The 2016 LMS Spring Season has kicked off and for the most part, there were no surprises to start the season. ahq e-Sports Club is still chugging along, the newly promoted teams aren’t looking the strongest, and the games followed a slow tempo much like Korea’s LCK, with five dragons consistently looming as a win condition. I will be summing up each team’s first week, highlighting the vices and virtues shown, spotlighting specific players, and hopefully providing a framework for readers to decide which team they would like to follow this split.

1.  ahq e-Sports Club 2-0-0 (4-0)

The Worlds quarterfinalist team has shown up much better than predicted, as it seemingly has adapted well to splitting time between Chawy and Westdoor. ahq proved to have a relatively easy time stymying the Flash Wolves, as Ziv dominated MMD during the series, earning himself a 5.7 KDA on Tahm Kench during the series. The pressure top lane was the key factor to their slow and controlled victory in game one and fast-paced, teamfight-filled game two.

However, they were faced with considerably more opposition, in the face of perennial ban sufferers, Machi 17. ahq controlled the tempo of Game One with strong showings from both Chawy and AN, on the likes of Zilean and Ezreal. If not for a lack of siege from ahq, their control of the early game would have had them winning much sooner. Their emphasis on objective control, compared to the likes of Westdoor ahq was quite refreshing. Of course, Westdoor ahq was pushed very hard in game two, being down four dragons and multiple turrets, but eventually punished a poor Baron from Machi and hardly looked back until their victory, securing a perfect first week via their classic emphasis on teamfighting.

1. Hong Kong eSports 2-0-0 (4-0)

Summer Split Neo-TPA has seemingly dissolved, as Hong Kong Esports moves into the new year without their Season 2 World Championship starters. HKE has been dealing well so far, 2-0ing both their opponents this week, albeit against a rebuilding Midnight Sun and unsituated Cougar E-Sport. Both series were incredibly convincing, with little to no answer from either team.

Despite SpeaR (CGE’s Jungler) and Wulala (MSE’s Jungler) being bright jungle talents, Dinter had no problem minimizing both players’ impact on the game through effective jungle pathing and communication with his support Olleh. Olleh and Godkwai have been slapping bottom lanes, allowing for consistent jungle/support invades into enemy territory, dismantling their opponents. It is good to see that Dinter and Olleh have maintained their synergy and class, but it remains to be seen if it will be enough against a stronger opponent, as Maplesnow and Chillyz are yet to have shown themselves as anything more than average.

3. Taipei Assassins 1-0-0 (2-0)

The Assassins begin their 2016 with a convincing 2-0 victory off of Machi, having a stranglehold over the map in both games. Morning and REFRA1N were the standouts of the week, leveraging experience over their juniors, BoBo and Taizan. Morning, in particular, was more than proficient on arguably his best champion, Gnar, earning himself a KDA of 15.5 over the series. In addition, TPA’s recent come-of-age trainee, FoFo, started both games over Achie and proved that he is worthy of the starting spot, with notable games on Lissandra and Ryze.

4. XGamers  0-0-1 (1-1)

Newly promoted teams in the LMS are often met without much hype, as the bottom teams tend to be weaker than most and the challenger teams, even more so. XGamers didn’t show much to look forward to in their first week, but they did prove themselves to be a bit of a nuisance. XGamers, spearheaded by the veteran presence of Yo, was able to split 1-1 with Midnight Sun, but did it far from convincingly. Their players are not the strongest, but Yo and SuwaKo were enough to tip the scales for one victory. They will certainly have more issues against a team with a stronger jungler than MSE rookie, Wulala.

4. Midnight Sun 0-1-1 (1-2)

Speaking of Midnight Sun, they had a fairly successful first week, given that they are playing with a brand new roster. Midnight Sun’s rag-tag team of solo queue players, featuring former TPA trainee M1ssion, had decent set ups against the likes of Hong Kong eSports and avoided the type of rout that COUGAR E-Sport suffered. They built steady team compositions around star player, M1ssion, but were seemingly outpaced in the jungle and support position against HKE. Raw talent was not nearly enough to deal with the roaming duo of Olleh and Dinter and they simply fell flat, but at the very least, M1ssion and Julian were competitive with their respective lane opponents.

Their jungler-support synergy was once again taken advantage of by the likes of XGamers, but not nearly to the extent that HKE punished them. MSE was pushed around when it came to the macro game, as Yo seemingly commands his team around the map. However, the series showed that they do have more overall talent, especially when it came to mid lane, with M1ssion being their main focus. However, the solo queue jungle talent, Wulala, was unimpressive in his debut week and will need to build some sort of synergy with the likes of SkuLL or Kaiwing, if the team is to compete in the future.

6. Flash Wolves 0-1-0 (0-2)

Flash Wolves, fresh off maintaining their star players and a top 8 finish at worlds, are part of the opening marquee match with ahq e-Sports Club and frankly - they were practically never in it. Flash Wolves open the new season with a slew of issues, with their continued lack of pressure in the top lane being the most evident. MMD did not cut it on his Nautilus or Lulu pick against the likes of Ziv’s Tahm and was the front door for ahq’s pressure in both games, with Ziv holding leads in both games. Karsa’s potential impact top was also incredibly limited due to this as well as everywhere else, due to Ziv’s continued pressure with both his global ultimate and Teleport.

On the bright side, sub-AD, Breeze, performed reasonably well and actually had advantages bottom that the Flash Wolves are not accustomed to. SwordArT was more anchored to his lane than usual, but neither game provided great opportunities for river movement anyhow. Star Mid-laner Maple was also very impressive in both games, being the main factor that they were not completely rolled over in either game. MMD is going to either have to step his game up in the future or Flash Wolves will have to try their hand at highly anticipated top lane prospect, Rins. He has never seen competitive play, but he has been known to have a wide champion pool that will likely serve better in the current meta.

6. COUGAR E-Sport 0-1-0 (0-2)

COUGAR E-Sport was quite frankly, awful, in their first week of competitive League of Legends. Apart from the early laning phase, the team was completely outmatched by Hong Kong Esports’ support and jungle synergy during the series, and were only able to achieve 5 kills against HKE’s 44. COUGAR, without their main carry Jeffery (he is still a student), did not have the carry presence to compete. This also left SpeaR without a real running mate in mid, with KuKu not putting on the same pressure. His performance suffered as such and the team as a whole did not perform. However, it remains to be seen if they can hope to compete with the other lower-level teams, but based on those teams’ performances, probably not.

6. Machi 0-2-0 (0-4)

Machi were slapped with two very difficult match-ups to start the week and one can only hope that the young lineup doesn’t get too discouraged. Machi had their moments against the likes of ahq and TPA, executing very efficient early games and generally being able to match their teamfighting ability. However, Machi suffered the same from last season, dropping the ball whenever it came to neutral objectives or tower pushing: Throwing game two against ahq at Baron and dissolving their lead against TPA in game two of that series, as well. Team captain and support, Dreamer, also did not perform to his usual standard, leaving a gaping hole in Machi’s mid game.

However, the early game planning is a good start and against two of the best teams, no-less. Mid laner, Apex, and AD carry, Dee, were very bright spots for the lineup as they matched their adversaries quite well in their games. Rookie jungler, Taizan, was the biggest letdown for his team, as he was seemingly relegated to meatshielding after sub-par early games. He was no match for the likes of Mountain or REFRA1N, two junglers who excel specifically at early game jungle pathing. Overall, Machi’s current place in the standings isn’t truly reflective of their skill as a team like Hong Kong Esports faced bottom feeders. Time will tell exactly where they fall in the current power spectrum.