While week 1 was a crushing blow for several teams, week 2 offered a second chance for many teams to prove themselves or to climb their way towards the top three. TSM, OpTic, and CLG were among the biggest teams striving to prove that they did not belong at the bottom of the ladder ranking, while 100 Thieves, Team Liquid, Cloud9, and Echo Fox battled over who should stand at the top.

At the end of the week, the Fox stood supreme with a 4-0 record after nearly giving up the game to TSM. For TSM, who found their first win of the week against OpTic, it would have gone huge lengths to earn a second win against the top rank. However, despite Hauntzer and Bjergsen putting on two stellar games, TSM is still playing astoundingly defensive and safe. Fox, on the other hand, has had to struggle to prove that they aren’t just a Huni one trick, and by picking Huni two late game scaling champs, they seemed to do just that. Their coach might just be a genius too since both TSM and C9 dried to crush Huni and shut them down, but by having him work for scaling, none of the attempts have paid off.

Meanwhile, Cloud9, Team Liquid, and 100 are all tied for second place with one loss a piece. 100 dealt one of those losses up to TL through slightly better shot calling. TL’s decision to let Ryu backdoor – which he is infamous for – and get inhibitor and a nexus turret so they could get Baron ended in disaster and the 100 win. Meanwhile, C9 also faced 100 and crafted a team designed to shut down Ryu’s Malzahar. With three QSS’s and a Taric on C9’s side, it was the drafting and the itemization that shut down 100.

Following the big names are Clutch Gaming and Flyquest both with 2-2 scores that we will probably see start to dip in the next few weeks. CG won their game against CLG, but it seemed largely due to CLG’s tendency to throw games as hard as they possibly can, and they even engaged in a 4v5 on Febiven handing over the first Pentakill of the split. Meanwhile, Fly pulled out another win-lose record this week owing their win almost entirely to Matt, who got the decisive pick onto Golden Guardian’s ADC Deftly that led to a snowball victory.

And in in the bottom four are two teams no one expected to see, CLG and TSM. With just one win a piece, two of the top teams of last split have just not been able to get it together. TSM seems to be hanging on the thread of Hauntzer and Bjergsen while CLG tries to be doing a similar strategy with Darshan and Huhi. Neither strat is working for either team especially well though, and without working out the kinks with their new rosters, it’s unlikely either team will crack into the top three.

OpTic Gaming also pulled out their first win of the split, but with a variety of solid players and strategists on the team, this seemed more like an inevitability than anything else. OPT has held their own against the current best teams, and it is unlikely they are going to stay on the bottom for long.

However, in last place, with an 0-4 record, is Golden Guardians. Unfortunately, a combination of poor synergy, poor laning, and not altogether impressive drafting has sat them in dead last with little hope of rising out.