Week 8 was not a good week for the two top dogs in the standings. Echo Fox, now tied for first place, were absolutely thrashed by Clutch Gaming and CLG. Cloud9 didn’t fare much better with a 1-1 weekend that cast doubt about the solid footing of the team. The big news though –and the big winners – are 100 Thieves and CLG. Both teams went 2-0 this weekend, and while 100T look like an obvious choose for playoffs, CLG still has a rough road ahead of them if they want to make it work.

It isn’t certain what happened to the front runners in the last few weeks, but we have some guesses. Both teams looked nearly invincible, but ever since the rest of the teams have started to get their cohesion down, these two top teams have looked less and less dominant. Echo Fox in particular has struggled mightily with what Jatt described as the “Crypto-currency” of teams. The truth is, the only all-star on Fox is Huni, and without the cohesion of many of their peers, they have started under the more dominant pressure of many of their opponents.

C9 is still doing quite well, but their recent losses have simply shown that their early domination was due more to their great map control and synergy than anything else. Now that teams have had months to practice those things, that strength is beginning to dwindle. However, the two teams nipping on their heels, Clutch and 100T, aren’t giving them an easy time.

The Thieves are now sitting at a 5-1 record in the second half of the split, and while all talk centered on Doublelift and Olleh of TL, it has been Aphromoo and Cody Sun that have risen up to become one of the most feared duos in the NA LCS. They have also shown they aren’t afraid to try new things. Since their spot guaranteed for finals, the Thieves are getting creative with their drafts. Their final match against OpTic saw them choosing Darius for Ssumday and then hard focusing on getting him ahead. The Thieves were likely to win this matchup anyway, but it was a good chance to try a unique comp, and it worked amazingly.

The biggest hype, though, is coming out of CLG. Always the underdog, always the team playing from behind, CLG gave Fox their first loss back in Week 3, showing the chinks in their armor. Since then, they have fluctuated between playing wildly and without control to playing superbly.

The team showed ridiculous skill in trouncing both Fly Quest and Echo Fox. Against Fly, CLG changed their strategy numerous times. When Reignover’s ganks stopped working, the team focused on getting Stixxay fed. Against Fox’s split pushing comp, they rotated and found picks every time a Fox member was even slightly vulnerable. By the end, few could have guessed that Fox was the top team and CLG, only weeks ago, was the bottom.

Now, there is only one weekend left. CLG are predicted to beat both TSM and OpTic, and if they do, they could make a miracle run to playoffs, where they would face both C9 and Fox – two teams they defeated completely in recent weeks. If anyone is the dark horse, it’s CLG.