With the first half of the split clear, it's time we take a closer look at the teams heading into the second round robin. It's been a whacky split so far with strange upsets, crazy collapses, some issues not being fixed and rookie players playing surprisingly well. All in all, it's been very entertaining so far.

1.KT Rolster (7W - 2L)

Top: Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho

Jungle: Go “Score” Dong-bin

Mid: Song “Fly” Young-jun

AD Carry: No “Arrow” Dong-hyeon

Support: Ha “Hachani” Seung-chan

This isn't exactly the best iteration of this team, (I mean Hachani is still here -- sure he's playing well -- but it's still Hachani), but KT managed to finish the first half of the season tied for first place with the Tigers after a 5 match winstreak.

The early game from KT rolster is almost a thing of beauty. There's minimal wasted time and everything they do has a purpose (most times it's to build a lead for Ssumday). Score is playing the games of his life and has demonstrated that at this point in time he is the best jungler in the LCK. To Score’s insane pathing, we add the reliability of Ssumday in the top lane, you get a recipe for success. The veteran top laner seems to be able to control his lane regardless of match up or even jungle pressure. With Score and Ssumday being reliable players, KT’s mid laner Fly has been freed up to play in a very unusual but effective way. Fly has shown he can play your standard wave clear mids like Viktor and Azir, but also the not so common picks like Zilean, Veigar and most surprisingly, Aurelian Sol.

Despite ending the first half on a high note, theres plenty of issues on KT that still need to be addressed. The major one being: what will happen if there is a meta shift? Unlike the SKTs or Rox Tigers of the world, KT doesn’t have enough solo carry potential anywhere other than their top laner. It’s by no means poor to have consistent players in your team’s ADC and midlane positions, it’s just entirely possible for the meta to not allow you to play the style that you want. As of patches 6.10 onwards, there has been a shift to allow much more carry potential from the top lane, which plays exactly into KT rolster’s hand. If we don’t see any harsh shifts in the meta, we will most likely see KT stay in the upper echelons of the league.

1. Rox Tigers (7W - 2L)

Top: Song “Smeb” Kyung-ho

Jungle: Yoon “Peanut” Wang-ho

Mid: Lee “KurO” Seo-haeng  /  Hae “Cry” Seong-min

AD Carry: Kim “PraY” Jong-in

Support: Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyeon

The eternal 2nd place team is currently tied with KT rolster and sitting in 1st place. While it’s still early to get excited about the possibility of ROX Tigers finally getting their much deserved first place ending, it certainly seems that if there's any meta that would allow the tigers to achieve it, it’s this one we’re currently in.

So far, the Rox Tigers only have two match losses -- one of which was in their very first game against Samsung and the other in week 3 against SKT, who was in top form at the time. These losses could easily be attributed to a dip in performance from their jungler Peanut. With the meta enforcing heavy laneswapping and turret trades, the young jungler of the Tigers found himself flustered on where to go and what to do. He still retained his old habit of not warding enough for his team, which often lead to him being caught out. Ever since the loss to SKT, the Tigers have done a full 180 on their split so far. Peanut had returned to his relentless in your face jungle style that got him noticed early on, while simultaneously becoming much more effective with his ward placements and pathing.

The best part about the Tigers is the fact that every player seems to be finding their groove again. Smeb is returning to his unstoppable form, Peanut is reunited with his ruthless aggression and PraY is going off with every ADC he’s picked so far. With the top lane focus revolving around champions like Irelia, Gnar, Trundle and even Rumble, Smeb will be given more power to carry games on his own. The only true issue that could hold the Tigers back is GorillA. The support of the Tigers has been having a rough season, often finding himself in precarious positions and donating kills when they were completely unnecessary. Despite all their issues, this split looks promising for the Rox Tigers. Let's hope they don’t get their hopes and dreams shattered in the finals again…

3. SK Telecom (6W - 3L)

Top: Lee “Duke” Ho-Seong

Jungle: Kang “Blank” Sun-gu  /  Bae “Bengi” Seong-ung

Mid: Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok

AD Carry: Bae “Bang” Jun-sik

Support: Lee “Wolf” Jae-wan

We seem to go through the usual process with SKT. They have a not so convincing first half of the season just to later come back at the second half and shatter everybody’s hopes and dreams.

Jokes aside, SKT do seem to have two clear issues in their playstyle so far. Firstly, they are playing just as overly aggressive as they always have. Many teams in the LCK have gotten accustomed to SKT’s shenanigans and have no problem punishing Faker and crew when they take a step forward too many. The 2nd issue revolves around the jungle. Both Bengi and Blank have trouble figuring out their roles. For Blank, his issues lay in the fact that the meta revolves around vision and control when Blank’s strength used to be in hard ganks and counter jungling. With laneswaps practically eliminating the first minutes of laning, SKT can't exert their pressure as smoothly -- Whereas for bengi, who would normally thrive in a vision oriented control pace gameplay, we simply see a massive dip in quality. Simply put, bengi isn't playing well. The two-time world champion seems incapable of finding the adequate pathing to fit SKT’S needs and often leaves his team in a numbers disadvantage.

That’s not to say we’ll suddenly see a decline from SKT dropping to almost out of playoff positions -- far from it. It just means that we have a brief period in which one of SKT’s biggest strengths can be taken advantage of and converted into their weakness. One thing is for certain -- SKT still has the fiercest lanes in LCK, and that is to never be taken lightly.

3. Samsung (6W - 3L)

Top: Lee “CuVee” Seong-jin  /  Kwon “Helper” Young-jae

Jungle: Kang “Ambition” Chan-yong

Mid: Lee “Crown” Min-ho

AD Carry: Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk  /  Lee “Stitch” Seung-ju

Support: Kwon “Wraith” Ji-min  /  Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in

One the of the more pleasant surprises of the split so far, Samsung looks like they're capable of making playoffs provided they don’t entirely collapse upon themselves. Samsung was just barely knocked out of playoffs by the Afreeca Freecs last split.

There is enough good in the roster to feel excited about the weeks to come. True, CuVee in the top lane hasn’t shown much sign of being able to be the singular dominant carry that the meta might dictate him to be, but he has held his own on Irelia and Fiora. The biggest plus has to be the introduction of Rookie AD Carry, Ruler, who has shown that he is willing and able to follow in his team’s steps and react when his team requires him to.

The only times we’ve seen Samsung truly struggle as a team is when former AD Carry CoreJJ would replace Wraith on the starting line up. This isn’t entirely CoreJJ’s fault as his mechanical play isn’t what drags Samsung down, but a distinct lack of leadership and pressure. When Wraith is on the field, Ambition is much more successful in his early game antics. Wraith simply plays to his teams strength well and has demonstrated he’s capable of coordinating the early game like very few players can do. The icing on the cake is how reliable Crown has become over time, to the point where Crown stands alone as the player with most damage to champions per minute in the entire LCK.

While Samsung isn’t quite top 3 material just yet, they have enough power in their line up to defeat any team they play against. When Wraith is on the rift, the team oozes confidence in their plays regardless of whether or not the choices that they make result in an advantage. Hopefully we get to see Samsung finally make the playoffs for the first time since the now infamous Korean Exodus in late 2014.

5. Jin Air greenwings (5W - 4L)

Top: Yeo “TrAce” Chang-dong  /  Kim “SoHwan” Jun-yeong

Jungle: Park “Winged” Tae-jin

Mid: Lee “Kuzan” Seong-hyeok  /  Jin “Blanc”  Seong-min

AD Carry: Na “Pilot” Woo-hyung

Support: Choi “Chei” Sun-ho  /  Lee “Sweet” Eun-teak

Jin Air are always on the cusp of being a great team, but there's always a glass ceiling that Jin Air can't seem to shatter to move up to the next level. Jin Air is hellbent on making their ultra late game strategy work.

Looking at the record of Jin Air, it's almost absurd. OGN’s English casters for the LCK have dubbed Jin Air as the “Robin Hood” of LoL, A team that takes wins from the teams standing above them, to later lose to teams standing below them. Ridiculous results aside, Jin Air’s progress is admirable ever since Chaser left the team. Winged has developed his own style and Kuzan has been getting significantly better at his positioning in teamfights (he still needs work, but he's much better than he used to be.)

Several of the issues that have plagued Jin Air ever since 2015 spring are still present. It might just be the playstyle of TrAce and Chei that incites it, but Jin Air simply stalls for far too long. Not just in offense… but sometimes in defense aswell. What I mean is that Jin Air is always capable of dragging out a losing game for long enough to where the enemy team’s lead will not matter… However they fall victims to their own playstyle when they stall a game when they’re ahead to the point where their own lead will not matter. Still, there is plenty to look forward to in the second half for the greenwings and we’ll keep an eye out for their substitute mid laner Blanc.

6. MvP (4W - 5L)

Top: Kang “ADD” Geon-mo

Jungle: Kim “Beyond” Kyu-seok

Mid: An “Ian” Jun-hyeong

AD Carry: Oh “MaHa” Hyun-sik

Support: Jeong “Max” Jong-bin

The quintessential example of what a rookie team should realistically seek to achieve. Coming from challenger and fluctuating from the favourite to win to lose to ESC Ever in the finals, not many people had high hopes for anybody else other than Beyond, who was regarded as a pretty good jungler in the making. With 3 rookies on the starting line up it was hard to see a reason to get excited for them.

Yet, despite this predicament, MVP tackled the season with nothing to lose. In their very first set they almost took a game off KT Rolster (the heart breaking game where KT’s nexus survived with sub 100 health) and the next week managed to take a game off the Rox Tigers. They’ve beaten the lower tier teams in the standings and sit comfortably in 6th position (which honestly is great for a new team). MVP had a hiccup a few weeks in when they collided vs SKT and proceeded to lose to a perfect game from SKT. You can’t really hold this result against MVP though, this was prior to SKT’s sudden drop off.

It’s exciting to see newer teams evolve and with MVP; the shotcalling and decision making gets better match by match. There's a solid foundation to build the team around in almost every position. Ian has proven to be a reliable threat with champions like Varus, Azir and even Leblanc (proving he has a good pool to work with and one of the highest damage per minute stats). Max has had monstrous games on Taric and Bard as well as timing his warding appropriately to the moment in the game.

Above all else though, Beyond has simply played great. MVP’s jungler has already solidified himself as one of the better junglers we’ve seen in Summer. His pathing is creative, which has lead to him having great first blood participations. You can tell MVP lives by what Beyond does since beyond is the only starting player who sits at an 80% kill contribution. It sounds strange to praise a team this much when they’re only 6th place, but this is one of the rare occasions where you can see just how much a team is capable of progressing every single week.

6. Afreeca Freecs (4W - 5L)

Top: Jeon “Ikssu” Ik-soo  /  Heo “Lindarang” Man-heung

Jungle: Nam “LirA” Tae-yoo  /  Yoon “Seonghwan” Seong-hwan

Mid: Son “Mickey” Young-min

AD Carry: Gwon “Sangyoon” Sang-yun

Support: No “SnowFlower” Hoi-jong

Ending the spring split on a very high note will usually bring up expectations towards the next split, especially when you don't make a roster swap. Unfortunately for the Freecs, their magic has faded. There isn't the same clean gameplay that got them into the playoffs in spring.

A lot of Afreeca Freecs issues lay in the lack of star power. For the early part of spring you could look at their midlaner Mickey as the carry threat on the roster. Throughout the regular season we saw Lira and Sangyoon take over the carry burden from Mickey and allowed Afreeca to be versitile with their team compositions. Yet there has never truly been a singular carry on the roster. One could point at Lira and claim that the jungle role held a majority of the carry burden, but even then Lira can only do so much when the meta allows him to. With the shift in the meta we’re having now, Lira’s impact is going to be more to affect the lanes rather than to empower himself. The biggest difference has to be how Sangyoon is performing. The Freecs’ AD Carry simply hasn’t found his place in summer with the rise in popularity of champions like Ashe and Jhin.

So far in summer, we’re seeing a worse version of the Afreeca Freecs than we saw in spring, and they’ll have to rely on a stellar 2nd round robin performance if they’re to have any hopes of making it to the playoffs this time around.

8. ESC Ever (3W - 6L)

Top: Kim “Crazy” Jae-hee  /  Jin “Firetrap” Jae-seung

Jungle: Choi “Bless” Hyeon-woong  /  Kim “Ares” Min-kwon

Mid: Kang “Tempt” Myung-gu

AD Carry: Lee “LokeN” Dong-wook

Support: Kim “KeY” Han-gi  /  Eun “Totoro” Jong-seop

You could summarize ever with 3 words: Sparks of Brilliance. It's a new team in the LCK so some adjusting will have to take place for the team to further develop, but we have seen enough magic in some players to know that even if the team itself ends up falling flat, the players should get picked up by other squads.

You can’t really call them a bad team even though they’re on the lower end of the table. As mentioned, they have moments of absolute greatness in the mix of completely awful decision making. If nothing else, they’ve proven they can hang. Ever has taken games off of highly rated teams such as Jin Air and Samsung, as well as defeating SKT just this past week in the final game of the first round robin in a surprising manner. Ever has good enough players to be a threat to any team in the league. Bless, Tempt and Loken have proven that they have fight in them and can be a solid base to build upon looking into the offseason.

9. Longzhu (2W - 7L)

Top: Koo “Expession” Bon-taek  /  Lee “Flame” Ho-jong

Jungle: Lee “Chaser” Sang-hyun  /  Lee “Crash” Dong-woo

Mid: Shin “CoCo” Jin-yeong  /  Kim “Frozen” Tae-il

AD Carry: Lee “Fury” Jin-yong  /  Kim “Emperor” Jin-hyun

Support: Kim “Pure” Jin-sun

You can’t help but feel sorry for a majority of the players on Longzhu. Individually, these players have at some point been the best players of their previous teams. Chaser used to be the best jungler in the league when playing for Jin Air, CoCo was among the best mid laners when he was playing on CJ Entus, Expession was an exciting young prospect when he was on Najin Black sword -- similar to how Fury was in Samsung Galaxy.

Still, they’re haunted by the same demons that haunted them during spring. Longzhu simply doesn’t have cohesion what so ever. Their inability to get on the same page as a team has simply dropped them down to the lower tiers of the LCK despite having such a star studded roster. What is more telling is just how much some players may have relied on their teammates in the past. Was Fury’s hype as a player misguided because Wraith was by his side on Samsung? Is Chaser actually a good shot caller or was it Jin Air responding that made him work? All we know for certain is that there has to be a change done to the team if they expect to do anything in future seasons.

10. CJ Entus (1W - 8L)

Top: Park “Untara” Ui-jin  /  Park “Shy” Sang-myeon

Jungle: Kang “Haru” Min-seung  /  Park “Bubbling” Jun-hyeong

Mid: Gwak “BDD” Bo-seong  /  Kim “Sky” Ha-neul

AD Carry: Ha “Kramer” Jong-hun  /  Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun

Support: Hong “Madlife” Min-gi

Have you ever enjoyed watching a slow motion train wreck? Well, that's essentially how we can summarize CJ Entus so far. There was a bit of hype going into summer for CJ considering that BDD was going to be eligible to play from the get go. BDD has been renowned as a mechanically gifted player, reminiscent to the introduction of Faker back in 2013 but nowhere near as crisp. While it’s true, BDD’s mechanical ability is among the best we’ve seen from a rookie player, it’s simply not enough to carry the deadweight that is the CJ Entus team.

I don’t want to bash CJ too hard because they did upgrade -- slightly -- in the jungle position by bringing in Haru instead of Bubbling, but it still doesn’t fix the major issues in CJ. When a team gives their AD Carry as much of the resources as CJ gives Kramer (to the point where Kramer absorbs a total of 25% of the team’s gold), you’d expect said AD Carry to at least do a decent amount of damage. Instead, what happens is that CJ attempts to stall out games and funnel their gold into Kramer, but by doing so, they usually put themselves in a disadvantage they can’t climb out from.

It's really hard to find any redeeming factor on this team that isn’t simply how good BDD can be. Sure, Madlife is still part of the roster and has his odd moments to shine here and there, but he has no reliable threat on the team to follow up on his actions. Untara at the top lane has been extremely underwhelming, Kramer hasn’t looked good in summer at all and Haru just looks lost more often than not (and yet he’s still an upgrade to the jungler CJ had in spring). Simply, don’t be surprised if we end up seeing this CJ entus roster get relegated.

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Folllow the author at @HeckMaister.

Images screenshot from lolesports youtube channel

Stats on players taken from oraclesexlixir.com