With week one kicking off in North America, many unanswered questions were on the minds of everyone watching. Can Team Solo Mid continue their NA domination? Can Cloud9, with the addition of a new mid, return to dominance? Can Counter Logic Gaming continue their early split success? Can Team Impulse’s solo lane dominance, carry them to the top? Can Enemy Esports or Team Dragon Knights, the newcomers, establish themselves as a threat in NA LCS.  Those questions and more, begin to be answered.  The NA LCS standings after one week of action, look like this:

1. Counter Logic Gaming (2-0) 2. Team Liquid (2-0) 3. Cloud9 (1-1) 4. Enemy Esports (1-1) 5. Gravity (1-1) 6. Team Dignitas (1-1) 7. Team Impulse (1-1) 8. Team Solo Mid (1-1) 9. Team 8 (0-2) 10. Team Dragon Knights (0-2)

The beginning of a new split brings new chances for players and teams, and no team needed a new start more than Counter Logic Gaming.  Coming off yet another disappointing playoff finish, CLG and a new mid looked to begin their shot at redemption.  In the first week of the NA LCS, no team looked better than CLG.  They began the split with a very convincing win over Team Dignitas, one in which CLG would not allow DIG to take a single turret.   The next day CLG faced off vs. Team Impulse, one of the summer split favorites.  After trailing early in the game CLG, was able to come back and pull out a victory.  Leading the way for CLG against TIP was new mid laner Pobelter.  Pobelter’s strong Azir (9/1/10) play, along with fellow carry Doublelift’s Kallista (12/4/11), proved too much for TIP to handle.  Once again CLG finds itself in a familiar position at the top to start a split.

The only other team to finish week one at 2 and 0, was Team Liquid.   After a rough opening to spring split, Team Liquid looked determined to not begin summer in the same fashion.  In Liquid’s first game, they were able to take an easy victory off summer newcomers, Team Dragon Knights.  Piglet would lead the way with a devastating Kallista (9/1/4).  The next day would be a totally different story however.  On the 2nd day of week one, Liquid would face Team 8.  After falling behind for most of the game, Liquid was able to take team fights late in the game.   Quas’s fantastic Rumble ultimates (9/3/8), as well as a good game from Fenix on Casseiopea (8/4/10) led Liquid back from a deficit to take their 2nd win of the summer split.  Team Liquid top laner Quas would take home the week one MVP award finishing with a 9.0 KDA (15/4/21), with 80% kill participation over their wins.

Cloud9 came into summer with a lot of expectations, as well as questions about how they would perform.  Having made the first roster change in the team’s history, the new mid laner Nicolaj “Incarnati0n” Jensen, and the team would face off with defending NA champs Team Solo Mid.  The start would not be easy as Incarnati0n fell very far behind in his first game in North America.  However Cloud9 would hold together as a team, and continue to hang on in a close game. That would give Incarnati0n’s Kogmaw (5/2/9) a chance to scale back into the game.  After some positioning mistakes from TSM, and very good ultimates from Balls’ Rumble (2/2/11), Cloud9 was able to take their first win of the summer.  Balls’ Rumble moves to 17-0 in NA LCS play.  The 2nd game of Cloud9’s summer split, would not go as smoothly.  Cloud9 would face Team Dignitas on the 2nd day of week 1.  Team Dignitas coming off a game in which they would not take a single turret, would go on to return the favor to Cloud9.  Led by early aggression from their jungler Azingy’s Zac (5/0/7), Dignitas would go on to dominate Cloud9 all over the rift and take their first win of summer.

As one of the newcomers in NA, Enemy Esports looked to begin their LCS debut with a strong showing.  In their first game of NA LCS, Enemy would face a stiff challenge in Gravity.  Though trailing gold, Enemy would continue to come ahead in team fights.  With their adc Otter leading the way with an incredible Vayne (10/1/6), Enemy was able to overcome a gold deficit to take their first win of the LCS.  The challenges for enemy would not get any easier however, as their 2nd game would come against the defending champion Team Solo Mid.  Though a valiant effort came from the rookie Enemy Esports, TSM would thoroughly dominate the game.  Team Solo Mid star player Bjergsen, played a fantastic game on newly re-enable Viktor (6/2/6), rendering the rookies obsolete.

Also in the middle of the pack after week one is Team Impulse.  The first game for TIP could not have turned out much better.  In a dominating win vs. Team 8, TIP’s solo lane strengths shone bright.  With an incredible and interesting game from TIP top laner Impact’s, bami cinder, first item Yasuo (8/1/10).  TIP would snowball over Team 8 in very easy fashion.  After their first win, TIP would go on to drop their 2nd game to CLG.

The last .500 team after week one is Gravity.  After a tough loss in their first game of summer in which they never trailed in gold, Gravity looked to get back on track against Team Dragon Knights.  The game began with a curveball as Gravity mid laner Keane brought out the mid lane Malphite (1/1/8).   Keane’s Malphite engages along with top laner Hauntzer’s Hecarim (6/1/7) led Gravity to the win.  Team Dragon Knights had a rough opening week in the LCS finishing 0-2.  Brighter days could be ahead for TDK however as week one, they were forced to play with subs because of visa issues for a few players.  Along with with TDK at the bottom of the standing is Team 8, after dropping a tough game where a large gold lead was squandered.  Both Team 8 and TDK will be fielding slightly different rosters in week 2.  They will both need to move quickly to synergize with their new lineups in order to climb out of the bottom of the NA LCS standings.

Follow the author for more content at @24sah. Image courtesy of Riot Games.