Gank Esports

The final week of the North America League of Legends Championship Series starts its cast at approximately 3:00p.m. PST.  First match of the day is Team Envy versus Immortals. Tonight's final match will be Team Dignitas against Counter Logic Gaming.  The top six teams of the league, or the playoff teams, are in close contention across the standings, and teams will be fighting hard to jockey themselves into a good position for the playoffs. All four teams playing today are in the playoffs, but their position in the standings and their playoff seeds are not cemented. Tonight is a preview to the playoffs as these teams may be facing each other again in the Summer Split Playoffs when it matters most. Below is the current standings, but who will rise and who will fall?

FLOATING ON CLOUD 9 SCENARIO: C9 wins both games and finishes season with a 12-8 record. Team DIG wins against CLG, but loses against Team Liquid. CLG loses to both TSM and DIG. C9 ends the split in the 3 rd place spot behind IMT and TSM. As the 3 rd seed, C9 will face the 6 th seed during the quarterfinals (1 st round), Envy. If C9 make it to the semifinals (2 nd round), most likely TSM will be their opponent.   CLOUD 9’S NIGHTMARE SCENARIO: C9 loses both matches against Envy and Echo Fox, finishing with a 10-8 record. Envy wins both matches against Immortals and C9, finishing with a 10-8 record. C9 vs. Envy match up on Saturday is extremely important because it can determine who is the 5 th  and 6 th  seed. If Envy wins both matches and C9 loses both matches this weekend, Envy will be 5 th  seed because they would have won both matches against C9 during the season. C9 will face the 3 rd  seed during the qua...

Counter Logic Gaming has been the topic of conversation since the recent announcement that Madison Square Garden Company has acquired controlling stake in the organization. One aspect that often goes overlooked with the CLG organization is their willingness to develop domestic talent and be successful while doing so. With the exception of their midlaner, Huhi, the team is filled with North American players. From the starters to the subs to even their coach, the organization’s members have primarily been from the North American region. Sure they were the first North American team to import a Korean player in Seraph and they had European jungler in Dexter, but CLG has had their greatest accomplishments with North American players. Most teams put in the situations that CLG has been in would go into panic mode and acquire the best import player available for their open positions, instead CLG do the complete opposite of what most teams instinctive reaction would be. Wh...

It seems that the name of Team Liquid’s most recent acquisition sums up the organization perfectly, InsanityXXX. There once was a time that Team Liquid was a competitive League of Legends team but that just is not the case anymore. On the surface it seems as though the Team Liquid Organization is willing to acquire top talent, but the problem is they do not know how to use it. During the 2016 offseason, it looked as though on paper Liquid would be in contention for top 3 in the NA LCS; however, for some reason the team just never seemed to be successful. It appears as though Liquid these days makes announcements more for fan reaction, rather than long term competitive success. We constantly hear new headlines about player acquisitions, but nothing really about team culture or changes to infrastructure to bring out the best in their players. In the Team Liquid YouTube video series there was a constant teaser to a new person being part of the roster. To the surprise of m...