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With the League of Legends Spring Split just a few months away, it's time to analyze and rank the teams based on offseason acquisitions. Teams have made multiple changes across the league to rosters and coaching staffs.
The changes were made in hopes of becoming the champions of the 2021 spring split. Without a doubt, many teams also have their eyes set on worlds, but the rankings below are for the spring split.
The League of Legends North American LCS Rankings
#10 Immortals
Top: Mohamed "Revenge" Kaddoura
Jungle: Andrei "Xerxe" Dragomir
Mid: David "Insanity" Challe
Bot: Quin "Raes" Korebrits
Support: Mitchell "Desitny" Shaw
Coach: André "Guilhoto" Pereira Guilhoto
This roster has very few recognizable names to NA fans. This fact does not necessarily mean that a weak roster is present though. In fact, this roster may just surprise everyone in NA with a stellar performance, but that is unlikely.
With only two of the five active members having real professional experience, it is hard to see this roster preforming well in its first split. The coach, Guilhoto, comes from the LEC where he coached Giants, FC Schalke 04, Origen, and Astralis. His familiarity with Destiny and Xerxr may prove useful, but expectations are low.
#9 Dignitas
Top: Aaron "FakeGod" Lee
Jungle: Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett
Mid: Max "Soligo" Soong
Bot: Toàn "Neo" Trần
Support: Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black
Coach: Jimmy "Jimmy" Harrison
A roster filled with unproven names and some highly respected veterans, Dignitas will likely underperform this spring.
While fans of Aphromoo may be optimistic, his lane partner is a player who has been up and down from academy rosters across multiple teams. Dardoch may prove to be the hero, or the downfall of this roster as he is known for being a toxic teammate.
Fans will have to wait and see if his patience with this young roster is long enough to find success. Perhaps Aphromoo can prove to be Dardoch's muse when he starts going on tilt.
#8 FlyQuest
Top: Eric "Licorice" Ritchie
Jungle: Brandon "Josedeodo" Joel Villegas
Mid: Cristian "Palafox" Palafox
Bot: Johnson "Johnsun" Nguyen
Support: David "Diamond" Bérubé
Coach: Lamine-Lounis "Paul" Khouani & Alexey "Sharkz" Taranda
Following a bright 2020 season in which they reached the NA LCS Finals for the first time as an organization, FlyQuest lost a majority of their roster and were forced to rebuild.
The addition of Licorice is enough to keep them out of the bottom two power rankings, but there are questions. Any team who has an almost full roster exodus either has a questionable team culture or really bad luck.
Fans can expect to see middling success, but playoffs are definitely a longshot for this desperately thrown together roster.
#7 Counter Logic Gaming
Top: Finn "Finn" Wiestål
Jungle: Mads "Broxah" Brock-Pedersen
Mid: Eugene "Pobelter" Park
Bot: Jason "WildTurtle" Tran
Support: Andy "Smoothie" Ta
Coach: Galen "Galen" Holgate
CLG will have a lot to prove this season as their roster is filled with LCS and LEC veterans alike. While all these veterans have found success in the pros in some way, it has never lasted with any of their teams.
Fans of CLG know how long it has been since they've tasted lasting success. This roster has the experience, but does it have the chemistry and ability to keep up with the faster pace of modern League of Legends?
This roster has a chance at playoffs if they get off to a hot start, but fans should not be too hopeful for a title if these players aren't consistently playing at their best.
#6 100 Thieves
Top: Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho
Jungle: Can "Closer" Çelik
Mid: Tanner "Damonte" Damonte
Bot: Ian "FBI" Victor Huang
Support: Choi "huhi" Jae-hyun
Coach: Anthony "Zikz" Gray & Ham "Lustboy" Jang-sik
The 100 Thieves have consistently been a revolving door for big name players hoping to capture a title with a big money backed organization. They may have finally put together a roster that can earn them a coveted title.
Fans will be relieved to see their anchor Ssumday remain in the top lane and the coach Zikz. The rest of the roster is rounded out with veterans who have not tasted an NA LCS title, but are certainly hungry for it.
The 100 Thieves will either have a great year with a definitive top four seed into playoffs or will find themselves at the bottom of the table with their players not being able to preform as well as other veterans.
#5 Golden Guardians
Top: Aiden "Niles" Tidwell
Jungle: Ethan "Iconic" Wilkinson
Mid: Nicholas "Abalzeolive" Antonic Abbott
Bot: Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes
Support: Leandro "Newbie" Marcos
Coach: Nicholas "Inero" Smith
While some fans may feel uneasy going into this season, the Golden Guardians have compiled some of the most promising rookies in all of the LCS.
Both Niles and Iconic are products of Maryville University, the winners of the Riot Collegiate tournament this past year. This makes these rookies a little more familiar with the bright lights of competition coming into the LCS.
This promising roster could shake the NA LCS with some serious upset wins throughout the season. Or they could fall completely flat and preform like most rookies. Only time will tell.
#4 Evil Geniuses
Top: Jeong "Impact" Eon-young
Jungle: Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen
Mid: Daniele "Jiizuke" di Mauro
Bot: Matthew "Deftly" Chen
Support: Lee "IgNar" Dong-geun
Coach: Peter Dun
Having finished last season in 3rd place, EG is looking for continued success in 2021. Fans can expect a similar level of play from an improved roster.
Though the departure of Huni from the top lane hurts, his replacement, Impact, leaves EG with a more reliable, team oriented top laner. Impact will compliment the fiery Jiizuke's playstyle more so than Huni ever did, which will lead to a better overall roster.
A playoff berth from the Evil Geniuses should not be surprising this split. Fans could possibly even turn their eyes towards worlds if this roster performs at its best.
#3 Cloud9
Top: Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami
Jungle: Robert "Blaber" Huang
Mid: Luka "Perkz" Perković
Bot: Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen
Support: Philippe "Vulcan" Laflamme
Coach: Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin
Cloud9 has consistently made playoffs and often been NA's best hope at worlds for as long as fans can remember. This year should be no different.
With the addition of Perkz from G2 Esports, Cloud9 has injected a huge amount of hype into its fan base. Fans should be expecting C9 to have an exciting year filled with quick victories through a dominant mid/jungle duo.
The only reason Cloud9 will falter is their somewhat unknown top laner Fudge. Hopefully he is able to keep up with the pace of the rest of the roster in a region filled with talented top laners.
#2 Team Solo Mid
Top: Heo "Huni" Seugn-hoon
Jungle: Mingyi "Spica" Lu
Mid: Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage
Bot: Lawrence "Lost" Sze Yuy Hui
Support: Hu "SwordArt" Shuo-Chieh
Coach: Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg & Anand "Curry" Agarwal
It seemed like the future of the organization's success in the LCS was in question when long time mid laner, Bjergsen, announced his retirement from professional play. However, it seems Bjergsen was still hungry for victory in a different way.
Enter Coach Bjergsen. Team Solo Mid secured their long term success by enlisting Bjergsen as a coach and allowing him to influence the formation of an extremely formidable roster.
With the addition of PowerOfEvil, a control style mid laner similar to Bjergsen, and the superstar Huni in the top lane, TSM has given their fans some peace of mind.
Fans can expect the usual playoff berth from TSM and a very likely finals spot, barring the worst case scenario - a team without cohesion and an inability of the coaching staff to bring these players together like a well oiled machine.
#1 Team Liquid
Top: Barney "Alphari" Morris
Jungle: Lucas "Santorin" Tao Kilmer Larsen
Mid: Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen
Bot: Edward "Tactical" Ra
Support: Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in
Coach: Joshua "Jatt" Leesman
The fans of Team Liquid can finally witness a season in which the 4th meme will be crushed and forgotten. The roster put together by caster turned balance team turned caster turned coach, Jatt, is one to be feared by the entire NA LCS.
The team may as well be called "No Rookies Allowed" because every member of the roster is a well respected veteran with a phenomenal pedigree. This may be one of the most consistent rosters NA will ever see.
With a selfless top laner like Alphari, fans can expect to see a lot of highlight plays between Santorin and Jensen in the mid lane. These plays will inevitably lead to an unstoppable snowball driven by CoreJJ's strategic mind.
Fans can expect this team to consistently win throughout the split and find themselves winning Team Liquids first NA LCS title, though TL may lack the explosive playstyle required to win at worlds.
