Despite there being a lack of premier matchups in the LMS, with MSE and XG playing two games a piece against the likes of TPA and ahq, there was quite a bit to note. Hong Kong eSports are revving up with Rokenia finding his groove, ahq continues to take a beating in the early game, Midnight Sun are showing some fight from 7th, and Flash Wolves just continue to have problems. There were less stomps than expected, and overall, it was a good week to lead into the two week Lunar New Year break.

1. ahq e-Sports Club 6-0-0 (12-0)

The streak continues as ahq has knocked off nearly every team in the first round robin - Only TPA remains to challenge them. ahq faced off against the 6th and 7th place teams, in XGamers and Midnight Sun, so it is safe to say they did not have the most challenging week going into the holiday weekend. They were complacent in their matches and as such, faced gold deficits in the earlier stages of the game. It was no matter, as Ziv effectively stalled out both XG and MSE with strong Trundle and Fiora split-push play, so as to allow ahq to set up the right teamfights in order to swing back their games. He has easily been the biggest point of strength for ahq this split and is currently leading to be Spring Split MVP.

2. Taipei Assassins 3-1-2 (8-4)

TPA continued to have their ups and downs this last week, securing a 2-0 over XGamers, but splitting a series with 7th place team, Midnight Sun. However, they did start rookie AD LilV over BeBe, so that should be taken into account. They suffered an embarrassingly one-sided teamfight after disrespecting teleport cooldowns from MSE, being flanked during a mid lane siege. Otherwise, TPA crushed both MSE and XG convincingly on the macro game, most notably rendering XG’s Sion top with Trundle prioritization and crippling lane swaps.

Morning also continued his tear of the top lane on the likes of Poppy and Trundle, averaging a 6.75 KDA, being an excellent split push threat. Morning is solidifying himself as the second best top laner in the region and hopefully can continue this onto the second round robin and later, the postseason.

3. Flash Wolves 3-2-1 (7-5)

Rins and NL seemingly have been locked into starting positions for Flash Wolves, as Rins has started the last six series and NL has started the last three. Facing off against HKE this week, it was time for Flash Wolves to get back to being a top 3 team in the standings. Maple tore HKE apart with his famed Zed in game one, going 12-0-5 and carrying the Flash Wolves through some scatterbrained motions. However, he was not so effective on Ryze and Flash Wolves were overpowered in the early game by Olleh’s playmaking on Thresh. Flash Wolves were outpaced on the map from there on, with late game Blue Ezreal being their only hope. There were moments where it seemed the Flash Wolves would tip a teamfight in their favor, but NL’s positioning on Ezreal burned them multiple times, leading them to an eventual loss.

3. Machi 17 3-2-1 (7-5)

Machi had the pleasure of only playing one series prior to the Lunar New Year break; with that opponent being COUGAR E-Sport, they might as well have already been on vacation. Machi had some hiccups early in game one, but they quickly were scared away as they went on to crush both games in under 30 minutes. Dreamer continued to make his case for being the best support in the LMS this split, raising his league-high kill participation to 79.5%, with fantastic games on his self-made support, Trundle. Routs are good for team morale and hopefully it propels Machi to keep improving as the dark horse this split.

5. Hong Kong eSports 2-1-3 (7-5)

It’s happening again -- HKE is finding a team identity and turning it on toward the end of the first round robin. Maplesnow is continuing to show up on carry-focused top lane champions like Fiora, while Rokenia has come alive as the main carry for HKE. The early-game support squad of Dinter and Olleh is getting support and it showed against Flash Wolves. While the first game was decided by Maple’s immaculate Zed play, the second game was decided by Olleh snowballing Rokenia out of control.

It would not have been possible if HKE hadn’t owned the 2v2 bot in the first place, as Godkwai and Olleh appear to be syncing up. Godkwai even turned in a solid performance on Kalista, using his ult at the proper times and serving well as a secondary carry threat. The team is beginning to resemble Summer Split HKE, holding very similar player identities, and the league should be worried.

6. Xgamers 2-3-1 (3-9)

XGamers were tasked with a very difficult week, having to play both TPA and ahq, causing them to fall down in the standings. They were manhandled by TPA’s macro play, as their top laner was set behind in both games, with REFRA1N putting his stamp on the enemy jungle. It wasn’t close and they were 2-0’d. While XG was unable to pick up a victory during this week, they contested ahq more than any team has so far, pulling gold leads in both their games.

There were even strong solo performances, with Suwako out pressuring Chawy mid and Nexus solo killing Ziv in top lane with Olaf. Yo was especially impressive, utilizing Trundle jungle with red smite to neutralize Mountain’s Elise. They couldn’t keep up in the mid-late game, but it was a lasting impression nonetheless.

7. Midnight Sun 0-4-2 (2-10)

Considering that MSE was also tasked with facing TPA and ahq in week four, they performed well above expectations. MSE was able to split with TPA, taking advantage of FoFo’s weak Gangplank play, giving Wulala’s Elise free reign in REFRA1N’s jungle. This, in combination with Kaiwing’s amazing Thresh play, made for a controlled early game that finally locked REFRA1N down. The nail in the coffin was an excellent flank engage on TPA’s backline that was unusual for any 7th place team to pull off, utilizing double TP at just the right time.

Against ahq, MSE had actually convincingly won the first twenty minutes of game one, having three dragons and several thousand gold over them. However, Ziv’s splitpush stopped them from making proactive plays and they were eventually stomped out in the mid game, despite M1ssion’s lead as Corki over Westdoor’s Lulu.

8. COUGAR E-Sport 0-6-0 (0-12)

COUGAR continues to suffer as the last place team, but they have taken measures to improve by bringing in former AS Support, CandyBB, and solo queue top laner, XUE. The swaps seem somewhat promising, but are not nearly enough to turn around the current situation; they are still just a solo queue team. They were unable to match Machi in any capacity, despite Kuku and SpeaR having some good early game moves, taking another 0-2 loss.