LCS power rankings: 2022 Spring Split week 2

The 2022 LCS regular season is well underway, and the landscape of this year’s North American League of Legends scene is becoming a bit clearer. Throughout these two weeks, a line has been drawn between the teams that are built for the LCS stage and those that are quickly falling behind the eight-ball. The Lock In tournament gave us a few clues regarding the teams that were cut out to be contenders, but the regular season is making it much more clear that certain teams have long-term staying power on the LCS stage. 

While we’re not ready to make any heavy, long-lasting claims based on just two weeks of play, we’re still comfortable ranking the teams of the LCS based on their results in the 2022 season thus far. With that in mind, here are our LCS power rankings after two weeks of play in the regular season.

How the mighty have fallen: TSM, CLG

Remember when TSM and CLG used to be two of the best teams in North America? Unfortunately for the loyal fans of both these organizations, those glory days are all but a distant memory now. As for expectations, however, one side is taking this four-game losing streak a little bit rougher than the other.

For CLG, this might not be too surprising. The organization finally pressed the big red button to wipe the slate clean this past offseason, breaking down and rebuilding the team from the ground up. In 2022, the team opted into a lineup with NA Academy mainstays like Jenkins, Palafox, Poome, and Contractz, while also hedging their future on a promising rookie marksman in Luger. It’ll take some time for this team to build a foundation for the relatively unproven roster and new coaching staff, so four losses at the start of the split is expected.

TSM, on the other hand, is much more shocking. Yes, they signed two young players from the LDL in Keaiduo and Shenyi, but they still have the reigning league MVP on the roster in Spica. The org also has veteran star top laner Huni, and one of the region’s best young talents with Tactical in the bottom lane. On paper, this team shouldn’t be losing against lineups with less firepower like Golden Guardians and FlyQuest, and yet they’ve found nothing but gray screens. It won’t get any easier either, with games against C9, 100 Thieves, and Liquid in the next two weeks.

In an attempt to help Shenyi “adjust to NA,” TSM also sent Shenyi down to its Academy roster while Yursan takes his place for now. We’ll see how this shift will affect their performance in the next two games.

Movin’ up: Immortals, Golden Guardians

Golden Guardians and Immortals had a substantially better week two, as both teams have climbed up in the power rankings. Though still outside the playoff picture, week two showed that these squads have the potential to contend with the rest of the LCS.

Golden Guardians recovered from their initial 0-2 week with a perfect second showing, keeping both CLG and TSM winless. The team improved its teamfighting and objective control immensely. From week one to week two, Golden Guardians raised the team’s combined KD from 0.50 to 1.35, dragon control rate from 22 to 73 percent, and gold differential at 15 minutes from 309 to 3,865, according to Oracle’s Elixir. 

Golden Guardians are undoubtedly the LCS’ most improved team thus far, and one major reason for this sudden shift comes from the squad’s new jungler. Pridestalker was allowed his comfort pick, Zed, in both games and worked wonders on the champion. After week two, the Dutch jungler emerged with the highest DPM (511), kill share (34.5 percent), and the second highest damage percentage out of all junglers. 

Immortals picked up their first win of the year in week two—and against the reigning LCS champions, no less. In their win against 100 Thieves, Immortal’s side laners took over the game from the onset. Immortals are far from a perfect team, however; Xerxe and PowerOfEvil have yet to unlock their expected mid and jungle synergy. The team has a clear ability to punch above their weight, but Immortals need to string together a few more consistent performances to climb further in the rankings.

Breakthrough candidates: FlyQuest, Dignitas

The first two weeks of the 2022 LCS Spring Split have been defined by both the fall of former championship-winning organizations, and the rise of those that have long sat on the sidelines. Two teams that have exceeded expectations thus far are FlyQuest and Dignitas, both demonstrating the potential their new rosters have to be part of the current five-way tie for first place.

FlyQuest entered the second week of the Spring Split undefeated and uncontested in first place, done through both the Smite support top strategy as well as more standard compositions. Toucouille and Johnsun continued to shine against TSM, ending the first day with a combined 16/1/18 KDA to wrap up a completely one-sided game. But the poke between Bwipo and Bjergsen was too much for FlyQuest to handle against Team Liquid, bringing an end to the undefeated streak but still making them look like viable contenders for the top of the LCS.

Dignitas ended their weekend in a similar situation, going 1-1 against Evil Geniuses and CLG. Falling to EG did not make Dignitas look like the lesser team—if anything, it proved that they belong at the top. While they ultimately squandered their lead, River’s aggressive jungling throughout the early game gave Dignitas multiple dragons and Rift Heralds that forced EG to stay on their toes—resulting in a game with very little deaths on both sides. Luckily for Dignitas, their second match against CLG allowed them to showcase these strategies once more, but this time successfully.

For the first time in quite a while, the futures of both FlyQuest and Dignitas look very bright. The new iterations of these teams have the tools to take down the toughest competition the LCS has to offer, and that top spot is in reach for them both.

Movers and shakers: Cloud9, Evil Geniuses

Cloud9 continue to draft with intention, and that’s a good thing for their fans and for the region. Yes, Blaber’s Karthus was weird, but the rest of the draft made sense in a vacuum, and putting the best jungler in NA on a fundamentally different champion stylistically than what he’s used to will look doubly bad against a team like Liquid. Then Blaber got put back on Xin Zhao and, against Immortals, it all went swimmingly. As LCS analyst Emily Rand noted in her weekly 10 Thoughts column, C9 have played 19 unique picks out of 20 “slots” (only Berserker has repeated a pick, and it was Aphelios). If nothing else, C9 are going to be the most fun team to watch in the LCS this season if this play continues.

With losses to Worlds hopefuls 100 Thieves and C9, the young EG have the best-looking 2-2 record in the LCS and find themselves firmly in our top four this week. And while that win over TSM is looking worse and worse as Spica’s squad continues to tumble, EG handed Dignitas their only loss of the year so far. And perhaps most encouragingly, jojopyun was a huge part of the reason why, even on a Corki pick that everyone fell out of love with in Patch 12.3. Look, the Lock In tournament still happened. Danny still has two(!) pentakills in two weeks and hasn’t even played a full year’s worth of LCS games. Impact is a monster and can play anything you put him on. This team will be just fine. Whether they’ll finish in the top three is a different question entirely, but they are without a doubt one of the top four teams in the region. And they’re just getting started.

Hot starts: Team Liquid, 100 Thieves

Liquid and 100 Thieves both hit the ground running in the regular season, with the two teams each winning three of their first four games to start the Spring Split. Liquid’s only loss came at the hands of 100 Thieves on the first day of the season, while 100 Thieves fell at the hands of a relatively weaker Immortals team this past week. 

Liquid and 100 Thieves each have players on their roster who are busting out of the gate to claim the title of “best player in the league” early into the course of the 2022 season. With names like Bwipo, Bjergsen, Closer, and FBI already posting stat lines worthy of the league’s highest honor, they’re on pace to dominate the league throughout the entirety of 2022. To add even more firepower, Liquid will be presumably bringing in CoreJJ to the starting lineup as early as this weekend now that the veteran support has received a U.S. Permanent Resident Card (green card), and his presence on stage alongside Liquid’s usual starters will no longer violate the LCS’ import restrictions. 

Still, with how early the regular season is, we’re taking on-paper strength and previous results in mind, and no two teams have a higher proven pedigree than 100 Thieves and Liquid. Combine the relative strength of their rosters with their undeniably strong starts to the regular season and it’s hard to make a case for any two other teams occupying the top bracket of this week’s power rankings.