With the playoffs of the North American League Championship Series finished, it's time for the Regional Qualifiers, a gauntlet-style tournament that features the four teams remaining: Team Envy, Team Liquid, Cloud9, and Immortals.
Last year, Cloud9, a team that was seeded the lowest, took down the gauntlet in a series of memorable reverse sweeps and could very well repeat that same feat this year in a higher seed. And with everything on the line -- the winner of the Regional Qualifier will earn the final seat into the World Championships as a representative of the NA LCS collective -- they might want to catch momentum early this time around.
Consider Cloud9 your favorites
Immortals may have the easiest road to the World Championships with just one best-of-five set, but Cloud9 remains the best team left in the bracket. Last time, the boys in blue managed to take down the Immortals in the semifinal match of the NA LCS. It was a battle of adaptations, but C9 had the right players step up to the plate. Whether it was William "Meteos" Hartman on his Gragas or Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong's pressure against Seong "Huni" Hoon Heo, C9 was more than enough to match up against the lineup of Immortals.
The strength of Cloud9 is in their ability to transition from the laning phase to the midgame. Despite a relatively weak early phase, the team crushes the field of competition when it comes to rotations, ganks, teamfights, vision and map control. C9 prioritizes champions that have disruptive properties in fights and the duo core of Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen and Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi make up the best tandem of damage-dealers in the NA LCS. But this is not a team without cracks.
C9 stumbled against Team SoloMid in the finals of the NA LCS with two exposed weaknesses: drafting and late game strategy. Team SoloMid took advantage of C9's stubborn approach to draft Gnar and set Impact up. C9's late game strategy was nonexistent compared to its opposition and the lack of sharp decision-making and map control harpooned the team's chances for a victory.
Your runners-up might just be Immortals
Team Liquid and Team Envy may be involved in the Regional Qualifiers, but both are so far gone compared to either C9 or Immortals. Immortals will have the best chance to qualify for the World Championships, but only boast the second-strongest lineup left in the field. It's easy to summarize Immortals: fast-paced, aggressive and stubborn.
The lineup strength starts with the duo of Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin and Huni. The pair equates to the team's early game. Moreover, the underrated support play of Adrian "Adrian" Ma is the backbone that really makes this team flourish. Immortal's high-octane pace is possible through Adrian's ability to control vision and his great mobility throughout the map. If Reignover's rotations and support are important in the early game, Adrian's ability to be in the majority of the team's minor skirmishes is the key to Immortal's ability to snowball.
At the same time, the team's weaknesses also fall back on the duo of Reignover and Huni. Because of the team's reliance on the pair's ability to steamroll in the laning phase, it's easy for teams to draft against them. Immortals, in the playoffs, averaged a -773 gold deficit after the first 15-minutes. The team's lack of a true carry could potentially hurt its chances as well. In addition, teams like Counter Logic Gaming were playing to the strength of Immortals, and succeeded for the most part.
It was a pace that was easily mimicked. What was once its signature and trump card was used against the lineup. A team like C9 that can fight well and execute great strategy in the midgame can take full advantage of a blaring weakness like this.