more, but with out super high expectations. They might even be the fourth best team here. The only question is can they get even better and go toe to toe with the big three of Liquid, TSM and C9.

4.Flyquest. Solid if not spectacular this roster did enough to claim fourth last split. Yet it seems like they are in an odd spot. Like I don’t feel like this is a top three team, yet its not like they should be at the bottom. Though Golden Guardians maybe able to over take them and claim the four spot. Though it is worth noting Viper had a great rookie spit and won outstanding rookie of the spring 2019 split so there is a prospect to rebuild the roster around if the aging core starts to decline. Though this roster is at least more consistent than the later half of the LCS and should be able to contend every week.

3. C9. This was a tough decision to put them in this slot. TSM and C9 are both excellent teams. The core that finished forth at worlds is still in tact and performing well, even with Nisqy in for Jensen. In fact they tied Liquid for the best regular season record in spring 2019. This team only loses out to TSM from the head to head playoff match up from spring that TSM took. Its still a roster that can contend with anyone and should make a easy case for a spot at worlds. Even if they have to win a series or two in the regional finals like they always do.

2.TSM. So close, but yet not enough. So lets make a change. Grig is returning to the roster. It’s nice to have a second strong jungler, but is it enough to surpass Liquid. I’m not entirely sure it is. Yet with Zven, Smoothie and Bjergsen this line-up still looks deadly. Also worth keeping an eye on Broken Blade, who had a good first split in NA, finishing on the third team all LCS. TSM is out to take on all comers and should be representing LCS at worlds after this spit is over. The only question is which seed.

1.Team Liquid. First place finish in the last three splits and fresh off a finals birth at MSI. Complete with a series win over IG gaming, the current world champs. This roster didn’t have a player finish less than a 2nd team all LCS and had three of them finish as members of the first team. CoreJJ highlighted this by receiving the MVP award for the split. They could be challenged by TSM or C9 for first, but can take them on. No reason not to like TL to win a forth straight spilt.

There it is my power rankings heading into week one. Which is taking place this weekend. Stay tuned for further recaps and to see how accurate this list is at the end of the split.