The North American Championship Series kicks off January 26, 2019. The talk of the rift has been which team won and which team lost the off season. There were a ton of roster changes due to trades, import space,and budgeting. The big question on a lot of minds is if NA jungler 'Dardoch' will even play this split. While speculation continues here is my preseason power rankings.
1. Team Liquid
At the top of what I would expect most peoples list is Team Liquid. TL built a super team this season picking up Cloud 9's mid laner 'Jensen' and Korean jungler and former worlds champion 'CoreJJ'. Liquid was already a strong team to begin with winning summer split 2018 and are projected for a strong finish this spring 2019 split. Anything less than top two would be considered unsuccessful.
2. 100 Thieves
Similar to Team Liquid, the 100 Thieves also picked up a Korean superstar, but in the bot lane position in 'Bang'. 'Bang' is a former two time worlds champion and looks to find success in NA. 100T also picked up mid laner 'Huhi' from Counter Logic Gaming.
3. Cloud 9
NA's last hope return to the land of red, white, and blue after their semi-final showing at Worlds 2018. Riding high off their success the team looks to do well in the upcoming split. Cloud 9 is one of the most diverse teams in NA and have shown many times that they can pull out a top spot when things look bad. With the release of 'Jensen' C9 replaced him with European mid laner 'Nisqy'.
4. FlyQuest
I have high hopes for FlyQuest this season. With the additions of top laner 'V1per' and mid laner 'Pobelter' the team looks to improve greatly from their sixth place finish in 2018 summer and this is the line up to do it with. I might be over-predicting, by putting them at fourth, but look for the team to make some massive improvement.
5. Team Solo Mid
Once a dominant organization, TSM has struggled as of late. Being the biggest name in North American League of Legends TSM will want to turn this unsuccessful stream around. Having not qualified for Worlds 2018 the team revamped their roster with top laner 'Broken Blade', jungler 'Akaadian', and support player 'Smoothie'. While on paper this looks like a strong lineup, I can't imagine all the previous issues are going to be resolved with new players.
6. Golden Guardians
After having an unsuccessful debut season Golden Guardians look to be on an upward path in the previous splits. Their games have gotten consistently better, and with some veterans now in the lineup, I think they have a chance at making playoffs. The new additions to the lineup are top laner 'Hauntzer', mid laner 'Froggen', and support player 'Olleh'.
7. Clutch Gaming
Just missing the play off spot I have Clutch Gaming. This is my least confident pick heading into the season due to the new additions to the team. The lineup now consists of top laner 'Huni', mid laner 'Damonte', bot laner and worlds champion 'Piglet', and support player 'Vulvan'. While this looks to be a strong team, bringing in this many new players that all speak different primary languages may lead to communication issues within the team.
8. Echo Fox
FOX quite like Clutch Gaming went through a massive roster change and are near the bottom of the list for the same reasons. Bringing in two top laners in 'Solo' and 'Lourlo', jungler 'Rush', mid laner 'Fexnis', bot laner 'Apollo', and support player 'Hakuho' the team might not gel together right away. However, 'Solo', 'Apollo', and 'Hakuho' all previously played with each other on Clutch Gaming in the previous season.
9. Optic Gaming
OG's roster went through some changes, but ultimately I can't see it being a huge improvement. Acquiring self proclaimed super star jungler 'Meteos' and worlds champion mid laner 'Crown', I can't see the team being better than mediocre. If the meta favours OG look for them to be a playoff team.
10. Counter Logic Gaming
Rounding out the bottom of the list is CLG. The team didn't make any eye opening acquisitions and if anything don't look as strong as the struggling roster they had last year. The team added jungler 'Wiggily' and mid laner 'PowerofEvil'. I don't have high expectations for the team.
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