It should come as little surprise that Team Liquid had a strong showing, and by strong we mean that Doublelift utterly humiliated his old teammates with a near perfect game and near perfection Kill Participation. Not only that, but TSM’s owner, Reginald, was forced to donate 15k to charity after the loss, which is a gambling habit he should shake real quick if TSM performs as well as they did this week.

100 Thieves also put on two stellar performances, putting them nearly on par with the domination that TL brought to the Rift. Their first game against Optic was a slow crawl towards a strong victory, but their match against CLG was a completely different story. Aphromoo didn’t have anything to prove to his former teammates. Unlike Doubelift, Aphromoo left on excellent terms, and CLG knew they were losing their primary shotcaller, but it didn’t stop Aphromoo from stomping CLG flat in their match-up. It was especially telling that the first two kills of the game, and most of the deaths, were onto Biofrost, Aphromoo’s replacement. Maybe that was just coincidence, but with how in control 100 was the entire time, it could have just been bad manners.

Echo Fox and Cloud9 are also in the 2-0 club, but it feels like much less of a surety of that spot. In C9’s first game against CLG, Licorice and Svenskeren were absolutely abused by Darshan and Reignover, and it was only intelligent Baron baiting and strategy – not outplays – that secured that victory. Licorice did far better against Golden Guardians the next day, but it was still rotation that won the day, not individual match-ups.

Echo Fox had a slightly different strategy, and that strategy is called Huni. While there is potential with the Echo Fox lineup, Dardoch, Fenix, and Adrian managed to have the most embarrassing gank attempt as all three failed not only to gank mid, but had to use a Shen ulti to save Dardoch from several whiffed abilities. It was largely Huni killing it on Lucian that led to their first victory. We could go into the details of Fox’s second match against Clutch Gaming, but basically – Huni.

As for the rest, the verdict is out. Clutch showed promise, especially with the NV trinity in LirA, Hakuho, and Apollo. Flyquest managed a victory, but with little synergy or big names on their team, it seems unlikely they’ll keep that lead.

It’s also worth mentioning that TSM went 0-2 in the first week, which has never happened in the history of the NA LCS.  But at least they are joined by CLG, Optic Gaming, and Golden Guardians. CLG has the luxury of blaming it on the loss of their shot-caller, while TSM really doesn’t have a leg to stand on to explain their dismal display. OPT and GGS, on the other hand, can just blame it on the new game jitters. OPT showed great potential, especially with Power of Evil, and Golden Guardians… let’s just say we’ll be rooting for them to get better, because they are going to need it.

And don’t forget StateFarm! The official sponsor of the StateFarm Analyst Desk. And if the burning red of the StateFarm Analyst Desk seems like an impossibility to endure for the many weeks left in the Spring split, have no fear. They are also the official sponsor of StateFarm Damaged Retina’s, a service all of us are likely going to receive whether we like it or not. StateFarm is also the proud sponsor of ‘And you thought Acer Predator was bad’.