2018 was the inaugural season for the NA LCS franchising. You had 6 returning teams and 4 newly created teams. Out of the teams that did not return, everyone was expecting Immortals to make it into franchising, but their organization fell short in the application process. The organization was a model for success for the past 2 years and even made it to Worlds last year. Their players were highly sought after with 3 of them (Xmithie, Pobelter, and Olleh) going to Team Liquid, Flame going to Fly Quest, and Cody Sun eventually landing in 100 Thieves, after a short stop with Team Liquid. The roster shuffles did not stop there, we had Zven/Mithy come from Europe to TSM, Doublelift forming a super team with Team Liquid, Huni coming back to North America from Korea to join Echo Fox, and Aphromoo leading the new 100 Thieves, just to name a few.
Early season predictions had your usual C9, CLG, and TSM are the top of the standings, while EF and TL were teams that had a lot of potential but people were expecting their teams to implode at some point in the season. None of the newly formed teams had much expectations other than a few making it into the playoffs. The season started with a bang with C9 and EF taking the early spots at the top, then you had a whole bunch of teams bunch up in mediocrity including 100T, CG, CLG, TL, and TSM. CLG went on a huge 6 game losing streak in the middle of the season and basically eliminated themselves from playoff contention. 100T made a super run in the 2nd half of the split to steal 1st place from EF in a 1st/2nd tie-breaker. TSM and TL seemed to find their groove late, while C9 dropped the ball and ended up in a 4-way tie with them and CG, where TSM came out in 3rd, TL in 4th, C9 in 5th, and then CG in 6th.
Playoffs started with a new sense of energy as everyone started with a clean state and it was now a Best of 5 series instead of the Best of 1s from the regular season. The same narrative was spreading through the community as TSM showed signs of greatness and this was their time to shine with all the experience they had. TL, which probably had the most talented line-up, were looking to prove to the rest of the league that they were different from all those other contenders of the past. It was a strange series to say the least with C9 taking leads in every single game but TL out macroing them in the mid game to sweep the series. The turning point of this series was wondering a stretch in Game 1 where TL macro their way from a 10k deficit to a baron powerplay. The other quarter-finals was TSM vs CG, where no one gave CG a chance; maybe predicted sweep, while some gave CG 1 game. TSM won Game 1 convincingly and everyone was confident, maybe too confident. In Game 2, TSM allowed Hakuko to pick up Thresh, who has big game changing potential with his hooks, and oh did he chance the game. He popped off in Game 2 and Game 3 and Game 4... You think that eventually they would have banned out this champion and force him to play someone else but for whatever reason they did not and paid the ultimate price. TSM was not making it to another finals, or even semi-finals for that matter; their streak was over and it came crashing down. Another streak was also broke with CLG, C9 and now TSM all eliminated, the old guard was broken and a new (4th) championship team was about to the join them in the rafters.
With dynamic reseeding, 1st place 100T faced 6th place CG and 2nd place EF faced 4th place TL. Every team had to have felt that they had a chance at the championship; two series wins was what was separating them and a championship. Team Liquid were favored against Echo Fox due to the current meta and team play styles and again they showed exceptional macro throughout the series. EF was not a team to sleep on due to their fire power duo of Huni and Dardoch and they took Game 2 to really make this a series, but TL adjusted and could not be stopped winning the series convincingly 3-1. Maybe teams during the week had already been praising TL for their strong scrim sessions. 100 Thieves vs Clutch Gaming was a battle of two new bloods and it was their chance to establish themselves. Neiteverthee to the teams had the fire power of the previous series, but it was still a slug fest of a series; back and forth blows with everyone stepping up and performing at times until Game 5 which was one of the longest ever in playoffs. The teams were so evenly matched that Game 5 was a microcosm of the series with CG taking a small early lead but 100T stabilizing and pushing the game into late game, which is an understatement. Everyone was on 6 items, some even without boots, and multiple banners on each side. No one wanted to fully engage for that final team fight, so there was a lot of poking and probing until 100T slowly took control of the map, which allowed them to take baron. CG knew this and countered with an elder dragon, but the final fight in CG's base proved to be too much as 100T outlasted them and took one of the closest series in recent memories.
Welcome to Miami *cue Will Smith's song*! This year Riot decided to host the Spring Finals at a smaller venue compared to the usual stadium settings like the Staples Centre. The build up to Finals Weekend was well done with The Dive and Hotline League both filming live shows in Miami, which created a very nice community atmosphere. The 3rd place match was between Echo Fox and Clutch Gaming and it was still important due to the championship points that would go towards world's. EF played their aggressive style, showing off a few early game strategies and dominating the jungle match up. There was one game in which CG's jungler Lira was so far behind that he didn't even reach level 6 until 10 minutes into the game. EF had something to prove, even though they weren't in the finals, they wanted everyone to know that they were the 2nd best team in NA. They swept CG in one of the fastest series ever. Next up was the main event between 100 Thieves and Team Liquid. There were storylines galore, but the one that was on everyone's mind was Doublelift, who had recently gone thheadbuttfamily tragedy and was playing through this hard time. Both teams were fairly even with maybe TL coming out slightly ahead due to their recent playoff performances. 100T came out firing and aggressive taking the game to TL, who looked a little shaky. 100T got a couple of kills and were ready to pounce onto baron. TL only had Impact and Xmithie who could contest the baron, but that was enough. Aphromoo was on Alistar and so he was prepared to headbutt Xmithie out of the pit once he flashed in, but he forgot about Impact. Impact entered the pit first and used Singed's Mega Adhesive to ground Aphromoo in his spot and Xmithie was able to flash into the pit and win the 50/50 Smite dual to secure baron. Off this baron buff, they were able to snowball the game and steal Game 1 from the hands of their opponents. Game 2 and 3 had the same feel as 100T were able to establish themselves early, but through strong macro and team play, TL always won the mid-game and ended up sweeping the Finals to secure the 2018 NA LCS Spring Championship. The Finals MVP went to Pobelter, who played Azir in all 3 games. He made big play after big play and was always in the right place at the right time to help out his team. Every one of TL's players stepped up and played their part in winning the title. This was Doublelift's fourth NA LCS title for three separate organizations. Impact, Xmithie, and Pobelter have won multiple LCS titles, while Olleh picks up his first ever. Team Liquid will now represent North American at the Mid-Season Invitational against other Spring Split Champions. North America is now considered a major region and will not have to play in the play-in stages at all; they get an automatic berth into the group stages along with Korea, China and Europe. North America's best finish was CLG's magical run into the finals of MSI against SKT, where they also were able to take 1 game, losing 3-1.
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