by Tanner Kinney As I write these articles, I start to learn more about how to actually be an analyst. For one, in the word count I like to maintain with these articles, I can’t be as in-depth as I’d like. For two, it’s easier to judge a team when you actually have time to fully watch every game. You can miss a lot by just looking at results and highlight reels. My power rankings last week were probably a bit, well... I admit I made a few mistakes. Not a day goes by that I don’t call myself a fraud. As once said by the famous George Lucas, “I may have gone too far in a few places.” You can never count out the underdogs. Though, since they are in the middle of the standings, they aren’t huge underdogs. So, like middledogs? Is that a thing? It is now. As the last few weeks shake out, there seem to be three tiers: the top two, the bottom two (or three), and then everyone else in the middle. At the top, of course, you have Echo Fox and C9. At the bottom, you have the meme teams of Golden Guardians and OpTic Gaming, along with Counter Logic Gaming if you don’t have #faith. And then, in that juicy, delicious middle bit, you have all the crazy teams. Team Solomid seem to go back and forth between trash tier and kings. 100 Thieves have hit their stride again. And Clutch, Team Liquid, and even FlyQuest (sometimes) have had enough good showings to be legitimate threats. Momentum is huge in the LCS, though, so let’s take a look at a couple of teams who are riding high off impressive 2-0 weeks and see what they can translate going into the wild west of Patch 8.4, especially compared to their brothers in the middle of the pack.

Team SoloMalcolm in the Middle

100 Kings is better than Clown 9, mathematically

Games to Watch