The first week of the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split brought us plenty of excitement. With Patch 8.11, the traditional meta has been completely turned on its head. We first saw the craziness happen in another regions, and North America was no exception when we saw our first matches last weekend.
There were funneling compositions, role swaps, lane swaps, and champions we haven’t seen played in years in North America. When the dust settled on the week, there still wasn’t a clear consensus on the meta either. That should make the matches this weekend interesting as well.
2018 NA LCS Summer Split Betting Odds (Courtesy of BetDSI)
Team Liquid -175
Counter Logic Gaming +128
One of the few teams that didn’t go too much against the grain in the first week was Counter Logic Gaming. CLG played Ornn in the top lane and had a bottom lane of Ezreal and Braum in both games. The only cheeky thing they did was play Renekton in the mid lane, but that turned out poorly. They could have gone 2-0 in spite of their predictability, but they blew a big gold lead in a loss to TSM.
As for Liquid, they used two completely different strategies in their two matches. In the first, they rode Doublelift in an AD Carry role, just like they had done for most of spring, and that turned out to be successful. However, they changed it up in the next match and played Vladimir in the bottom lane and Xin Zhao in the jungle, and that didn’t work as well.
Ezreal is going to be heavily prioritized in this one if the champion isn’t banned away outright. Look for both teams to play more standard compositions too.
Team SoloMid -227
Clutch Gaming +167
My pick to win the Summer Split was TSM, and they rewarded my faith in Week 1. TSM was able to win with two different compositions, and that versatility is going to pay off in a big way early in the season. Provided Zven and Mithy keep playing the way they did in the first week, this will continue to be the team to beat.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see something unexpected out of Clutch here. Febiven is their superstar, and they may try to run a funneling strategy with him and ask him to carry. Those strategies have been very hit or miss.
Echo Fox -455
OpTic Gaming +304
The most exciting team of the first week was Echo Fox. Echo Fox showed more creativity than any other team by a mile, running Dr. Mundo into the bottom lane and switching their top lane and jungler around. They were rewarded with two wins and seem to have a really good hold on this meta.
However, they should not be favored by this much. There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding what works and what doesn’t, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see Echo Fox try something that failed. OpTic has a great mid laner in PowerOfEvil, and he can carry the day.
100 Thieves -208
FlyQuest +154
The team that loses this match is going to be in a pretty big hole. These were the only two teams that failed to win a game in the first week, so the loser here will be in the cellar on Saturday night. 100 Thieves are the deserved favorite based on their success in the summer, but they shouldn’t be this big of a favorite considering the meta has moved against them. They should be closer to a -140 favorite, so take FlyQuest at this price.
Cloud9 -207
Golden Guardians +153
The story here is whether or not Cloud9’s starters will return to the line-up this week. Jensen, Sneaky, and Smoothie have all been playing on Cloud9’s Academy team, and we haven’t received word on whether or not they will re-join the main roster in Week 2. That will influence the line here, so keep an eye out for an official announcement.
