Overall Champion Popularity: NA LCS Spring Split 2015 [Infographic]

In the NA LCS Spring Split--92 games and 920 champion selections--we saw 70 champions played on the Rift (roughly 56% of the current champion pool).  Some were incredibly popular (Janna and Rek'sai headed the top of this list) and others were one shot wonders (as you'll see on the infographic).

From the looks of it, if you want to win on red side, you'll need to include Sejuani in your line up.

Look for more infographics in upcoming articles on teams' favorite picks, their highest win rate champions, and their greatest weaknesses.

• Counter Logic Gaming and Cloud 9 picked Nidalee the most--3 times each.

• Lissandra was banned in 58% of all games.  She appeared in 28% of games.  She appeared in either picks or bans in 86% of games.  Next behind her was Rek'sai, who was either picked or banned in 78% of games.

Cloud 9 vs Counter Logic Gaming: By the Numbers

It looks as though Sunday proved to be even more eventful than previously anticipated.

With their lost to Team Impulse, Counter Logic Gaming's 2nd place spot (and first round bye for the playoffs) was forced to a contested tiebreaker match against Cloud 9, who made it big this weekend by beating both Gravity and Team SoloMid.

And they came bringing the best game we've seen all season.

It was apparent that both teams had made preparations beforehand for this match.  Counter Logic Gaming took a fairly standard approach, except for a last pick Vayne.  Cloud 9, on the other hand, pulled out a few pocket picks that haven't seen a lot of play on the Rift.  Meteos took Zac (a standard for him from Season 3), Hai took Jarvan IV mid lane (which has only recently seen competitive play over in Korea), and Sneaky took Draven.

Early pressure paid off for Cloud 9.  They managed to secure first blood on ZionSpartan at 3:53, and managed to bring down their first tower 40 seconds later.  Although Counter Logic Gaming pushed back fairly aggressively with a dragon and four kills, the early gold lead and lane dominance meant Cloud 9 never lost the gold lead.

Counter Logic Gaming tried to answer Cloud 9's aggression with towers, but C9 traded them for objectives and positioning.  A few blunders on the side of CLG lead to a few deaths in the mid lane, and eventually a baron for C9.  Another botched engage at the mid lane inhibitor turret threw things squarely in C9's favor, and they used the momentum to square away the game nicely in under 28 minutes.

ZionSpartan solo kills Balls in the top lane.

1.  ZionSpartan has brought something powerful to Counter Logic Gaming.  In the past, CLG has been the Doublelift show.  In game after game, Doublelift would rise above and become that fantastic carry that rolled over opponents game after game.  With Aphromoo at his side, CLG's strategy seemed fairly straightforward: filter kills on down to Doublelift, get him rolling, protect him in the late game.  In Season 5, things have changed dramatically with the addition of Link and ZionSpartan.  Link has proven to be a great mid laner (even showing up Doublelift a bit with his Ezreal mid lane pick) and able to make plays in his own right.  ZionSpartan, on the other hand, is a beast of the top lane, and really adds pressure where CLG needed it.  In this game, ZionSpartan really was CLG's threat: he lead his team in kills, damage, and gold--despite the early ganks.

Jarvan IV in the midlane.  What will we see next?

2.  Mid lane Jarvan IV is going to be a thing.  Let's be honest with ourselves first: Hai contributed to team fights and dropped well place ultimates, but for a full damage Jarvan, he didn't really show up in a meaningful way that regularly.  In the end, he only dealt 6.3k damage to champions, and took the least amount of damage (8.1k) of his teammates.  However, mid lane Jarvan did what a lot of other mid lane picks struggle to do: keep down Lissandra.  Prior to this match, the mid lane Jarvan pick has only showed up in the Korean scene in Season 5, and to similar effect.  What makes Jarvan scary, though, is his presence--every player is forced to save their escape to get out of that arena.  While the jury is still out about Jarvan's damage, his presence is enough to scare CLG into passive play.

CLG spreads a little too thin and gets punished heavily for it.

3.  Make a mistake?  Expect to be punished for it.  CLG seemed to be turning things around after getting answering Cloud 9's push with a few early kills.  However, CLG lived up to their reputation and began to collapse under LCS pressure.  Although similar mistakes were made often throughout the Spring Split, Cloud 9 showed exactly what happens when the pressure is on--punishment, time and time again.

Draven secures that first kill and cashes in on Adoration.

4.  With Draven, all it takes is a kill.  From Champion Select, it became obvious that Cloud 9's team composition was centered around getting this Draven rolling--and with a champion who gets a substantial cash bonus on getting a kill, all it takes for Draven to become truly scary is one kill.  Sneaky managed to get that around 16 minutes.  His next back Sneaky picked up an Infinity Edge (2/3 items already completed) and a Youmuu's Ghostblade (1/2).  Immediately, he garnered an item spike that allowed him to absolutely melt champions before they'd have a chance to build much armor.  Those first two kills guaranteed the landslide that would lead to Cloud 9's victory.

The tower fight that ended it all.

5.  This is what International play will look like.  We've seen a wide variety of play over the course of the last nine (really ten) weeks on both sides of the pond.  We've seen the best of what SK Gaming has to offer (the 1-3-1 split push and FORG1VEN focused play is key), and the intricate positioning and skill of Team SoloMid (especially at IEM Katowice).  We've also seen a healthy dose of experimentation (Keane's Urgot, later picked up by Bjergsen) and strategies that never seemed to come to fruition (Team Coast in every game except that one against Winterfox).  What we haven't seen a lot of, though, is the sort of international play that will set the stage for Season 5 in this Mid Season Invitational.  We got a glimpse in the best of five between TSM and WE, but really the best example we have of a team absolutely dismantling another strong team was played here in the tiebreaker match to secure Cloud 9's 2nd place position.  Hopefully we'll see more of the same in these Bo5 to come.

Team Impulse vs Team Dignitas: By the Numbers

If things had played out differently, we could have seen a very different Dignitas earlier this season.

This match was a rather one sided affair.  Dignitas took the lead in the early game and didn't let go.  They were quick to rotate and collapse, forcing fights in their favor like we'd expect from Team Impulse.  Even XiaoWeiXiao fell behind in a lane heavily in his favor.

For Team Impulse, this was an unmitigated disaster.  Dignitas managed to get a few early kills, but nothing that would really put them that far ahead.  Instead of capitalizing on the unconventional jungle and the favorable lane match up, it seemed the pressure was too much to handle.  From 24 minutes on, Team Impulse had nothing to say about things.

Dignitas closed out the match just over 41 minutes, 16 kills to 5.  If we had seen a performance like this earlier in the Spring Split, instead of vying for 8th, Dignitas would have made it into the playoffs.

Impact is forced to farm under turrets and falls far behind in the early game.

1.  Minimize Impact's impact.  Even though Impact was able to contribute substantially to his team--he did the most damage on this team, after all--but when he resorted to using the Equalizer to wave clear, it became obvious Impact was falling far behind.  Between the unfavorable lane swap and a lack of mitigation, Impact fell behind early on and wasn't able to contribute as effectively as one would've hoped.

Shiphtur Shunpo's away from XiaoWeiXiao at the last moment.

2.  What happened to XiaoWeiXiao?  This was easily a favorable lane match up for XiaoWeiXiao.  Shiphtur has great mechanics, but LeBlanc is equipped with a kit that can explode Katarina.  It's clear that Shiphtur respected the LeBlanc early game, saving his trinket and Shunpo for the quick escape.  For fear of being punished for getting too close, most of Shiphtur's farm was done tentatively with an eye for an escape route.  In the end, though, Shiphtur really couldn't be stopped.  And XiaoWeiXiao?  0/3/0, with 10k damage to champions.  At least he beat Shiphtur with CS.

XiaoWeiXiao in and out for the dragon steal.

3.  That dragon steal, though.  If there was a moment that Impulse appeared to be about to turn it around, it was at that third dragon.  The gold lead was modestly in Dignitas's favor--about 1k--and XiaoWeiXiao was able to jump in and steal that dragon after Azingy preemptively used Smite.  Unfortunately that 6% wasn't enough to turn things around for Impulse.

Dignitas takes a fight near baron.  Incidentally, the fight started with a four man collapse on Gamsu.

4.  The damage game.  Most games are fairly close at the end of the game, with the winning team dealing slightly more damage than the opposing team.  This game, however, looked as though Impulse couldn't be bothered to do damage to Dignitas.  Overall, Dignitas did 24k more damage to Impulse than Impulse did back.  In terms of percentages, Dignitas did 150% more damage over the course of this match--over 1/3 of which came from CoreJJ.

Dignitas comes charging down the mid lane.

5.  Dignitas capitalizes on their lead.  When teams that traditionally haven't been doing very well in the Spring Split realize they have the advantage, it's as though a lightbulb turns on and an otherwise absent confidence and certainty reminds us all why they were LCS material to begin with.  After Dignitas lost their tier 2 mid tower but managed to secure dragon, that moment came for them.  Every two minutes from that point onward was another kill, another objective, or both.

Other interesting statistics:

• Azingy and KiWiKiD shared the brunt of the vision battle pretty equally, while Impulse relied fairly exclusively on Adrian.

• CoreJJ didn't just do a lot of damage to champions--he just flat out did a lot of damage.  In the end he'd done a total of 404.8k damage.  To put that in contrast, the next most damage was Apollo at 249.1k, followed by Shiphtur at 245.5k.

• Impact had the best kill participation at 80% (of 5 kills).  Three members of Dignitas had a 69% KP, though--Gamsu, Shiphtur, and CoreJJ.  

Week 9: Predictions for the NA LCS

Like the EU LCS, the NA LCS has promised to have a dynamite last weekend.  While the division between 1-7 and 8-10 has already solidified (the only thing we have up for grabs is who takes 8th and who takes 9th), the top 7 spots are all within a few wins, with every position viable for a contest.  Who will actually secure the first place spot?  Who will fall out of the LCS?

Full Schedule:

Saturday:

12:00 PM PST - Gravity (9 - 7) vs Cloud 9 (10 - 6)
Prediction: Cloud 9.  This is a toss up match.  Gravity has proven they have what it takes to take down teams with better records, but Cloud 9 is trying to defend a 3rd seed spot against Team Impulse and the rest of the group just beneath them.  Although the match could still go either way, expect this match to be a lot like the Team 8 vs Cloud 9 match last week, but with Cloud 9 turning to screws to close out the game.

1:00 PM PST - Team 8 (9 - 7) vs Counter Logic Gaming (11 - 5)
Prediction: Counter Logic Gaming.  Team 8 beat Cloud 9 by the skin of their teeth last week.  While Counter Logic Gaming has had a little bit of the same fizzle as last year, they still have an impressive squad and many favorable match ups.  Although it's sort of a toss up, be prepared for Counter Logic Gaming to bring one of their best games all split.

2:00 PM PST - Winterfox (5 - 11) vs Team Liquid (8 - 8)
Prediction: Team Liquid.  With so much winding down and with a relatively easy week, Team Liquid had better pull off wins against the 8th and 9th slots.  Although Winterfox did win their last encounter, it was in response to an unfortunate team fight that went the way of Winterfox.  Team Liquid should have what it takes to pull off a win this week with so much riding on the line.

3:00 PM PST - Team Coast (1 -15) vs Team SoloMid (12 - 4)
Prediction: Team SoloMid.  With Team Coast so far out of the running, expect them to pull out weird picks and experimental team compositions--but, as we saw from Team SoloMid vs Gravity last week, TSM might do well against the meta but is thrown off by outside picks.

4:00 PM PST - Team Impulse (10 - 6) vs Team Dignitas (5 - 11)
Prediction: Team Impulse.  Team Dignitas will have a rough time trying to lock down a win over Team Impulse--expect this match to go heavily one sided.  With a potential 2nd place spot on the line, Team Impulse will stop at nothing for a win here.

Sunday:

12:00 PM PST - Winterfox (5 - 11) vs Team Coast (1 - 15)
Prediction: Winterfox.  As before, Team Coast is facing relegation, and will probably do their best just to have a good game.  If there is a team they can beat, though, it'll be Winterfox.

1:00 PM PST - Cloud 9 (10 - 6) vs Team SoloMid (12 - 4)
Prediction: Team SoloMid.  If IEM Katowice taught us anything, it's that when TSM and C9 and put under a lot of pressure (like seeding in the NA LCS Playoffs), TSM turns up the pressure while C9 fizzles a bit.  While TSM frankly got a bye on Saturday, they'll need to pull out all the stops to secure their 1st place spot against CLG this game.  This is also the only game they've really had to prepare for this weekend, while Cloud 9 is facing two difficult opponents.

2:00 PM PST - Team Dignitas (5 - 11) vs Team Liquid (8 - 8)
Prediction: Team Liquid.  Again, Team Liquid has been given a fairly easy schedule this weekend.  This could work out well in their favor--if things go as predicted, they will end in a three way tie for 5th--but there is a chance that a determined Team Dignitas will pull out a win to secure 8th place and the chance to pick their CS opponent.

3:00 PM PST - Gravity (9 - 7) vs Team 8 (9 - 7)
Prediction: Team 8.  Like the Unicorns of Love and Gambit match up on Thursday, this match has a lot riding on it.  For both teams, they will have prepared extensively for this match.  However, in a head to head there's a lot of promise in Team 8's teamwork, which might be just enough to pull off the win over Gravity.

4:00 PM PST - Counter Logic Gaming (11 - 5) vs Team Impulse (10 - 6)
Prediction: Counter Logic Gaming.  Team Impulse will be fighting for this match tooth and nail because they'll have a shot at the 2nd place spot, but be prepared to see the very best Counter Logic Gaming has to offer as they defend their spot against the rest of the pack.

Giants vs Elements: By the Numbers

There’s a lot riding on this week.

Both Elements and Giants were invested in the win here.  In order to have a chance at securing the 7th place (and safe) spot, Elements would need to win this match (since the odds of winning the match against Fnatic today doesn’t look too optimistic), while the Giants need to win a match to save themselves from relegation—and this was their match to do it.

As could be expected of a team that has so many members who have competed internationally, Elements built an early lead with a 2:34 1st blood (Krepo kills Fr3deric) and a few kills in the mid lane.  Elements began to steadily take down Giant towers, while the Giants continued to slip farther and farther behind.  After the constant pressure on the mid lane, PePiiNeRO was forced time and time again to use his ultimate to escape ganks.  Things were looking to be solidly in favor of Elements.

Except they had such a struggle closing out the game.  They got through their first inhibitor just after 28 minutes, and through their second around 32 minutes.  With so much pressure on the base, a good application of pressure and solid awareness should have made this an easy win.  Instead, over confidence and a lack of respect for Giants led to 4 deaths and a base race that nearly cost Elements the game.

Rekkles prevents a repeat of their last encounter with well placed Chompers over the wall.

1.  Rekkles has regained some of his reputation.  Finally, we get to see some of his same game play that helped to bring down Samsung Blue back at Worlds a few months ago.  Even though his opening play was still on the passive side, he proved to be a force to be reckoned with on that Jinx.  Over the course of the game, he managed to do 27.2k damage--nearly 11k more than his next teammate--and had a 9.5 KDA and 76% KP besides.  Although they'll be hard pressed to win against Fnatic, it would be nice to see a similar caliber of game play today.

Krepo takes down Fr3deric at blue buff.

2.  The jungle isn't safe.  This isn't the first time that we've seen the early jungle gank.  It is, however, the first time that we've seen the support solo kill the jungle.  That's part of the risk of this new jungle--you go dangerously low so often in the first clear that a good guess can sometimes secure a kill.  To be fair, Krepo only had to do a little over 150 damage to get the kill (which he managed only by using his hook, flay, ignite, and autos) since the jungle had done the rest of the work, but it really gives a lot more sway to the top/jungle roam strategy that was so common at the end of season 4.

Froggen cleans up after a team fight at mid lane.

3.  Froggen.  Parts of this game could have been deemed the highlight reel of Froggen's mechanics.  Especially in the early game, Froggen was doing everything right.  He was everywhere he needed to be, and then--he disappeared.  He was still there in the team fights, still picking up kills, but it was as though he decided to hand the reins over to Rekkles.  By the end of the game, he had only earned 13.5k gold (4.4k behind PePiiNeRO and nearly 5k behind Rekkles) and had only 219 CS (an average of 5.9 CS per minute).

Shook turns back to get PePiiNeRO, and exposes the rest of his team to some punishment from the Giants.

4.  Over confidence.  Perhaps this is as a result of so much professional play, but there's a lot of over confidence in Elements' play style.  It's as though they're all caught up in the potential strength of their team that they forget how to concisely close out games as a team.  Missteps and over confidence is what gave Giants the opening to almost steal the game--if Elements want to make it into the Summer Playoffs (since they'll be hard pressed to get 6th), they'll need to put egos and reputation behind them, and instead move forward as a unit.

PePiiNeRO nearly wins the base race.

5.  The Spanish mid laner.  Spain has a propensity for turning out great mid laners.  Much like xPeke, PePiiNeRO has had a solid performance in the mid lane.  Unfortunately, Giants have bigger overarching problems that they'll need to sort out before they can expect to land a spot in the LCS playoffs, but PePiiNeRO is the type of player we can expect to see more of in the future.  He's also accrued a reputation for himself among the EU teams--enough that if they don't focus on the mid lane early in the game, they'll have the pay the consequences later.  After all, 4 members of Elements had 1 tower and 1 inhibitor to work through to get to the Nexus--PePiiNeRO had 4 towers and an inhibitor and nearly beat them to it.

Other interesting statistics:

• Shook placed more wards than Krepo (34 to 31), and Rydle placed more than either (37).

• If Elements had been able to close out the game when they intended, they would have won 11 towers to 5; instead, they finished the game 10-8.

• Elements had a gold lead over their counter parts in every match up except mid lane, where even though Froggen had a 9/4/6 KDA, he was 4.4k behind PePiiNeRO (6/5/6) in gold.  Most of that could be accounted for with the 152 CS difference.

Week 9: Predictions for the EU LCS

The last week of the European LCS is sure to provide a lot of upsets.  While there's a fair bit of predictability to the NA LCS, EU seems to be all across the map.Although first place is secured (assuming that SK Gaming can manage to beat Meet Your Makers today), most everything else is up for grabs.  Who will get the guaranteed semi-finals spot--H2K or Fnatic?  Who will be able to secure 4th place to themselves--Unicorns of Love or Gambit?  Can Copenhagen Wolves secure the 6th place spot and go to the playoffs, or can Elements or ROCCAT take their place?  And who will be relegated back to the Challenger Series--Meet Your Makers or Giants?

Games to Watch:

With so much relying on victories this weekend, we've broken the games down into categories.

Survival.  These two teams need to do whatever they can to stay in the LCS.

1.  Giants vs Elements.  Between the Giants' two games this weekend, this is the one they are slightly more likely to win.  However, Elements are in the running with ROCCAT to possibly secure a 6th place spot in the place of the Copenhagen Wolves (assuming the Wolves have a really bad weekend)--or at least the 7th place safe spot.  Can the Giants save themselves from relegation?

2. Meet Your Makers vs ROCCAT.  After their win over Gambit last week, Meet Your Makers proved that they would do what it took to stay inside the LCS.  Unfortunately for them, they also faced H2K that week, and have now entered a two way tie for 9th place.  Like Elements, though, ROCCAT is in the running for 7th place (and perhaps even 6th).  Will Meet Your Makers prove that a horrible start is not enough to get eliminated?

Playoffs.  This match will effectively decide if the Copenhagen Wolves secure the 6th place spot and compete in the EU Playoffs.

1.  Copenhagen Wolves vs ROCCAT.  The Copenhagen Wolves haven't had an exceptionally strong season, but they've managed to secure a few wins over stronger teams.  Can they fend off ROCCAT for one game to defend their spot, or will we see ourselves in a possible tie for 6th place?

Seed Deciders.  These two sets of teams have a lot riding on these games to determine their placement in the Playoffs.

1.  H2K vs Fnatic.  The winner of this game will most likely secure the second place spot, and ensure they will go to the semi-finals.  H2K has had a meteoric rise over the last few weeks and has proven that they are contenders in EU, while Fnatic has shown that despite roster changes they can still be one of the strongest teams in Europe.  Will H2K be able to oust Fnatic for that second place spot, or will Fnatic take it back?

2.  Unicorns of Love vs Gambit.  Both of these teams have seen ups and downs throughout the season.  Both are known for bringing unique champions to the table.  Both are known for their off games and misplays.  Which team will step up and claim 4th place?

Full Schedule and Predictions:

Thursday:

10:00 AM PST – Copenhagen Wolves (7 – 9) vs ROCCAT (6 – 10)

Last Match: Copenhagen Wolves.  9 - 4 towers, 17 - 7 kills.  Match time: 42:17.  Week 5.

Prediction: Copenhagen Wolves.  The Wolves may have their next match tied up pretty well in their favor, but ROCCAT feels the same way about their next match as well.  A win for ROCCAT means the 6th place spot will fall to a tie breaker.  Despite the intensity that we can expect to see from ROCCAT, the Copenhagen Wolves have a better chance of weathering the storm and securing their 6th place spot.

11:00 AM PST – H2K (11 – 5) vs Fnatic (11 – 5)

Last Match: Fnatic.  3 - 11 towers, 6 - 21 kills.  Match time: 33:38.  Week 2.

Prediction: Fnatic.  H2K has two difficult matches this week: Fnatic and Unicorns of Love.  They'll probably spend much more time preparing for this match, since it is the tie-breaker for second place--but Fnatic really only has Elements to worry about after this, and will have no doubt put in a lot of extra preparation for this match.  Elements also managed to take down H2K last week, which doesn't bode well for the 2nd place contender.  When all is said and done, Fnatic is the stronger team, and will most likely take the match.

12:00 PM PST – SK Gaming (13 – 3) vs Meet Your Makers (4 – 12)

Last Match: SK Gaming.  8 - 4 towers, 10 - 9 kills.  Match time: 37:40.  Week 2.

Prediction: SK Gaming.  Although Meet Your Makers are fighting to stave off relegation, pulling off a win over SK Gaming at this point would be nothing short of a miracle.

1:00 PM PST – Giants (4 – 12) vs Elements (6 – 10)

Last Match: Giants.  8 - 7 towers, 10 - 22 kills.  Match time: 42:08.  Week 5.

Prediction: Elements.  Last week's win over H2K seemed to tell the story that Elements are finally pulling together as a team.  With the Giants not having much of an impact in the latter half of this season, Elements have a good chance of taking this game.

2:00 PM PST – Unicorns of Love (9 – 7) vs Gambit (9 – 7)

Last Match: Unicorns of Love.  9 - 2 towers, 18 - 7 kills.  Match time: 26:17.  Week 2.

Prediction:  Unicorns of Love.  There are a lot of similarities between these two teams: inventive junglers, solid top laners, aggressive mid laners, and a fairly consistent bot lane.  Hopefully we'll see some truly off the wall picks this match.  Between the two, though, Unicorns of Love are coming into this week looking like the better team.

Friday:

10:00 AM PST – Copenhagen Wolves (7 – 9) vs Giants (4 – 12)

Last Match: Giants.  1 - 9 towers, 5 - 18 kills.  Match time: 37:30.  Week 2.

Prediction: Copenhagen Wolves.  The Wolves need to win both matches to feel secure about their 6th place spot.  Between their two matches this weekend, they have much better odds of winning this one.  The Giants, on the other hand, will no doubt bring their best game in order to prevent relegation.  However, once the Giants had played enough games to reveal their LCS playbook, they've had a hard time competing on the big stage.  As long as Copenhagen Wolves remember to ban Jax, they should fare fine.

11:00 AM PST – Fnatic (11 – 5) vs Elements (6 – 10)

Last Match: Fnatic.  11 - 3 towers, 27 - 11 kills.  Match time: 35:02.  Week 2.

Prediction: Fnatic.  Elements had a pretty solid victory over H2K last Thursday, but Fnatic is another beast all together.  When they last faced off, Fnatic had a very convincing win--one that no doubt left Rekkles wishing he'd kept his spot--that set the tone for both teams this Spring Split.  Elements will be very hard pressed to win this match up.

12:00 PM PST – Gambit (9 – 7) vs SK Gaming (13 – 3)

Last Match:  SK Gaming.  2 - 9 towers, 5 - 15 kills.  Match time: 37:57.  Week 3.

Prediction: SK Gaming.  SK Gaming seems to have found their stride again.  Although they are wonderfully predictable, they are also wonderfully efficient with their 1-3-1 split push play style.  Gambit has an outside chance of pulling off a victory a la mode of Fnatic.  SK, though, didn't have as much to prepare for this weekend--they will have focused most of their efforts on this game.

1:00 PM PST – Meet Your Makers (4 – 12) vs ROCCAT (6 – 10)

Last Match: ROCCAT.  3 - 10 towers, 8 - 15 kills.  Match time: 44:21.  Week 4.

Prediction:  Meet Your Makers.  Albeit this is an outside chance, of the two teams most likely to break the 9th place tie with a victory this weekend, it is Meet Your Makers.  After last week's game against Gambit, Meet Your Makers proved that they were not done with the EU LCS.  ROCCAT will also be focusing a lot of their efforts on the Wolves game, and might not adequately prepare for MYM.

2:00 PM PST – H2K (11 – 5) vs Unicorns of Love (9 – 7)

Last Match: H2K.  10 - 4 towers, 20 - 10 kills.  Match time: 40:55.  Week 5.

Prediction: Unicorns of Love.  H2K still come in as the more solid team into this match up, but the Unicorns have an uncanny ability to pull off victories against stronger teams.  In the same grain of their victory over Fnatic (which, incidentally, made them the only team to have beaten Fnatic twice), we can expect a lot out of these Unicorns in the last match of the regular season.

NA Champion Select: Pick and Ban Order [Infographic]

Recently, we dove into Champion Select for the North American LCS and analyzed First Picks, Counter Picks, Winning Team Compositions, and Bans.  Today, we've expanded that scope to look at Pick and Ban order by win rates.

Many matches are won and lost in Champion Select.  Each locked in champion reveals a piece of that team's strategy.  If a team isn't careful, they can give away too much information about their strategy with enough picks left to do something about it.  Here are the most successful picks and bans (in the order they were picked) in the NA LCS.

Apparently, if you want to win on blue side, first ban Irelia and first pick Maokai.

Look for more statistics later this week about each team's favorite picks, highest win rate champions, and greatest weaknesses.

A few interesting statistics:

• Cloud 9 has chosen Maokai 1st pick blue the most (2 times).

• Of those blue first ban Irelias, 5 have been against Team 8.

• Of the red second ban Morganas, 3 have been against Team Liquid.